'Drinking, chatting and singing' after Golfgate, remembers barman

Judge Woulfe was the second witness to be called today after Senator Jerry Buttimer was allowed give his evidence first on compassionate grounds. Judge Woulfe carried two full files under this left arm as he came into the courtroom and got into the witness box.

Judge Fahy invited him to remove his mask before starting his evidence and advised him he should put it back on again when leaving the box. By agreement with the defence, he was led in giving his evidence by Mr Cole.

Judge Woulfe said he had first received an invitation from Senator Paul Coughlan to attend the Oireachtas golf outing in 2018 and while he could not attend that year, he did attend the function in 2019, again at the invitation of Senator Coughlan.

He described the Golf Society as a group which attracted members from all walks of life and was “very non-political.” “I believed it to be a pure social and recreational event.

“I was given the impression it, (Golf Society) was a good way of breaking down any political relationships between people from all parties,” he said.

In reply to Mr Cole, the judge said he was aware who was organising the event. When he arrived on the first day he said he was met by Mr Donie Cassidy, whom he described as “very much the leader, who was there to greet us.” 

“Senator Coughlan could not be there and he arranged for Donie Cassidy to look after me. I think I was chatting with Deputy Noel Grealish at the desk as well,” Judge Woulfe said. In reply to Mr Cole, he said he did not know if Deputy Grealish was club captain as he had never seen a list of the committee members.

He said he was invited at the 2019 dinner to attend the 2020 event as it would be the 50th anniversary of the society. He said he kept the event “very vaguely at the back of my head, as the one I had attended in 2019 had been great fun and they were all good people,” Judge Woulfe said.

He said he "bumped" into Deputy Grealish by chance in the grounds at Leinster House in May 2020 and discussed the event with him then. “Things were just beginning to open up - it was May or June,” he said.

He recalled being appointed to the Supreme Court in July and being occupied with that until he had gone on holiday with his family in Donegal shortly afterwards.

He said he checked with Senator Coughlan again about the function and was assured everything would be fully Covid-compliant. He said his wife thought him “a bit mad”, for being willing to drive from Donegal to Clifden for the golf outing, but he felt the Society was a very important one.

“It was revived at the time of the Arms Trial and helped ease tensions - that is what I was told. I rang Paul and he said he was delighted I could come,” Judge Woulfe said. He arrived in Clifden on Wednesday and played just nine holes on the second day, as the weather turned nasty.

He had not been told anything about a formal dinner beforehand but recalled being handed a voucher for it when he registered his attendance with Mr Cassidy, which was the first indication to him that there would be “a group dinner”.

He said that triggered something in his head and he queried the Covid issue with Paul Coughlan. Mr Cole asked the judge if he had any concerns about attending the dinner. He said he had, as it was the first type of dinner he had attended.

“I spoke to Paul and he said something along the lines that the organiser, Donie Cassidy, had consulted with the relevant people and the function was in line with the regulations."

He said he felt Mr Cassidy was very reputable and in fact, the dinner had been moved from its original venue at Ballyconneely Golf Clubhouse to the Station House Hotel, in order to comply with the Covid guidelines.

He said he was aware of the guidelines as drafted by civil servants in conjunction with Failte Ireland and the Department of Tourism but he had never actually read the text of the guidelines at the time.

“While I had a hazy, broad knowledge of the guidelines, I didn’t see them until afterwards, as I didn’t see them in the office of the Attorney General, but I was aware in very broad terms that they allowed for the number of 50,” he said.

He recalled that before travelling from his hotel in Donegal the previous day, he had seen groups of up to 50 people in several rooms in that hotel.

In reply to Mr Cole, he said he had arrangements with other golfers from this four-ball to have a pre-dinner drink in the hotel bar, but only one person turned up. He recognised then other golfers in the bar.

He said he got the impression it would be a very small number of people would be at the dinner. “I had my back to the retractable partition wall at the top of the room at a table for eight and I was not immediately aware that it had been open at any point.

He said he had not focused on many things that night. “When you are the Attorney General you get invited to a lot of dinners and you become immune. You are ‘wheeled in and wheeled out’ and I remember I was tired from the journey the day before.

He did not recall seeing there was bar service but remembered staff brought food and drink to the table.

Afterwards, around 11pm he went out to the lobby and had a drink in the bar with one of the people who had been at his table and with another person who had been at another table at the function earlier. He said he could not recall if there were other people from the dinner there.

He said was not aware of any breaches to the Covid regulations and confirmed again he had been given assurance the event was fully compliant with the regulations.

In reply to Colm Smyth SC, for Mr Cassidy, Judge Woulfe agreed there was an attempt to get businesses back open and running again.

“There was a great concern, could the country pay the cost of people being locked-down and not working? When we got past the restrictions in May, we were well into re-opening and the mood in July was that Covid was going away and restrictions were being lifted and level 5 restrictions were being lifted at the end of June,” the judge observed.

He agreed with Mr Smyth there were layers of legislation at the time.

“Every time Nphet suggested lifting or changing the regulations, the government would be over to the Attorney General’s office to draft the legislation for the regulations and I have to compliment the staff who sometimes worked over the weekend to complete that work,” he said.

Mr McDowell said he had no questions for the judge, but Edward Walsh probed the witness about the guidelines while waving a copy of them at him.

Judge Woulfe told him he was not involved in writing the document. He suggested the Department of Justice and other relevant departments have been involved.

“It was quite centralised in the Department of the Taoiseach and they were holding press conferences every day and it was the Dept of the Taoiseach what would sign off on the protocols,” witness said.

He said these documents had been put up on the website where everyone could access them. “I looked at them online after the dinner. Unfortunately, the earlier versions were not available online,” he said.

He agreed with Mr Walsh who said that no-one could use the Government insignia, unless it was an official document and the government would intervene if it was a scam document.

“There is no doubt these are government-approved guidelines,” Judge Woulfe added.

In reply to Constance Cassidy SC, who represented hotel general manager, James Sweeney, Judge Woulfe said he did not see anything on the night that caused him concern in relation to the Covid regulations.

A former barman also told the court today he served drinks to up to 30 members of the Oireachtas Golf Society who retired to the resident’s bar of the Clifden Station House Hotel until 2.30am following a formal dinner held in the hotel earlier.

“They were all standing around, drinking, chatting and singing. They were having a good time,” Anthony Curran said today at Galway District Court.

Mr Curran, who is in his early twenties, said he had worked as a part-time barman and waiter at the hotel since 2016 but no longer worked since last year.

He recalled serving and clearing glasses from tables at the function and recalled using a section of a partition between two rooms which was opened to allow staff pass between both areas.

He recalled seeing people talking at tables and after the event, most people either left the hotel, he said, while up to 30 ended up in the hotel’s residents' bar.

In reply to Mr Eoghan Cole BL, prosecuting, Mr Curran said: “Thirty people ended up in the residents’ hotel bar. 

They were standing around in groups, drinking, chatting and singing, after the event.

When asked by Mr Cole how long the guests stayed in the residents’ bar, Mr Curran replied: “Until about 2.30am when we were told to stop serving them.” He confirmed the residents’ bar was the only bar in the hotel at the time, while the Signal bar was the public bar, located in an adjacent building.

“In relation to this residents’ bar, what did you see happening there?,” Mr Cole asked.

Mr Curran said he had been collecting glasses from tables at first in the dining rooms and then he went to the residents’ bar where he saw up to 30 people. “The people were standing around and drinking and talking and singing,” he said.

He worked behind the bar with another barman, Jack Folan. “We were serving drink. People were coming up to the counter to get drinks,” he said.

He confirmed to Mr Cole that there was no table service in the residents’ bar. He said the bar closed when they were told to stop serving at 2.30am by John Sweeney.

Mr Smyth SC, put it to him that the hotel was full to capacity with guests of all kinds, and not just those attending the Golf Society function.

Residents, he said, would be entitled to be catered for in the residents’ bar. “Not everybody in the bar may have been at the Golf ‘do’,” he suggested to witness.

“From what I could see, everyone in the residents’ bar knew each other,” Mr Curran replied.