Monday, January 2nd, Bank Holiday or not!

national | consumer issues | opinion/analysis Tuesday January 03, 2006 15:07 by Paul Kinsella - Various paulkinsella53 at yahoo dot com 53 Lorcan Grove, Santry, Dublin 9, Eire 0851478100

The reason why I ask this is because I was under the distinct impression Monday, January 2nd, was indeed a Bank Holiday!

However when I went into my local, the Kilmardinny Pub on Lorcan Avenue, Santry, on Sunday night (January 1st), expecting them to be open till 12.30am because it was the day before the Bank Holiday, when all pubs are allowed to open Saturday hours (till 12.30am) the Kilmardinny had other ideas! I was met with very sour faces, and told rather rudely that they in fact we operating Sunday hours, closing at 11pm. When I challenged them over this, which they didn't like one bit, they said that Monday, January WAS NOT a Bank Holiday, but only a DAY IN LIEU of a Bank Holiday! I never heard of this before! Apart from the fact that I was inconvenienced a bit (although I got my own back on the Kilmardinny! But I'll tell you about that later!), this raises very serious issues from a worker's rights viewpoint as well, because if the bosses are going to start saying that any days which are given as Bank Holidays on the Monday afterwards, because the days concerned fall on Saturday or Sunday, Patrick's Day, Stephen's Day (for those pubs that do open), and New Year Day being the 3 dates concerned, are NOT actually Bank Holidays, then will either try to force people to work those days and/or only pay them normal wages, instead of the Bank Holiday rates.

Going back to my situation with the Kilmardinny, I was extremely annoyed with them, not so much for the fact that they were operating Sunday hours, which they have the right to, but that nobody was told about it! I was in the Kilmardinny the previous night (New Year's Eve), and there was no advance warning that there would be closing early on New Year's Day. If I had have known that beforehand I would have made other arrangements. Anyway I decided to ring the next nearest pub, the Beaumont House, and I was very kindly informed that they were indeed operating the later Saturday closing hours till 12.30am. Needless to say, I headed down to the Beaumont House, where I was greeted with a smile and a hello, and I had a couple of pints there. What I'd like to know who was right? Because as I say above, this does raise other much more serious issues! It goes without saying that I won't be rushing back to the Kilmardinny in a hurry! Did anyone else have this problem on New Year's night?