The long Good Friday for Irish drinkers

Leinster's Rocky Elsom runs through the Munster defence in the Heineken Cup semi-final last year

By Ross McKee
BBC News

Munster v Leinster is a mouth-watering clash for any rugby fan, but most drinkers in the Irish Republic wanting to toast the Magners League fixture in a bar next month will have to leave the country.

It may be sponsored by a Tipperary cider company, but as the fixture has been scheduled for Good Friday, it has fallen foul of laws which prevent the opening of pubs on the Christian holy day.

Alcohol can be consumed inside the stadium, but pubs will not be allowed to serve customers on their premises.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland has taken legal advice over the matter and hope to get a six hour exemption for the 26,000 sell-out game at Munster's historic Thomond Park venue in Limerick.

The chairman of the Limerick City Vintners, Jerry O'Dea, said his organisation had already had a "productive" preliminary meeting with local police chief superintendent Dave Sheahan and would have a further discussion later on Tuesday.

"We have to take a rugby perspective on this, it is important they are played with full strength teams" David Jordan, Celtic Rugby director

He said the body now believed there may be some scope in the Intoxicating Liquor Act to open for a special event if it is of significant local importance.

Mr O'Dea added that if that was the case it would apply for a six hour exemption between the hours of 1800 GMT and midnight on Good Friday.

"What we would require first-of-all is the go-ahead from the chief superintendent in the locality and if there were no objections, we would then apply to the District Court," he added.

"The capacity is limited to around 25,000 and a lot of people would want to watch the game on tv in their local pub.

"Despite our requests, we have not been able to have the game rearranged.

"It is down to the public interest we want to provide a service to the people, we want it changed to Thursday or Saturday."

Clohessy

Mr O'Dea said he believed Ireland was "only a couple of years away" from seeing its alcohol laws reviewed and said he believed the law regarding Good Friday "might in due course be seen as unfairly affecting the population in general".

Another Limerick publican, former Munster and Ireland rugby prop Peter Clohessy, who owns the Sin Bin nightclub in the city has described the decision to schedule the game for Good Friday as "absolutely scandalous".

He said the "sensible thing" would be to switch it to Thursday or Saturday.

Limerick publicans want an exemption to serve alcohol on Good Friday

Limerick City Council has also voiced its opposition to the game being scheduled for Good Friday and its mayor, Kevin Kiely said a letter would be sent to the Leinster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) who requested the fixture date.

An economic analysis by BDO Simpson Xavier last year revealed the average Magners League game generates between 1.2m euros and 3.5m euros for the Limerick economy, but experts believe the Munster v Leinster game is worth more than this.

"In these hard times, an event like this could create eight million euros for the city and it is very hard to turn away money like that," Mr Kiely added.

Celtic Rugby are the organisers of the Magners League tournament, and its director David Jordan confirmed to the BBC the game had been arranged for 2 April following a request from Leinster.

Leinster's next game is a Heineken Cup quarter-final on Friday 9 April, with Munster's quarter-final against Northampton Saints in the same tournament on Saturday 10 April.

"There was a request from Leinster to the Celtic Rugby board, they have a European game the following weekend," he said.

"It should give them seven days to prepare for that, it would also give Munster an extra day.

Wine

"The role of Celtic Rugby is to ensure that all of our teams and players succeed in all the rugby environments they are involved with.

"We have to take a rugby perspective on this, it is important they are played with full strength teams."

Mr Jordan said the six person Celtic Rugby board included two Irish members and that it could only consider a request to rearrange the fixture if it was made.

"It is up to the parties involved to make that request," he said.

Only time will tell whether Irish drinkers are able to sample a Magners in their local hostlery on Good Friday.

At Thomond Park itself, however the booze ban does not apply.

Munster Rugby is currently advertising match day hospitality for the Leinster game on its website with benefits including four bottles of wine per table and a "full drinks service available pre and post match".