Ireland's Eye: What's going on in the old sod this week

A look at news from around Ireland

Generous Employees
STAFF at one of Dublin's best-known restaurants are donating their tips in a bid to keep it afloat.
Eden Restaurant in Temple Bar is being pursued for six-figure debts allegedly owed to its landlord, Temple Bar Cultural Trust.

Legal proceedings have been formally launched against the restaurant with a demand that it pay €50,000 in arrears by May 31.

High-profile owner Jay Bourke today spoke of how his staff have even begun donating their tips in a bid to keep the landmark restaurant open.

Owner Jay Bourke said, "The only reason Eden is still open is because of the incredible spirit shown by our staff.   My staff are even donating their tips and I'm incredibly proud of them.

"We've been through so much with this place. We refuse to give up now."
Mr. Bourke admitted that he and co-owner Eoin Foyle are in "negotiations" with Temple Bar Cultural Trust to stay open.

"We are faced with extortionate rents and we need to negotiate what we owe with our landlords," he said.

"They claim we owe them money we can't afford. We will try and sit down with them and ensure that we can stay as we've built this place up to what it is today.”

Evening Herald

Drunk Doc in Trouble
A DOCTOR who crashed and rolled his car off the M6 motorway was banned from driving for four years after he was convicted of refusing to provide a sample to Gardai (police).

Such was his condition at the scene on the evening of August 7, the court heard, that the first person to stop for Zahir Mohamed, 48, of Lakepoint, Mullingar was another doctor who actually called the Gardai rather than an ambulance and subsequently reported him to the Medical Council.

Garda (police officer) Darren Murphy gave evidence of attending the accident at the off-ramp at Kilbeggan where he felt the “erratic behavior” of the doctor and a failed roadside test compelled him to arrest the defendant and bring him back to Athlone for an intoxilizer test.

Noting the defendant’s shortness of breath on the drive back, Murphy told him he was calling a doctor to collect a blood or urine sample, both of which he refused to give.

Defense solicitor Padraig Quinn assured the court his client was persisting in pleading not guilty, and swearing in on the Koran, Mohamed told the judge that on the day in question he had been hypoglycemic because he was observing his Ramadan fast, and on that day had not eaten since 3 a.m.

He said the doctor who stopped had refused to treat his injuries, calling the Gardai instead, and that the doctor in the Garda station had also refused to treat him.

“Nobody cared...I was treated badly and discriminated against,” said the qualified psychiatrist and general practitioner who works as a locum around the Midlands.

“The doctor (in the Garda station) did not say hello to me. I told him I would never give anything,” he said.

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Nster.com