{"id":502827,"date":"2026-06-16T17:08:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/502827\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:08:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:08:05","slug":"dublins-silk-road-cafe-granted-injunction-to-stop-landlord-closing-it-during-eu-presidency-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/502827\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin\u2019s Silk Road Cafe granted injunction to stop landlord closing it during EU presidency \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The owner of The Silk Road Cafe in Dublin Castle<\/a> was granted an injunction restraining its landlord, The Chester Beatty Library<\/a>, from closing it down for security reasons for the six months\u2019 duration of Ireland\u2019s presidency of the European Union<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Barrister Hugh O\u2019Flaherty, representing the cafe\u2019s owner, told Judge James O\u2019Donohoe in the Circuit Civil Court<\/a> on Tuesday that the cafe had been shut down from time to time on major public occasions such as British queen Elizabeth\u2019s State visit and for the inauguration of presidents, but never for as long as 6\u00bd months.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Flaherty, who appeared with Renata Beselea of M E Hanahoe Solicitors, Dublin, on behalf of Hannah\u2019s Coffee Shop, which trades as Silk Road Cafe, was granted an interim injunction restraining Chester Beatty Library from imposing a close-down from Sunday last until New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

He said that despite the current licence\/tenancy not expiring until July 16th next, the owner and 20-plus staff had been refused admission when they turned up to open the cafe on Monday morning last.<\/p>\n

Counsel said there was a five-year written licence agreement between the parties dated from July 17th, 2021, until July 17th, 2026, with an expectation by the cafe\u2019s owner of automatic renewal as had happened every five years for the past 2\u00bd decades.<\/p>\n

The cafe\u2019s owner stated in written evidence that under the licence Hannah\u2019s Coffee Shop had been granted rights in respect of a defined concession area at ground-floor level within the Clock Tower Building at Dublin Castle, together with its adjoining kitchen and lavatory.<\/p>\n

He said the agreement recorded rights to carry on as a restaurant to provide meals and beverages to the public and in practice operated a permanent business bearing the operational and commercial responsibilities associated with it, including staffing, insurance, stock and day-to-day management.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Owner of Dublin\u2019s Silk Road Cafe fearful business could end for good due to forced closure for EU presidencyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It was his contention that the true legal relationship between the parties was properly characterised as a tenancy and not merely a temporary arrangement.<\/p>\n

Catering for events and functions had always formed part of the cafe\u2019s business and from the earliest days he had provided catering for Chester Beatty events for conference delegates, evening receptions and all external events. He paid a rent of \u20ac1,666 a month with another \u20ac337 monthly for bins plus five per cent of the cafe\u2019s gross profit.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Flaherty said the cafe had been told by Chester Beatty that the library was to close with effect from June 15th, although the company had never been served with a notice to quit or anything like that.<\/p>\n

The cafe\u2019s owner said he was simply told the library had to close as Dublin Castle was going \u201cinto complete lockdown\u201d from July 1st. No one, either from Chester Beatty or the Office of Public Works (OPW) had shared with him the reasons why he had to leave the premises. <\/p>\n

He had been told in emails that Dublin Castle was going into total lockdown, which was at variance with what the OPW had indicated \u201cthat Dublin Castle would be closed for limited periods only\u201d. There had also been a reference to the Silk Road Cafe providing catering services during the EU presidency, which was indicative of Dublin Castle remaining open during the term of the presidency.<\/p>\n

The cafe\u2019s owner stated that for the last number of months the Chester Beatty had been making it difficult for him to carry on the business. The water service had been switched off, followed by an undertaking that it would be repaired and switched on again after he had vacated the premises. <\/p>\n

He said M E Hanahoe Solicitors had twice written to Chester Beatty advising that he would be looking for a new tenancy following the end of the current agreement on July 16th. The letters remained unanswered and his solicitors had served a notice of intention to claim a new tenancy and undertakings that no steps would be taken to close his business.<\/p>\n

By June 5th, he had been told he was considered to be a licensee and the library would close to the public from June 15th for the rest of the year. The landlord had sought to attribute responsibility for the lockdown to the OPW.<\/p>\n

His company had been told that the Chester Library occupied the relevant premises for 999 years under lease from the OPW, which claimed the lease contemplated restrictions of access for security purposes from time to time for limited periods.<\/p>\n

The OPW had stated that relevant security arrangements had been finalised in February last following an 18-month consultation process involving An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the OPW and the library. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn 14th June I received an email advising me that I was to make no attempt to enter my business from the 15th June onwards, which means the defendant [Chester Beatty] has effectively locked me out of my business with my stock and belongings inside,\u201d the cafe\u2019s owner stated.<\/p>\n

He said no adequate explanation had been provided why he had to shut down completely as opposed to any more limited or tailored security arrangements from time to time. He had traded for 25 years and would now have to make his employees redundant.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donohoe said the court was satisfied that it should grant an interim injunction restraining Chester Beatty Library from interfering with Hannah\u2019s Coffee Shop Limited\u2019s occupation and business at the premises or interference with stock, equipment, plant, appliances or chattels.<\/p>\n

The proceedings were adjourned until Friday next in the Circuit Civil Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The owner of The Silk Road Cafe in Dublin Castle was granted an injunction restraining its landlord, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[157633,13553,615,62613,5148,42,43,32235,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-502827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-chester-beatty-library","tag-circuit-court","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-castle","tag-european-union","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-office-of-public-works","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}