Irish bar owner apologizes to students ejected after gay kiss

A Cork bar owner has ‘kissed and made up’ with two gay students who were allegedly ejected from his premises for kissing on the dance floor.

Ger Kiely, owner of the Old Oak pub in the Leeside city centre, has apologized to the young men involved and claimed his bar is ‘gay friendly’.

The students, aged 19 and 21 respectively, had threatened legal action after a war of words broke out with the pub’s landlord.

The two parties met on Tuesday however when they agreed to settle their differences and move on.
Kiely apologized for the actions of his staff after one of his bouncers asked the students to leave the premises having earlier issued them with a verbal warning for inappropriate behavior.

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The couple also admitted after their meeting with Kiely that they could have handled the incident ‘differently’.

Witnesses told the Irish Examiner that the couple had been warned to ‘tone down’ their behavior when they entered the popular establishment on Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork.

The pair, apparently on a first date, were given a verbal warning after an initial kiss then asked to leave the premises when they kissed again on the dance floor in the early hours of last Saturday morning.

Owner Kiely insisted that his pub is a ‘gay-friendly’ establishment, had always welcomed gay customers and would continue to do so.

“Why would I do anything to upset a large proportion of my customers? We do not differentiate between gay and straight people in the Old Oak. It’s not just about business either,” said Kiely.

“We know how to conduct ourselves properly and we have never, and will never, discriminate.”
Kiely made his comments after an online war of words between the parties. One of the students involved had threatened to take his case to the Equality Authority.