DANCERS IN THE DARK

One lobby group believes the time has come for a debate on licensing laws and opening hours, writes Jim Carroll

FOR as long as there have been clubs in Ireland, there have been problems with the laws of the land. It starts out with the fact that there's no such thing on the Irish statute books as a nightclub, and it just goes on from there. If you're operating a nightclub, you need a public dance licence and are then required to apply regularly for special exemption orders. From opening hours to liquor licensing provisions, the whole thing is a rather complicated mess.

There are currently over 600 different licensing provisions governing how bars and clubs operate in this country, all taken from various licensing acts from 1833 to 2004. You can be sure that the 1833 act didn't have to deal with nightclubs, which may be something Minister for Justice Michael McDowell's long overdue Intoxicating Liquor (Codification) Bill will address by introducing a specific nightclub licence.

Until that bill is implemented, the waiting goes on. Indeed, for everyone involved in the clubbing sector, from nightclub promoters to punters paying in, the situation regarding opening times and licensing criteria has been going on for far too long. Occasionally, there are bouts of outrage when the Garda Síochána attempts to do its job by enforcing the existing legislation, and then it all goes quiet again.

The last such occasion occurred in September 2004, when gardaí in Dublin mooted a proposal, ahead of the annual sitting of the licensing court, to change the closing time for nightclubs in the capital from 3.30am to 1.30am. Cue predictable uproar from clubbers and nightclub operators in the capital as all interested parties began to think that this could well be the last dance. In the space of a few days, more than 20,000 people put their names to the Give Us The Night lobby group's petition against the plans. When the licensing court sat, it decided to leave things as they were. The party was not quite over.

This weekend, more than 18 months after that petition and its big burst of publicity, the Give Us The Night campaign swings back into action. It has organised seven club nights around the country to raise awareness about the campaign and how clubbers can get involved.

With the Minister of Justice aiming to implement the Intoxicating Liquor (Codification) Bill during the remaining lifetime of the current Dáil, the group believes the time may be right for a proper debate and discussion about introducing progressive licensing laws and opening hours here.

Dublin DJ and producer Sunil Sharpe is Give Us The Night's chief co-ordinator. Along with a number of other clubland figures, Sharpe has been involved in a lot of behind-the-scenes work and research since the 2004 petition. This weekend is about encouraging others to lend a hand.

"A lot of them were up in arms the last time around because they thought it meant they would have to go home an hour earlier than usual," he says."Then, when the threat went away, they forgot about the campaign. People have a very short attention span and feel that they've signed the petition and that will do. A lot of clubbers may not know how the law operates here, but when they go on holidays somewhere else and see that clubs there are open until 6am, they then wonder why it can't be the same here."

Give Us The Night has pinpointed three issues which it wants to put on the Government's agenda: sequential or staggered closing times, a specific nightclub licence and a 6am closing time for nightclubs. "We think what we're suggesting will improve things dramatically," says Sharpe. "It will certainly improve nightlife in our cities, it will solve some of the public order issues on the streets and it will make it easier for the emergency services and gardaí to do their job."

Sharpe knows that the forthcoming election may well be the perfect means to focus political minds. "Traditionally, the majority of 18- to 25-year-olds don't vote. If we can create a movement among that age group about this issue, we might be able to make politicians a little more aware about the whole area of opening hours and licences."

Already there have been a few tentative approaches (notably from Young Fine Gael), yet Sharpe is wary of aligning the group with any one political party. "Sure, it would add clout to the campaign in some quarters if there were politicians onboard, but there's no one party that we can see who are pushing the issues we're interested in. None of them are suggesting anything wildly different from the next."

Give Us The Night spent much of 2005 researching its arguments. "We've looked at how club and pub opening hours operate in other countries, how they deal with staggered closing times and how they have dealt with any problems which have occurred," says Sharpe. The group also made a submission to the Department of Justice.

"We're a small lobby group and it's impossible for us to do everything we want to do at once," admits Sharpe. "We could have organised more shows for this weekend, but this is just step one for us. We'll probably do some stuff with the live music scene next to raise awareness there and to get promoters involved who are not just from the dance and club side. We're looking at building the campaign up toward the general election because there's nothing to say that there will be any radical changes between now and then.

"As much as I'm ambitious about what we could achieve, I'm a realist, and I know it takes a long time to change things in Ireland. This liquor licensing bill has taken four or five years already and it may not change anything. It's all ifs and maybes, but we'd be happy as long as the issues are at least discussed."

More information on Give Us The Night and this weekend's club nights at www.giveusthenight.com