LAST UPDATE | 17 Jun

AT DUBLIN CASTLE this morning, security were posted at the entrances stopping the public from entering.

Signs proclaimed the site closed to the public “due to construction works in preparation for the EU Presidency”. Staff from Revenue were allowed enter, and this morning, so were staff from the Silk Road Café.

The business secured an injunction allowing them to reopen in the High Court on Tuesday after staff were denied entry on Monday morning. 

The Journal went along with a number of staff this morning as they began to clear out their fridges and clean up the equipment in the café.

Staff began clearing out food from the fridges and the café's equipment this morning. Emma Hickey / The Journal Emma Hickey / The Journal / The Journal

Owner Abraham Phelan told The Journal while he is glad he and his team were allowed reentry, and that the court has prevented its shutdown, the business cannot operate as the site is closed to the public. 

He said as they had not received compensation for the closure, it would not be viable to remain open to serve a number of coffees to staff rather than its usual booming business.

Staff began removing food from its fridges and packing up the van, with the ovens scrubbed clean and cooking equipment packed up.

Phelan said before the issue of the closure for the EU Presidency, the Chester Beatty Library was a great landlord, the staff of which he had got on well with for his nearly 25-year lease.

The Chester Beatty Library said in a statement on Tuesday that it understands the Silk Road Café “have got an ex parte injunction and we will be defending it vigorously. We have no further comment.”

Emma Hickey / The Journal Emma Hickey / The Journal / The Journal

Looking at the empty café, Phelan remarked that it reminded him of the recession, or the Covid pandemic – both of which his business survived.

For the last few months, he said, he’s been unable to plan ahead because of the uncertainty. “Would you hire more staff, would you not hire staff. Would you buy more wine? We couldn’t plan ahead.”

The café was booked to cater a number of functions, which Phelan had to cancel due to the uncertainty.

He said now that an injunction is secured, he and his staff will take the next couple of days to thoroughly clean the café and leave it as a clean slate before the case returns to court on Friday.

He is hoping for mediation with the Chester Beatty and regrets that it had to go as far as the courts.

Local TDs have raised the issue with ministers and the Taoiseach, and Phelan is hoping for some intervention. 

Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes said this afternoon that he asked the Taoiseach to meet with Phelan and the café’s manager Rikke Sorensen, who were in the public gallery of the Dáil this afternoon.

He said Micheál Martin declined his invitation, “though he stated that he believes no business should have been put at a loss as a result of the EU Presidency”.

Hayes further said that there has been no explanation given by the government for the need to shut down the entirety of Dublin Castle, including the Chester Beatty, for the duration of the presidency. It had been attributed to security reasons, despite the café remaining in business throughout the last EU presidency in 2013.

“It is not acceptable that this small business, which has traded for so long, has effectively been closed by the government with no prior warning or discussion.

“This is outrageous,” Hayes said.