"Beer's The Solution to Everything?" Irish American Club Draws Neighborhood's Fire

NEWPORT, RI – West Narragansett Avenue resident Julie Grednuck wasn't sure she had the verbiage quite right. But the sign outside the Irish American Athletic Club went something like, "A man with a big mouth gets punched in the nose."

After the Oct. 26 City Council meeting, Grednuck said the message seemed to be directed at her and others in the neighborhood for speaking out when the council held a first hearing on a new entertainment license for the club.

The neighbors have been battling the new owners of the club at 642 Thames St, over problems with rowdy drunks. But on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at the second hearing, all but one of the councilors, Kathryn Leonard, voted to grant the club's application. The 6-1 vote was the same on Oct. 26.

"This isn't a personal thing," Grednuck said. "I took a video this weekend," she added showing the goings-on at the club. Two patrons came out the door and started a fight with passersby. "And then it turns into a mob of people outside my house," she said.

"It was stated they're trying to make the neighborhood better," she added. But, in reality, Grednuck said, they've made things a lot worse.

"I've never seen anyone put their head through a door," she said, as happened a few weeks ago at the club. And that's not all.

"I've seen things never seen in 20 years," she said. "In most of our opinion, if it hasn't changed over the past two weeks,"while the owners are waiting for an entertainment license, then things would never improve. "We feel very insulted," she said. "It seems no one cares."

As if the first sign's message were not bad enough, she said, a second sign went up saying, "Beer's the Solution to Everything."

"That's not a good message to be sending to children," Grednuck added, given the fact an elementary school bus stops at that corner.

"Just saying," Grednuck said.

Leonard said there had not been problems with that neighborhood until recently and residents were entitled to peaceful use and enjoyment of their property. Councilor Justin McLaughlin added he sympathized with the neighbors. However, that night, the council could only act on an entertainment license, and not on the broader issues, he said.

At the first hearing, he proposed license restrictions to limit the performers to no more than three at a time and also require the entertainment to end by 9 p.m., and the council did adopt those limitations.

Sharon McCarthy, one of the proprietors, said she applied for the license to be covered if she wanted to have guitar playing on a Sunday afternoon.

However, the Irish American Athletic Club license application asked for two to four musicians, two vocalists, amplified music, acoustic and electric string instruments, drums, keyboard and bagpipes.

McLaughlin said the club owners could ultimately lose their liquor license if they fail to abide by the restrictions.

McCarthy agreed to accept them.

But McLaughlin also said the club already had a liquor license, and the problems could not be attributed to an entertainment license, since they didn't have one yet. But "if they don't clean up their act," he said, "we'll do a show cause hearing, and there won't be a bar there anymore."

"They should have cleaned up their act in the last three months," Grednuck said. "Now, you're going to put music in there?"

Councilor Lynn Ceglie said there might be "a misunderstanding about the council's powers.

"We can limit them; we can't prohibit them?" she asked the city lawyer, who replied "it would be prior restraint."

"It's not just an entertainment license," Leonard countered. "The bottom line is one, neighbors own houses and deserve quiet enjoyment of their houses and not be dealing at 1 or 2 in the morning with bad behavior."

McCarthy said she went to observe for herself and did not see any problems.

"We don't have a lot of people in that establishment," she said. "I'm hoping it will pick up."

Leonard said she expected the city to enforced the regulations.