{"id":473384,"date":"2026-05-07T17:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473384\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T17:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:42:12","slug":"chawke-siblings-brought-embarrassment-on-their-family-after-hotel-assault-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/473384\/","title":{"rendered":"Chawke siblings brought \u2018embarrassment\u2019 on their family after hotel assault, court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A son and daughter of prominent publican Charlie Chawke<\/a>, who attacked two innocent men at a hotel in 2023, have brought \u201cembarrassment\u201d on their family and their family business, barristers for the two siblings told their sentencing hearing on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mother of three, Alison Chawke (41), bit one of the men, John McHugh (50s), on his cheek and kicked him in the head, as her brother Bill Chawke (31), wrestled with McHugh on the floor of the hotel, Limerick Circuit Criminal Court<\/a> heard.<\/p>\n

The Chawke siblings were intoxicated on the night having consumed about 14 alcoholic drinks between them and also attacked McHugh\u2019s friend, Gerard Cox (50s).<\/p>\n

McHugh and Cox were at the residents\u2019 bar at the Dunraven Arms Hotel, Adare, Co Limerick<\/a>, when they were set upon by the Chawke siblings, it was heard.<\/p>\n

Bill Chawke and Alison Chawke, son and daughter of well-known publican Charlie Chawke, had initially claimed they felt the two men had been staring and smirking at them.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting counsel Lily Buckley instructed by state solicitor Brendan Gill, assisted by sergeant Gerry O\u2019Sullivan, Newcastle West Garda station, said the assault was captured on CCTV at the hotel, and via a mobile phone camera belonging to a night manager who was on duty at the time.<\/p>\n

The footage, played in court showed Alison Chawke and Bill Chawke punching and kicking the two men at the bar and at the hotel lobby.<\/p>\n

Buckley said Bill Chawke had demanded he be served food at the bar, despite being told by staff that food was no longer available.<\/p>\n

Buckley said the night manager told garda\u00ed<\/a> that Bill Chawke \u201cwas stubborn and arrogant and asked for food again and again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bill Chawke continued ringing the night manager\u2019s phone line asking for food, at which point Cox politely asked him to stop annoying the bar staff.<\/p>\n

Buckley said Bill Chawke approached Cox at the bar, spoke to him, and then \u201clunged\u201d at him, \u201chitting\u201d him.<\/p>\n

Other patrons tried to restrain Bill Chawke and Alison Chawke tried to pull her brother away.<\/p>\n

Alison Chawke was observed on CCTV kicking and swinging her hands at the two victims and others who were trying to de-escalate the situation.<\/p>\n

The footage also showed Alison Chawke walking behind the bar, picking up a pint glass and throwing it at the men.<\/p>\n

Alison Chawke also bit McHugh on the let side of his face, kicked him into the side of his head as he was lying on the ground trying to get Bill Chawke off of Cox, it was heard.<\/p>\n

Buckley said Chawke \u201clocked on to\u201d the left side of McHugh\u2019s face as she bit him.<\/p>\n

Cox told garda\u00ed he felt Bill Chawke\u2019s fingers in his eyes after he was thrown to the ground on the hotel lobby.<\/p>\n

Alison Chawke was arrested at the scene for being drunk and disorderly and refusing to give garda\u00ed her name.<\/p>\n

Alison Chawke had refused to give her name to garda\u00ed \u201cbecause she didn\u2019t think anyone in the hotel knew who she was, and she did not want her dad to know what had happened\u201d.<\/p>\n

Afterwards the two defendants met garda\u00ed by appointment and were charged with assault causing harm to the two men.<\/p>\n

Alison Chawke, The Beeches, Holywell, Goatstown, Dublin 14, pleaded guilty on a full facts basis to assault causing harm to McHugh, at the Dunraven Arms Hotel, Adare, on November 9th, 2023.<\/p>\n

Bill Chawke, Merrion Street Upper, Dublin 2, admitted on a full facts basis to assault causing harm to Cox, at the hotel on the same date.<\/p>\n

When garda\u00ed showed Alison Chawke CCTV footage of the assaults, she was \u201cshocked\u201d and she exclaimed, \u201cOh my god.\u201d<\/p>\n

When garda\u00ed asked her if she felt justified in kicking McHugh in the head as he lay on the floor of the hotel lobby, she replied \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Chawke told garda\u00ed he believed the two men were looking at him \u201cin a strange way\u201d at the bar. <\/p>\n

Bill Chawke\u2019s barrister, senior counsel Hugh Hartnett, sought a non-custodial sentence, and he suggested a community service order in lieu of a jail sentence would be appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client is in a responsible position in the family business, he comes from a much respected family,\u201d said Hartnett.<\/p>\n

Alison Chawke\u2019s barrister, senior counsel Mark Nicholas, told the court that she had \u201cno excuses\u201d for her \u201cdisgraceful\u201d actions on the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat she does is disgraceful, there are kicks, the injuries are unpleasant, she takes full responsibility for them, including the mark on (McHugh\u2019s) face,\u201d said Nicholas.<\/p>\n

The court heard Bill and Alison Chawke have paid the victims \u20ac5,000 in compensation without prejudice to civil proceedings, taken by the two victims, which are currently before the courts.<\/p>\n

The court heard victim impact statements written by the two victims.<\/p>\n

Cox said he and McHugh were \u201csubjected to a sudden and violent assault\u201d on the night.<\/p>\n

Cox said \u201cfingers were forced\u201d into his eyes and he had feared his vision would be permanently damaged.<\/p>\n

McHugh said he has attended a psychologist to try to work through the \u201ctrauma\u201d of it all.<\/p>\n

Character references on behalf of Bill Chawke were provided to the court including from his father, Charlie Chawke, who said the defendant plays a \u201csignificant part\u201d in the running of the family pub business.<\/p>\n

Bill Chawke\u2019s barrister said his client\u2019s behaviour on the night was \u201cinexcusable and totally out of character\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has brought embarrassment to his family,\u201d said Hartnett.<\/p>\n

References were also provided in respect of Alison Chawke, including from the Vintner\u2019s Federation, Adare Community Hall; as well as her father who stated she is \u201can important person\u201d in the running of the family\u2019s pub trade.<\/p>\n

Her barrister, Mark Nicholas, said her actions on the night were \u201cutterly unacceptable\u201d and she was ashamed of her behaviour.<\/p>\n

Judge Fiona O\u2019Sullivan remanded both defendants on bail for sentencing on May 11th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A son and daughter of prominent publican Charlie Chawke, who attacked two innocent men at a hotel in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,56263,24443,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,7587,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-473384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-charlie-chawke","12":"tag-circuit-court","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-limerick-city","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116534532328821258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}