Board has to decide whether bar served mixed drinks to an already drunk patron or just an Irish one

The luck of the Irish may have run out for the Greatest Bar on Friend Street early on June 5.

At a Boston Licensing Board hearing this morning, BPD Detective Daniel MacDonald said that when he and Sgt. Det. Robert Mulvey arrived at the bar around 1:30 a.m. for a routine inspection, he noticed one man at the bar showing "very visible signs of intoxication" - he seemed unsteady on his feet and was swaying from side to side. After watching the bartender pour him a second vodka and soda, MacDonald said, he sidled up to the guy and noticed his face was flushed, his eyes were bloodshot - and his speech was slurred.

Or was it? A bar manager said the man was an Irish national and part of a "nice group of guys" who were bar regulars and who had been there for about an hour that night without causing any trouble. The manager said the bartender did notice the man's face was flush but did not detect any other signs of drunkenness. He said she told him the man's speech didn't seem slurred to her, that he sounded like a guy with "a very thick Irish accent."

Bar attorney Curt Bletzer asked MacDonald if he'd noticed the man's brogue. MacDonald said he did. Bletzer asked the detective if he could be sure the man's "slurred speech" was not, in fact, just his normal way of speaking. MacDonald replied he could.

The bar manager did say that as a result of the incident, he's instructed his bar staff that if they have customers with a thick accent, "maybe they need to have a quick conversation with them," to establish a baseline so they know when to cut them off.

The licensing board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take about the incident.