{"id":18332,"date":"2026-06-17T15:35:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T14:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=18332"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:35:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T14:35:43","slug":"taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Taoiseach must meet with the owner of the Silk Road Caf\u00e9 to discuss how this situation arose and to ensure something like this never happens again, according to Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes.<\/p>\n

Deputy Hayes said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI raised the Silk Road Cafe, which remains closed after being forced to abruptly shut, with the Taoiseach today, asking him to meet with owner Abraham Phelan and manager Rikke Sorensen, who I invited to the public gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiche\u00e1l Martin declined my invitation to meet with Mr Phelan and Ms Sorensen, which is unfortunate, though he stated that he believes no business should have been put at a loss as a result of the EU Presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Silk Road Caf\u00e9 had been operating in the Chester Beatty for 25 years and was abruptly closed to the public on Sunday as a result of security restrictions at Dublin Castle this past weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn injunction gave Mr Phelan and his staff access to the premises, but given no public access is available, the cafe cannot operate. 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.<\/p>\n

“It has never been explained by anyone in Government why this cafe needs to close for the duration of Ireland\u2019s hosting of the EU Presidency. This is outrageous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Taoiseach should meet with Mr Phelan as soon as possible to hear first hand the hugely negative impact this abrupt closure has had on him and his staff.”<\/p>\n

June 17th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Taoiseach must meet with the owner of the Silk Road Caf\u00e9 to discuss how this situation arose and to ensure something like this never happens again, according to Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes. Deputy Hayes said: \u201cI raised the Silk Road Cafe, which remains closed after being forced to abruptly shut, with the Taoiseach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[796,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eoin-hayes","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTaoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Taoiseach must meet with the owner of the Silk Road Caf\u00e9 to discuss how this situation arose and to ensure something like this never happens again, according to Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes. Deputy Hayes said: \u201cI raised the Silk Road Cafe, which remains closed after being forced to abruptly shut, with the Taoiseach […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-17T14:35:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1344\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Press Officer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Press Officer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Press Officer\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/70fcd60661593532616f9f91a0fb8db7\"},\"headline\":\"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-17T14:35:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":270,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Eoin Hayes\",\"Press Release\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/\",\"name\":\"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed - Social Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-17T14:35:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1344},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\",\"name\":\"Social Democrats\",\"description\":\"Change Ireland for the better\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Social Democrats\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"width\":846,\"height\":358,\"caption\":\"The Social Democrats\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/socialdemocratsireland\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/SocDems\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/70fcd60661593532616f9f91a0fb8db7\",\"name\":\"Press Officer\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/ga\\\/author\\\/press\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed - Social Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/","og_locale":"ga_IE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed - Social Democrats","og_description":"The Taoiseach must meet with the owner of the Silk Road Caf\u00e9 to discuss how this situation arose and to ensure something like this never happens again, according to Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes. Deputy Hayes said: \u201cI raised the Silk Road Cafe, which remains closed after being forced to abruptly shut, with the Taoiseach […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/","og_site_name":"Social Democrats","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","article_published_time":"2026-06-17T14:35:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1344,"url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Press Officer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SocDems","twitter_site":"@SocDems","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Press Officer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/"},"author":{"name":"Press Officer","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/70fcd60661593532616f9f91a0fb8db7"},"headline":"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed","datePublished":"2026-06-17T14:35:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/"},"wordCount":270,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg","articleSection":["Eoin Hayes","Press Release"],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/","name":"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed - Social Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-17T14:35:43+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"ga-IE","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-27-at-15.27.39.jpg","width":1920,"height":1344},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/taoiseach-must-meet-with-silk-road-cafe-owner-whose-business-remains-closed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Taoiseach must meet with Silk Road Cafe owner whose business remains closed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","name":"Social Democrats","description":"Change Ireland for the better","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization","name":"The Social Democrats","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","width":846,"height":358,"caption":"The Social Democrats"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","https:\/\/x.com\/SocDems"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/70fcd60661593532616f9f91a0fb8db7","name":"Press Officer","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/author\/press\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18333,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18332\/revisions\/18333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}