Former sports journalist and author of the Ross O’ Carroll Kelly series, Paul Howard, recounted the infamous Mark Kennedy and Phil Babb incident outside Coppers nightclub.
When talking about his new show, Copper Face Jacks The Musical, on Off The Ball AM Howard mentioned that he used to frequent the nightclub as a youngster. He followed up by saying that he was actually leaving the club as Babb and Kennedy were doing their act.
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While performing the act Babb rolled up the bonnet of a car, damaging it in the process. The car was a Garda car which Howard commented, "If you’re outside Copper Face Jacks it’s probably going to be a Garda car."
The idea of the act was for Babb to roll across the stationary car as if it was going at 60 mph which Kennedy insists “you kinda had to see this to believe it.” The Garda who was on duty got out of the car and while Kennedy insisted he hadn’t done anything, he was shocked when he ended up handcuffed in the back of the Garda car.
Mark Kennedy and Phil Babb with Mick McCarthy at the press conference to discuss details of their arrest the previous night in 2000 ©INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan
Kennedy didn’t blame anyone as he admitted he was there and shouldn’t have been which ultimately meant he accepted the decision to drop him from the squad.
At the time, Howard was working for The Sunday Tribune and had an editorial conference the next day. He couldn’t reveal the details of his great story since he himself was past curfew.
Hugh Farrell
