The Dublin pub where a violent brawl took place before Sunday's FAI Cup final has hit out at the "thugs" involved in the shocking incident.
Hours before the football event, clips from outside the Irishtown House showed fireworks, bottles and glasses being thrown by a group of people.
The pub was being used as a pre-game venue for supporters of St Patrick's Athletics, with many families and young children in attendance at a barbecue.
In a post on social media, the Irishtown House said: "We would like to congratulate St Patrick's Athletic on their FAI Cup final win today.
"As everyone is aware of the videos circulating on social media, our prematch family fanzone was disturbed by a bunch of thugs. We would like to thank the St Patrick's supporters for keeping their integrity and not retaliating as requested by Management and Staff. Its unfortunate that a small number of people want to ruin it for everyone else."
A member of staff at the Irishtown House pub described how the incident destroyed a great atmosphere among fans and innocent families who were simply enjoying a day out before the 4pm kick-off.
“I’m just glad that most of the Pats fans didn’t retaliate. It could have been a lot worse if they had,” he said.
The staff member described how people were outside the premises enjoying food and drinks ahead of the match when the "thugs" dressed in black arrived and began their “orchestrated” attack.
"They came in throwing bottles. It was a very poor show. It was just a gang of thugs at the end of the day, but it was orchestrated.
“They came to cause trouble.”
