A grandad claims he was refused entry to a pub when trying to shelter from the rain with a pint for being "too old". Anthony Severs, 76, tried to get into an Irish bar around 10pm while walking home last month, but was turned away.
Mr Severs was in the iconic Mathew Street area of Liverpool City Centre on July 25 and set off for home around 10pm. However, the heavens opened and he looked to take shelter with a drink in another pub while waiting for the rain to stop.
He was then left "shell shocked" when the bouncer refused him entry to the Irish bar, McCooley's, claiming he was told he was "too old" to go in. The retired ship builder told the ECHO he'd never experienced anything like it in his 60 years of drinking in the city.
The grandad said: "I’d just come out of The Grapes - it was raining and I’d been soaked. I don’t live far from town and without the buses (due to the ongoing Arriva strike ), I was walking home.
"But because it was raining, I thought I'd go into McCooley's just to dry off and have a drink. I got up the stairs to go in, but a bouncer said I couldn’t come in. I asked why and she said I was too old.
"I said ‘that’s discrimination’. She then said nothing. I just walked away, I was shell-shocked.
He added: "How would it make you feel? It was only when I walked away that it hit me. I thought ‘hang on - too old?
"I was shocked, I’ve been drinking around town for 60-odd years and nothing like this has ever happened before. People might laugh - being told you're too old - it's not on."
Anthony spoke to his daughter following the incident who told him to complain to the bar and then he was told to contact the firm the bar uses to provide security staff. He explained: "When I got my head together, I went down to McCooley’s and they said it wasn’t down to them, it was down to the security firm. I said that I wanted a personal apology, because she kept me out personally."
The ECHO contacted both the security firm and McCooley's for a comment.
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