An Irish publican has claimed his pub is enjoying “loads of business” after banning “Zionist” customers.

The Celtic Marine Bar in Bundoran, a picturesque town on Ireland’s Atlantic coast popular with tourists, put up a sign last week week saying, “all Zionists are barred from The Celtic Marine Bar. Stop the genocide. Free Palestine.”

The publican, Aaron Nealis, told the JC that the Zionist ban was bringing in “loads of business” and that locals “love it”. If any supporter of Israel tried to buy a pint of Guinness in his establishment, he added, he would “put them out”.

Asked what he would do if they refused to leave, the heavily-tattooed publican insisted they would not resist. “I’m against the genocide going on in Gaza,” Nealis said. “For over 70 years now they’ve been stealing Palestinian land, killing Palestinians and displacing them. Seventy per cent of the people killed since October 7 are women and kids. They’re not fighting Hamas.”

The widow of a Jewish man who regularly visits Bundoran said the banner had left her “extremely upset”.

A banner hanging outside The Celtic Marine Bar states that Zionists are barred from the premises (Photo: Collect)

In a complaint directed to the local tourism board, Sally Wickham wrote: “I usually enjoy visiting your lovely town. It is safe and welcoming and I love running or dog walking with my friends down the promenade at night. However, on my last visit, I was confronted by hate speech…

“I refer to the giant banner on the Celtic Marine Bar Restaurant. If it said No Catholics, Muslims, etc, I am sure it would have been removed by now. I hope this does not reflect the true nature of your town and that you are not antisemitic.”

Nealis insisted that he was not prejudiced against Jews. “Being anti-Zionist isn’t being antisemitic because Palestinians are semitic, Israeli Jews are not semitic,” he wrongly claimed.

“They’re not from the Middle East,” he insisted. “Zionism isn’t Judaism. Zionism is a political movement.”

Twelve years ago, Nealis and Alan Ryan, a dissident republican leader previously jailed over a terror training camp, were attacked by a gunman as they walked along a street in north Dublin.

A crime correspondent for RTE said Ryan had been shot in the head in a “planned, targeted killing”. The Dubliner was “very well known in criminal and republican circles both north and south of the border,” he added.

The Sunday World reported that Nealis was registered an owner of The Celtic Marine Bar in 2020.