Student priests turned away from bar for 'fancy dress'

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A group of student Catholic priests were nearly turned away from a bar in Wales due to their "fancy" religious garb.

The seven seminarians, dressed in their black clerical clothing, were sent out of the City Arms pub in Cardiff after bar staff mistook them for a bachelor party dressed in costumes.

"Sorry gents, we don't do fancy dress or stag dos," the bartender told the group.

Despite assuring the bar staff they were actual priests out to celebrate their colleague's ordination, the men were cast out of the bar and left searching for somewhere else to drink.

Before the dejected group of clergymen moved onto the next bar, City Arms assistant manager Matt Morgan rushed to apologize for the mistake and invited them back in for a free round of drinks.

"They were all dressed in their black and white clothes and the staff thought they were on a stag do," Morgan told The Guardian. "We do have quite a few issues on the weekends with parties wearing fancy dress so it is our policy to turn them away. I started to realize that they were quite serious and in the end we invited them in and gave them a free round of drinks."

The group ultimately shared a laugh about the bizarre mix-up and in an act of goodwill one priest, Reverend Robert James, bought the bartender a pint of one of the pubs most popular ales known as Rev James.

"We'd like to thank 'The City Arms' for being good sports through all of this and their kind gesture to our seminarians - and please note a number of our clergy, including the Archbishop of Cardiff, frequent your bar so don't turf any more out please!" a church spokesman said.