A service shop owner in Limerick, Ireland, (stop laughing, it’s a real place) was ordered by authorities to take down his nudie calendars or be shut down.

A letter from Ireland’s Health and Safety Authority claimed the calendars contained a “display of pornographic material at the place of work,” something that is not allowed in the Emerald Isle – or anywhere in the country – under “dignity at work” laws.

The calendars had been sent to the shop by many auto part and tire companies, including Pirelli. And the one-man shop – that means no other employees to have their dignity besmirched – is located well off the road, and is hard to access except by regular customers.

After an uproar, though, the HSA has apologized for being “overzealous,” and has rescinded its closure threat – though it still wants the calendars taken down.

"We now have a situation in Limerick, where we have no minister, no bishop, no hurling team and you can’t even hang a Pirelli calendar on your wall,” said a former local official. “I would be of the view that there are health and safety issues of greater magnitude in Limerick.”

The shop owner was quoted in Irish media as saying, “They are fine calendars and feature very tastefully taken pictures of topless models. How anybody could describe them as pornographic beats me. If this is to be the way the law is being enforced then the newspapers on sale in this country which carry topless women every day would have to be banned."

The calendars are coming down, according to the report, “which ironically stand alongside a framed picture of the Blessed Virgin on the walls of his garage.”