“It wasn’t all just a bit of fun. It was very dangerous.”
You may have seen the huge crowd that descended on The Spanish Arch and Claddagh Basin area in Galway yesterday as they celebrated some of the fine weather we were experiencing.
While from the outside, it could be seen as good craic, in reality, things could have been quite different.
Local man Jamie McNeil spoke of the danger of hundreds of people crowded into a “small area next to the water.”
“The Gardaí actually dealt with it really well,” McNeil said. “Considering there was such a swell in the crowd it could have easily seen a tragedy.
“It wasn’t just all a bit of fun. It was very dangerous.”
Below is a snapshot of the aftermath of yesterday’s celebrations in the area, and as you can see, there was plenty of rubbish left behind after the gathering.
Niall McNelis, a Galway city councillor for the Labour Party, has spoken of his “disappointment” at the events that unfolded on Monday evening and indeed over the weekend, in terms of the amount of public drinking taking place and the danger involved in being so close to the city’s waterways.
“We’re talking about 200-400 people there last night,” McNelis told JOE.
“Basically it was just a drink-fest, it was Ocktoberfest in the middle of March. The off-licences were selling alcohol at an early stage, but there’s a big sign that says ‘no drinking in public’.
“I was at a policing committee on Monday and the Gardaí said they simply didn’t have the resources to tackle [the public drinking] over the weekend.”
He outlined the reasons why he is against the practice of drinking in the area and it is a matter of safety.
“I’ve been called a spoilsport or a killjoy and it’s nothing like that,” McNelis said.
“I’ll promote Galway the best I can. But you can’t allow that around water. If somebody goes into the water, I don’t want it being said that I did nothing about it.”
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