THE Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Mr Bernard Allen, said yesterday that it was very disturbing to hear reports that teenagers as young as 14 were at a concert where drink appeared to be available.
Speaking on RTE Local Radio 1 in Cork, Mr Allen said he did not wish to anticipate the findings of any investigation into the death of Bernadette O'Brien at the Point Theatre on Saturday night. An inquiry "will have to determine if safety regulations, fire regulations, or regulations governing buildings and crowd control were broken," he said, "but teenagers who were present have said that some of the audience were as young as 14.
"If it is indeed shown that the audience included people as young as that, then drink should not have been allowed. We are not clear yet what controls were in place between the seated area and the standing area, and while it would be wrong to react without thinking it through, there is a question as to whether the venue had adequate facilities to deal with an audience of 8,000 people."
Mr Allen said he would not allow his own 15 year old daughter to attend such a concert if he knew that alcohol was available. If the investigation indicated that the Point could not cope adequately with an audience of this size, then its licence would have to be reviewed.
"I hope that the results of the investigation will be decisive and that they will be made available quickly. We make legislation and we put regulations in place, but at the end of the day, it's all about implementation", he added.
Mrs Francis O'Connor, whose 16 year old son, Anthony, attended the concert, said that he was extremely upset when she picked him up from the railway station in Cork on Sunday. She said he described how people at the back of the hall were pushing, trying to force others to move nearer the stage.
"This was his first conceit. He said he would never go again. It could have been me he said when I met him at the station. He also described how one lad was having his chest massaged and how another was coughing up blood in the area outside after the concert was abandoned. Anthony said he thought that the hall was overcrowded and that there was not enough security", Mrs O'Connor added.
Other callers to the programme who were at the concert said that, one of the problems was that people in the unreserved seating area were able to move freely between that section and the floor, thereby swelling the numbers in front of the stage. Ms Nuala Fenton said she thought some of the audience were as young as 13 and she thought bad behaviour rather than severe overcrowding helped to cause the tragedy.
"I think it was some fools who didn't really care about the appeals from the band, even when they said that a dangerous situation was developing. I didn't see much evidence of security trying to stop it", she added. Another caller, Mr Mervyn Shorten, said that security, was very tight when entering the concert hall but once inside, it appeared to be limited. The seating area was not being used fully, he added, but the floor was totally swamped.
Mr Diarmuid O Drisceoil class teacher at St Coleman's Community College, which attended as a transition year student, said yesterday that she was very popular girl whose personality as best described by the word "bubbly".
"She was full of energy, she had lots of friends and she was very loyal to them. She was interested in journalism or in joining the Garda and had recently completed work experience in both areas. Her classmates are totally and utterly, appalled and shocked. They area devastated. They can't accept ho something like this could happen to a girl who was in school last week and who is now gone", he added.