Campaign to end 'drink-fuelled mess' on March 17th

A GALWAY city councillor says he has won support for efforts to avoid the “drink-fuelled mess” that the city has become on St Patrick’s Day in recent years.

Councillor Niall McNelis (Labour) has sought a voluntary later opening for off-licence outlets next Saturday to curtail the level of alcohol consumption.

The fact that the parade is taking place an hour earlier than normal, at 11.30am, to facilitate city shopping should ensure that families can enjoy the event, Mr McNelis says.

The councillor says he is “not anti-drink” but is concerned about the level of illegal drinking in public places, leading to dozens of arrests on public order offences in Galway.

“There are over 17 off-licence outlets in the city alone, and it’s daft that you can buy a naggin of whiskey in a petrol station,” he says. “I think we need to start a healthy debate about drink consumption here.”

Mr McNelis says four off-licences have agreed to defer opening until 2pm on Saturday and he is hoping more will follow.

“We’re looking to follow the strategy which gardaí in Dublin initiated a few years ago, whereby off-licences co-operated with the Garda Síochána’s request to restrict their opening hours on St Patrick’s Day.”

He said gardaí had welcomed the idea at a recent Galway city business-watch meeting, but had also pointed out that the multiples were unlikely to co-operate.

The Garda policing plan will involve deploying uniformed gardaí at “hotspots” as the parade passes, including the Spanish Arch, South Park and Eyre Square, to deter a crowd building up and drinking alcohol.

There has been growing concern about drink-fuelled public order issues in Galway, with the university recently promising to object to future applications sought by certain pubs and clubs over what it believes was an effort to “target” students this year to engage in an unofficial rag week.

There were 30 public order arrests, and gardaí had to be called to help clear Supermac’s fast food outlet in Eyre Square on February 22nd, when up to 1,000 young people gathered there, lit a flare outside and were filmed dancing, chanting and singing on table tops.