A giant dance party organised to celebrate graduation day at the Institute of Technology in Sligo has been called off after students claimed the Garda said it would search and possibly stop people from going to it.
The students' union, which organised the event, has rejected suggestions that there would have been drugs at the party, which was to have been held at a specially constructed marquee in Strand Hill outside Sligo last night.
"We never had any intention of hosting a rave and we abhor the use, consumption or sale of any illegal substances," the president of the union, Mr Jude Devins, said yesterday.
It was planned to provide two nights' entertainment at the marquee for graduates coming back to Sligo, a "ministry of sound" concert featuring guest DJs from London last night and a graduation ball tonight. The ball will now be held at a night club in Castlerea, Co Roscommon.
Some 600 tickets had already been sold for last night's party, and it had been arranged to have crash barriers and an ambulance at the venue.
Mr Devins said the union would lose up to £10,000 because the hire of the marquee alone had cost £6,000. An application for a licence for the two dances, due to come before the District Court in Sligo yesterday, was withdrawn by the students' union. The i Garda confirmed it had intended to lodge an objection.
Supt Jim Sheridan said: "The students were aware that we were going to lodge an objection, but it was a matter for the judge to consider both the application and the objections, and his prerogative to decide whether to grant the licence or not." He had never told the students that people would be searched or stopped from going to the party.
It is believed the Garda's objection was based on its belief that it was going to be a rave and would attract "an unsavoury element". Tickets for last night's party were also on sale to the public.
Mr Devins said: "We were told by the guards that if the licence was granted they would then be operating a special plan whereby they would be diverting people from the area. People would be searched and stopped. Regrettably then, it had to be cancelled."
Mr Devins said graduation events in previous years had been held in hotels in Donegal and Leitrim, and that the students had "an exemplary reputation". The pubs, restaurants and shops of Sligo would now lose financially, he added.