Eyre Square Galway new up-date

Gardaí make arrests during the chaotic RAG week events in Eyre Square Galway

 Chaos 

Gardaí had to clear hundreds of students out of a Galway City pub yesterday evening after more chaotic scenes in Eyre Square last night.

The Hole in the Wall pub above had advertised an ‘Donegal Day’ celebration yesterday, which it heavily promoted on Facebook. People queued outside the pub from 11am yesterday to get into the pub.

By 7pm last night Gardaí were forced to completely clear the bar because it had become a fire hazard. The city’s fire brigade were worried that there were way too many pissed up youths in the building.

Later in the night the youths were at it again in front of Supermac’s, as shown in the video above.

RAG Week in Galway, which has lost all backing of both NUIG and GMIT, has already seen several arrests and takeovers of Supermac’s in Eyre Square. According to the Galway City Tribune Gardaí arrested 15 people on Monday night alone.

NUI Galway Students’ Union President Emmett Connolly told the paper: “It does not seem very responsible for pubs in the city centre to publicise all-day drinking events on Facebook. It is unfortunate that some people will try to exploit the fact that Rag Week has been banned, filling people with drink from 11am.”

Garda threats obviously aren’t enough to stop this giant bender. But, sure it’s nearly over anyway – they should probably just prepare properly for next year.

Legal action to be taken against Occupy Galway encampment in Eyre Square 

      

Galway City Council has reiterated its plans to take legal action against those protesters who Occupy the camp site at Eyre Square Galway.

Galway City Council officials have this week reiterated that they intend to take legal action to remove the protesters currently living in the Occupy Galway encampment in Eyre Square.

Terry O’Flaherty warned representatives at Monday’s Joint Policing Committee meeting that time is running out to remove them ahead of the Volvo Ocean Race Finale. The group established the camp last October.

Cllr Declan McDonnell said the protestors are entitled to make their point but stressed that Eyre Square needs to be “taken back”, particularly as the 300th anniversary of the establishment of Eyre Square as a public park approaches.

Responding to concerns raised by councillors, Superintendent Noel Kelly told Monday’s meeting that Occupy Galway are not committing any illegal act. However, Acting City Manager Joe O’Neill reiterated that the council would be taking legal action to remove the protestors.

Speaking to the Galway Independent yesterday, Occupy Galway member Liam Heffernan said the group is not breaking any laws, has a constitutional right to protest, and is not impinging on any health and safety regulations as they keep the encampment area clean and tidy.

“We think that we still need to continue to raise awareness about the negative spiral of debt and the 20 years of austerity that we are being forced into the Government against any mandate,” he said.

“We have created a centre of community resilience and created unity through awareness. We have become a tourist attraction, with people regularly coming up saying that they came to actually see the camp, or that they are happy see that there is a camp here.”

Mr Heffernan also said he is hopeful that the encampment would still be in place during the 300 year anniversary of Eyre Square. “Because I hope people’s rights are still there,” he said.

And he said that members would seek a counter-injunction in response to any court injunction sought by Galway City Council. “We would prefer if the council would just work with us and actually open a direct dialogue with us, other than just communicating through media outlets. We have invited them and contacted them on many occasions but no direct representative has ever spoken to us. And we are all reasonable people,” he said.