Gardaí to take ‘firm action’ against RAG Week offenders

Galway Gardaí have warned students taking part in unofficial RAG Week celebrations that the “firm action” that had been taken against offenders in the past will continue this year.

A number of young people aged between 18 and 24 years old were arrested for minor public order offences on Monday, as this year’s unofficial RAG Week got underway.

Following several years of negative publicity, students’ unions at both NUI Galway and GMIT have voted to remove RAG Week from their social calendars. However, a social networking campaign has lead to this week being declared the unofficial RAG Week for students from both colleges.

At Monday’s Joint Policing Committee meeting, Superintendent Noel Kelly said that both student and college authorities know An Garda Síochána’s opinion on the event and that the firm action that has been taken against offenders in the past will continue this year.

Cllr Billy Cameron called on local gardaí to liaise with residents’ associations and said that Newcastle in particular had been “badly hit” by disturbances in the last few years. He said that there is a need for an increased garda presence in the area, and queried whether a garda command unit could be established there.

Cllr Cameron added that the unofficial RAG Week has been created by “unscrupulous” individuals and that it is not wanted by college authorities or students’ unions in the city.

Cllr Padraig Conneely said that RAG Week is “fuelled by alcohol and other substances”, with individuals who have no respect for their neighbours or anybody else getting “out of control” for a week or so.

GMIT Students’ Union announced on Monday that it will run a series of events and charitable fundraisers spread out over a longer period of time, in a move away from the traditional weeklong concentrated series of back-to-back nighttime events.

And speaking to the Galway Independent, GMIT Students’ Union President Joe O’Connor said he had been in contact with local residents’ associations in areas that were affected by some of the anti-social behaviour that took place on Monday.

He added that members of GMIT’s residential support scheme against anti-social behaviour in local estates, Student Patrol, have an active relationship with local community gardaí.

“We have procedures in place for both this week and next week. Our Student Patrol service normally runs from half nine at night to half three in the morning and it’s running double shifts for the coming couple of weeks. It’s also running from 3pm in the day now.

“What we’re encouraging local residents to do is to ring the Student Patrol Hotline [on 085-2388993] if there are any incidents of severe anti-social behaviour and certainly it would be our agreed policy with the institute here in GMIT that any houses which are reported as taking part in serious, continuous disturbance over the course of this period or any other period throughout the year, that we would follow up with them in terms of disciplinary action here in the college,” he said.

NUI Galway Students’ Union President Emmet Connolly said yesterday that the union had “no comment” to make on the unofficial RAG Week.