Booze cause of 37 arrests on St Patrick’s Day

Date Published: 18-Mar-2010

By Darragh McDonagh

MORE than 1,000 cans of alcohol were seized by Gardaí and 37 people were arrested for drink-related public order offences during the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the city on Wednesday.

Hundreds of bottles of wine and spirits were also taken from people drinking in public places as part of a major Garda clampdown which is being hailed as a great success.

Ten motorists were also arrested for drunk driving and the Emergency Department at University Hospital Galway reported a “significant number” of alcohol-related presentations during the course of St Patrick’s Day.

The problem of underage drinking during the festivities was highlighted by a city councillor, however, who said there were children who were “suffering from hangovers in school” yesterday morning following the parade.

Councillor Niall McNeilis said he was alarmed at the age profile of many of the revellers that he saw drinking in the city centre on St Patrick’s Day and blamed negligent parents for the occurrence of the problem.

“There were groups of children younger than 16 drinking on the streets on Wednesday,” he reported. “It’s such a pity to see the uptake of the drink culture by people of such a young age and it has to be asked, Where were the parents?”

Despite the spectacle of underage drinking, Councillor McNeilis said that the day had been a tremendous success, and praised performance of the Gardaí as “exceptional”.

“An Garda Síochána maintained a presence at the Spanish Arch from early in the morning and nipped in the bud the potential for trouble posed by large groups forming,” he said. “The provision of port-a-loos also made a difference to the problem of people using the streets as a toilet as occurred last year.” A Garda spokesperson described the occasion as a “busy day for public order offences”.

For more on this story, see Page 2 of the Galway City Tribune.