Call for crackdown on Eyre Square behaviour after firework attack

Pressure was mounting this week to crack down on out-of-control anti-social behaviour in the city in the wake of an incident last week that left a young woman with life-altering injuries.

In the early hours of Friday morning, a 19-year-old student was struck in the face by an illegal firework as she sat at a bus stop in Eyre Square.

This came after repeated calls for action on what has been described as a ‘lawless environment’ in the city centre at night, with one local representative now calling for additional Garda resources to ‘win back the streets’.

Cllr Níall McNelis told the Connacht Tribune that he had been speaking to Gardaí in the city this week and understood that there were huge staffing problems in the force – leaving them unable to adequately control the square where thousands are gathering on a nightly basis.

“There are a huge amount of holidays built up because of Covid; there’s regularly only one sergeant per unit at times, because of the lack of resources. Nobody is willing to take overtime because they are already overworked and the only solution is for Galway to get extra gardaí,” said Cllr McNelis, who is Chairperson of the City Joint Policing Committee.

“We have five TDs representing Galway City, and two Senators from the city. They need to pile pressure on the Government for extra resources. We have a Junior Minister in the Department of Justice [Hildegarde Naughton] and it is up to them to represent this city and stop messing about.”

Read the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie