Extra gardaí drafted in for Donegal Tuesday

Extra gardaí and paddywagons will be drafted into Galway next week for the so-called ‘Donegal Tuesday’ – when hundreds of revellers take part in an all-day drinking event.

Gardaí will be taking a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to anti-social behaviour and public drinking for the unofficial ‘RAG Week’.

“There is an operational order in place for the week, and we will be bringing in extra gardaí and Public Order vans.

“We want to get the warning out now that Public Order offences – including drinking in public – and anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated at all. We don’t want a recurrence of what happened in previous years,” a garda spokesperson said.

Last year, there were five arrests after revellers threw glass bottles at gardaí.

The Students’ Unions at NUI Galway and GMIT withdrew their support for RAG Week events in 2011, following a series of problems with anti-social behaviour, which saw some local residents left terrorised after doors were kicked in and windows smashed.

Already, almost 2,500 people have indicated they will be attending the event next week on a promotional Facebook page.

For more on the unofficial RAG Week, see this week’s Galway City Tribune