Revellers leave city in RAG order

Gardaí in Galway recovered €8,000 worth of drugs this week in two separate seizures in Rahoon and Ballybane which they believed were destined for distribution in the city this week – as thousands of students celebrate unofficial ‘RAG Week’.

Sizable quantities of Ketamine and smaller amounts of cocaine, MDMA, ecstasy and Valium were all seized as part of the operation which took place on Friday last, February 7 and on Tuesday, February 11.

The removal of these drugs from circulation on Galway’s streets was as a result of an intelligence-led operation carried out by the Garda Divisional Drugs Unit.

Chief Superintendent Tom Curley said: “We believe these drugs were destined for sale and supply in Galway City this week, and as a result of this good detection, they have now been removed from circulation”.

One man was arrested following the seizures and has since been released without charge. A file is being prepared for the DPP and investigations are ongoing, a Garda statement confirmed.

Meanwhile, RAG Week has resulted in a number of incidents of anti-social behaviour in the city – with one restaurant owner who had his windows broken calling for the colleges to take ownership of the event which they have distanced themselves from for a number of years.

The student-led event, which had been run by the Student’s Unions of NUIG and GMIT up to 2011, has become an annual unofficial week of partying – and Michelin Star-restaurant owner, JP McMahon, said the colleges need to take responsibility for changing the attitude of their students after the window of his restaurant, Aniar, on Dominick Street, was shattered on Tuesday.

“I was actually in the restaurant when it happened – it was at around 10pm and I was doing a cookery class,” he said.

Mr McMahon said he had to physically apprehend one of a group of five students to ensure that they remained at the scene until the Gardaí arrived – but none of those had been responsible for the break.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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