Time to shout stop on teens’ bad behaviour

Loughrea is turning into ‘party central’ for teenagers who are drinking alcohol, taking pills, carrying knives – and having sex in public.

Galway East TD, Anne Rabbitte, said now was the time to ‘shout stop’, before young people are seriously hurt or there’s another tragedy.

“It’s not two months since a young girl lost her life in County Galway, and here we are again, and the same thing is happening. The lessons are not being learned,” said Deputy Rabbitte.

She is hosting a public meeting in Loughrea this November to raise awareness of the problem.

The Fianna Fáil public representative was in Loughrea last Friday, where large crowds of young people had gathered for a teenage disco in the town.

She said that many of the teens didn’t go to the disco, and were ‘up to no good’ including along The Walks area of the town.

“You had a young lad who was knocked down on Main Street. Thankfully he was okay, after being taken to hospital for a check-up. You had young people drinking naggins of vodka, and there was wholesale drugs and taking of pills. You had young ones having full-blown sex in the public eye,” said Deputy Rabbitte.

Patrick Drayne of Appollo Teenage Disco, which is held in the old O’Deas Hotel in Loughrea, insisted that his event is well run, and he said there has never been any issue with drugs or knives.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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