Both NUI Galway and Galway-Mayo IT have confirmed they will not take any disciplinary action against students following last month’s unofficial RAG Week.
Thousands of students flooded the city’s centre last month for the week, many of them arriving from places such as Limerick, Letterkenny, Sligo and Athlone.
Gardai in Galway stepped up patrols during the week and reported that the number of visitors peaked for an event known as ‘Donegal Tuesday’ which took place in a city centre nightclub.
A number of young people were arrested during the week and several fights broke out in the city square. Gardai reported there were no injuries.
This unofficial RAG Week was organised by students mainly through social media outlets such as Facebook. It comes just 2 years after students at NUIG and GMIT voted to abolish the event following publicity relating to public drunkenness and public order arrests.
Last year’s unofficial RAG Week made national headlines when YouTube footage recorded in a fast food chain went viral and led to a number of public order offences.
Prior to this year’s event, NUIG released a statement condemning any anti-social behaviour and vowed to deal with incidents through disciplinary action. A spokesperson for the university confirmed that at the present time, no incidents have been brought to their attention. GMIT had investigated one incident but found that the perpetrator was not a student.
President of NUIG’s Student Union, Paul Curley said he has been led to believe that none of the people arrested were from NUI and emphasised the Students’ Union’s detachment from these events.
“The SU has nothing to do with it. Any of the activities that have taken place, we’ve had no part in it”.
Gardai at Mill Street Garda Station in Galway confirmed that several arrests had been made throughout the week but said they were happy with the outcome of the event. They thanked in particular local publicans and nightclub owners for their co-operation throughout the week’s festivities.
“It has gone very well. We had a plan in place so we were prepared. We engaged with the publicans ahead of the event and that was well managed so there haven’t been any major problems.”
Sharron Lynskey
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