Which Mystery Tour was the best?

For the first time ever this year there were two Mystery Tours in DCU. The biggest social event of the year, the DCU Mystery Tour has been running since 2008. This year the popular Accounting and Finance Society decided to challenge the annual GAA Club Mystery Tour with one of their own; a week earlier.

The College View spoke to both organising committees to get to the bottom of the battle of the Mystery Tours. Between the two events 1320 participants were recorded on 25 buses:

 

 

 

A&F Soc Chairperson, Cathal O’Reilly, told The College View the reasons behind his society setting up their own Mystery Tour: “[The] reason to run a mystery tour is you can get stuck in a rut of just going out in Dublin every week and ending up in Coppers. I love Coppers as much as anyone but it does get tedious after a while. So to organise a huge night out with hundreds of people from the college, hop on a bus and down somewhere you might never of been before is always a bit of a laugh. And with tickets being 20 quid which covers transport and entry into the club you’d be mad not going.”

The first of a barrage of advertisements began across campus and social media platforms promoting both tours in early November; as DCU GAA club planned for their tour to Naas and Kilkenny, and A&F Soc began preparing for Athlone.

O’Reilly added: “All in all I think everyone that came had a great night. The nightclub was the perfect size for the number that went. The drinks deals were decent and the staff by and large were as sound as can be expected. Not too many people knew exactly where we were going with a few rumors of Monaghan and Carlow floating around the college so the fact it was kept pretty secret was good.”

Fionn O’Shea, who headed the DCU GAA Mystery Tour committee, explained: “the profit made will go to all of the DCU GAA Clubs, towards the expenses they have during the year and to help with the running of a successful GAA Club.

“Everything went great, but the biggest low would be having a vague memory of the night.”

No doubt the standard of this year’s event was raised considerably because of the new competition; and students will be glad to know it’s only going to get better. Both committees are insistent they will be back again next year. The DCU GAA Club invited university photographers to capture the highs of the hectic night and they didn’t disappoint.

Eamon Donoghue