Six people were arrested in Waterford City early Friday morning 14 February after Waterford IT’s RAG Week came to a close.
The arrests were made after hundreds of students arrived on to John Street after the nightclubs closed just after 2am.
Gardai arrived at the scene as a large group of students got out of hand and refused to leave the area.
The incident prompted Waterford IT Student Union (WITSU) to release a statement commenting on the situation, condemning the acts of anti-social behaviour which tarnished on an event that is primarily organised to raise money for charity.
WITSU said they are currently working with all authorities concerned in the investigation at this time.
“We would like to note the thousands of students who positively got involved in our Raise and Give Week Campaign,” they said.
“Six persons were arrested in total,” Gardai said. “Five for public order offences, and one for criminal damage.”
Rag week has been suspended in some colleges including NUI Galway and Galway-Mayo IT after the student unions decided not to affiliate themselves with the event as it had attracted too much anti-social behaviour in the past.
This year, during Galway Rag week, there has been a student reported missing since Wednesday morning adding to the list of incidents associated with RAG Week.
DCU RAG Week takes place next week and Eoin-Luc O’Ceallaigh, Vice-Chairperson of DCU RAG Society, said “RAG societies are generally nothing to do with RAG weeks around the country as we don’t actually have RAG societies in most colleges that have big RAG weeks.”
“We’re going to enjoy ourselves, we’re not going to promote any heavy drinking and the purpose of the week is mainly to raise money for our social projects.” he added.
Andrew Byrne
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