Where are they getting the money from? Maybe we should cut child benefit.

skipping the queue here but anyone notice the gardai walking away from the lad climbing the poll ?a wild guess, that lad is hardly a student ,

He’s too heavy, looks very unfit.

Does he even lift?

Showbands and dancing – The devils playground of SIN!!

Whatever you say Mr Killington…
Or should I call you Buzz….

Would you not have tried to pull a female? Even settle for a fairly unattractive one considering the time of night?

Good point but I think that might have annoyed my boyfriend just a bit! :-P

Nothing a quick BJ wouldn’t fix, probs the best thing about being gay! Lads don’t winge as much as women!

Exactly. CIT did that for their Christmas Day when they abolished it. Did it stop the lads from going on the absolute piss for the day? Not a chance. I’m all for people having fun but these occasions are a joke. I remember one RAG week in Cork when I saw people lay down on the roads in the dark and jump up on cars etc. No wonder the locals really dislike the students…

Indeed, couldn’t the student union have implemented some control on the events? Organise some that are outside of Galway maybe? How come rag week in other towns is nowhere near as bad as the reports that come from Galway every year? The student union could be strict on the number of tickets sold for events, make sure to limit tickets to students only etc…. Without the student union its just unorganised chaos is it not? Doesn’t make any sense to stop organising it, will only leave things worse.

@Donal, did you read the headline or the article? its an unofficial rag week which has no support or backing from either the university of the students union. They can’t control crowds of people leaving nightclubs and hanging around outside supermacs. As was said in the article, none of the arrested were NUIG students, and a large number of people that will be out this week won’t be students from Galway.

Sorry my comments are a bit unclear I meant instead of shafting their responsibilities when it comes rag week in exchange for some extra cash in their pockets why didn’t the student union take on a draft of improving rag week in Galway so that it doesn’t involve this anarchy?

This way unofficial events are uncontrolled and lead to mass population from non students and despite what the Student union say the bad rep will fall on the college and its students.

@ Donal, Apologies for misunderstanding you. Yes i agree, i think rag week will always happen in some form or another, so i would agree it would be better if there was some involvement from the SU in organising events and allow for the raising of some money for charities. In previous years, NUIG students would raise about €25,000 which would be donated to a number of charities. The vast number of students that will out drinking this week won’t cause any harm or damage, its a tiny minority that cause the problems and often times as has been the case last night and in other years those arrested were not even students of the universities, just people coming in piggybacking on it.

The students union didn’t however just wash their hands of their involvement with rag week for some extra money for their pockets. The university offered the SU a much increased budget to the student assistant fund which students who are seriously in need can apply for to keep them from having to drop out. This increased budget was giving on the condition that the students union would no longer support or run a rag week, the university had previously withdrawn its support 2 years previously.

In its present format all that happens is people are arriving from all over the country and jumping on board and causing more trouble and damage than NUI students themselves, and the only places making money are pubs and nightclubs. Also the fact that its the unofficial rag week for NUIG and none of those arrested were students of NUI says a lot.

I agree, I was trying to be somewhat sensationalist with the way I put it but I agree with your well thought out post. It seems short sighted of the University to ask the SU to abandon all links with a Rag week as it means no money is raised and increases the chances of non students causing a bad image and while I know its unofficial and all arrested were not students we have to be realistic and note that despite this being public information the general public population of Galway will still blame moan and complain about the students/University as the cause.

As long as an unofficial type event is run the University and its students will suffer some form of bad publicity from it. Which is a shame.

They didn’t abolish it – they stopped subsidizing it because of drunken and disorderly behavior on the streets.

Simpletons !!

They should have done the Harlem shake… We are all very sensible here, this craic always went on but we didn’t have camera phones and YouTube in my day!! As long as no one gets hurt I couldn’t care less

Considering what the greyheads in Government are doing to them .Leave them have there bit of craic hurting no one does’nt happen every night.I remember the Student protests in Dublin 2010 and they were treated like animals punched dragged and baton’ed .

There are different types of students. These are likely not the same students that needed food packages. There are many students who don’t go out at all, because we can’t afford it, and work 20+ hour weeks that we struggle to fit around rigid study schedules. There’s no need to tar us all with the same brush, or use the behaviour of some to justify cutting support to others.

Is this what they spend the Grant on? Perhaps we should review the whole situation as the pubs in Galway are always jammed when the Students are back at College.

More drunken yobs behaving like animals, fighting, climbing lampposts and vomiting on themselves, its actually pathetic.

Remember, these fools are your future leaders

Students are the lifeblood of Galway. They are young and enjoying life. More luck to them.

You wouldn’t be saying that if they took a shit in your parents porch William. Happened last year to an elderly couple, again it’s a minority of fools.

Exactly. This is what happens when you send everyone out on to the street at the same time.

Stagger closing hours throughout the night with differing types of licenses, people will head off home when they’re good and ready and those that manage to last til 6am won’t be in any shape to chant outside Supermacs. Might make us reevaluate our relationship with alcohol in the process and create jobs too.

So your solution is to give them more chances to drink?

Yeah, seems legit!

We have a awful drink culture in this country and it should not be encouraged even more, people don’t respect drink. Alot of these idiots idea of a good night is a night they don’t remember and got rat arsed.

They can get as much drink as they want anyway. My solution is not to push them all on to the street at the same time, and maybe create jobs in the process.

All that does is spread out the violence and noise, it doesn’t in anyway create a respect for drink and it most certainly doers not address the very unhealthy view many people have towards drink.

Just curious Kelvin, are you a student perhaps, maybe in your early to mid 20′s?

There’s more to life then getting shit faced and this is the culture we need to change, jobs should not be created at any cost.

Not really Barry. I work in a Nightclub at the weekends, and the half 2 closing time really does cause problems. You allow a bunch of people who still don’t consider their night over out on to the street to meet up in a Fast Food place with a load of other people from different nightclubs, the sheer numbers present a problem.

If you leave them with us we can control them. We have very little trouble while they’re inside, we have professional security staff who can deal with troublemakers. They generally are happy enough to stay dancing and let us sell them drink at a reasonable pace, rather than the rush we experience every Saturday night from half one onward as people realise that the bar will soon close.

When I went to Nightclubs in Germany people were drinking just as much, and people went to McDonalds afterwards just the same as us, the difference is that there was no rush to the bar to pound shots at the end of the night, and no exodus onto the streets, just a steady trickle that precludes this kind of mob stuff from occurring.

Not only that, but I would certainly like the extra few hours work in my pay packet, and I’m sure my co-workers would too.

When you treat people like adults they behave like adults, similarly, when you treat people like children…

Conservative TD’s?

They might be conservative on a lot of issues but drink is definitely not one of them! Anyone remember *that* Brian Cowan interview on the radio?

This implemented with proper Garda enforcement of a 24 hour town center ban like they do in the UK is a great idea but of course this kind of thinking is too radical for modern day Ireland.

You decrease the chances of creating hot spots of tension where a fight is likely to break out, you stop people force feeding themselves drink so they can get drunk within a short time frame, you allow nightclubs and venues the responsibility for keeping the peace for longer and decrease the pressure on the Gardai as they deal with less people outside, you increase the chances of people leaving the area quicker as all the taxis aren’t gone at once with a flood of people and the same applies for people getting food.

I agree with Barry that our drink culture is appalling and needs long term correction but this is also a valid proposal to at least trial as it will take decades to correct the image of the drunken Irish.

Actually, I’m 30, in full time employment, and I’ve been out in enough European countries to witness what works and what doesn’t. Stern restrictions won’t stop drinkers drinking. Controlling a permissive environment will help the anti social issues.

Showing up half drunk on air is hardly comparable to legislating progressively.

Well said

Legislating properly and drinking responsibly are two different things. It’s the responsibility part that the majority of Irish people have the issue with.

Yes I remember seeing that on French TV. Can you explain why your fans were so happy and drunk, celebrating each time they lost a game? I remember French media making jokes about it, but looking at how your University students behave I understand more now.

Sophie at least we dont bomb Malians because our country is running out of energy. Sort yere own house out first.

@Jack Not sure why you feel the need to tell me that. I was born in Austria, to an Irish mother and French father.

To be honest Harry, I thought they were eejits in Poland too. And that’s coming from a part time alcoholic.

Sophie you were giving the Indication you were French .They are in no position to laugh at anyone their Country is Bankrupt and their starting Wars bit of a joke too no.

@Jack Where did I give any indication that I was French? Because I said I watched French TV? Regardless, what has the economy of France or wars got to do with Ireland’s alcohol epidemic?

I notice Irish people get very offended and enraged when others make glaringly obvious observations about their government, society or culture. Is it insecurity or a failure to accept certain truths?

@Sophie,

If you live in Ireland cool.
If you dont go troll some other message board and enlighten them with your stereotyping.
Irish people are well able to put themselves down, no need for your help.

Its a cultural trait only the Irish seem to be proud of. I mean drinking to get unconscious, fighting with each other, falling into urine and vomit, chanting football songs and climbing lamp posts. Whats not to be proud of?

Sophie, whilst the behaviour is nothing to be proud of, this kind of drinking is not exclusive to the Irish – there is a huge drinking-til-you-fall-down culture also in every large city in the UK and a lot of US cities and possibly the problem is more widespread than I’m aware.
Yes, we have a problem with drinking in this country but so do others. Your racial stereotyping of the Irish in this regard is both pointless and inaccurate.

Agree Denise, ridiculous racial stereotyping by Sophie who has several comments in the same vein. The behaviour of these students is disgusting, but it’s not as bad as the German nation’s massacre of millions of people in death camps, and war which decimated Europe and left over 60 million dead – 2.5% of the world’s population.

Yes Joe. But it doesn’t follow that all German people are murderers or that the Germans were the only race ever to commit atrocities.

The fallacy of such ridiculous generalised stereotyping is the point I was making – “The Irish”. I’m Irish and never drink more than two drinks on a night out. Several of my friends are non-drinkers.

I get your point Joe – if I look at my Irish family and friends, I can put hand on heart and say we are all either teetotal or moderate drinkers at most.
And I don’t know of anyone who professes to be proud of the type of behaviour that Sophie claims we are.

Sorry if I offended you guys, not at all my intention. regardless of some not agreeing with the stereotype, it is sadly true. Everywhere I go, I read and hear the same comments about the Irish and how they behave. It is also true that a very sizable proportion of Irish people seem very proud of the ‘drunken Irish’ stereotype. I have heard Irish people comment quite proudly about how much they can drink, and how they are the best in the world at drinking alcohol, its weird because its considered a sport or something. Your whole culture centers around the pub which in itself is fine, but unlike other cultures, instead of drinking socially Irish people seem to drink to get unconscious as quickly as possible. Every country has its problems but alcohol abuse in Ireland seems totally acceptable and is indeed applauded. Wasn’t it the leader of Ireland who was interviewed drunk and shown on the Jay Leno show in the states? Sadly, the Irish have a very bad reputation abroad at the moment, when it comes to their behavior especially in Australia. I’m not sure when or how that can change, it seems to be getting worse.

P.S. People seem to be confused about my nationality. My dad is French, my mother is Irish, I was born in Austria and live in Germany. I also visit Ireland once a year.

@Sophie you should be well aware of stereotyping being born in Austria, we dont all think ye are Nazis so do us the credit of not saying every Irish person drink to become unconscious. The Irish and the British do drink more than other nationalities but we have more craic and last time I checked we havent been bombing primitive nations back to the stone age so personally I couldnt give a rats arse what the rest of the world thinks of us.

But you should care about how the world sees you, and what your children considers as acceptable or not. Obviously not every Irish person drinks alcohol, but a sizable majority drink to get unconscious. I have been out in Ireland, I have seen teenage girls drunk and unconscious lying in their own vomit at every corner. I have seen the drunken brawls on the streets, bleeding faces and anti-social behavior. I have no doubt Ireland has one of the worst alcohol problems in Europe, possibly the world, and it seems totally acceptable. They are bringing that problem when they travel now, in doing so they are destroying your image abroad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVkeACMfGGE

@Joe Ok, but I am not German. If I was German, I doubt I would be offended by historical references from a stranger on a screen.

Sophie I understand your concern for us collectively as a nation but don’t worry this is quite normal here, its just having the craic. They all went home to bed and are fine now. An asteroid could hit us tomorrow, we have bigger things to worry about than being responsible and respectable.

@Sophie
Sorry Sophie Gev has a point.
Also having travelled alot of the world, I’ve seen most nationalities make a show of themselves.

That is both scary and sad

Students don’t get job seeker’s allowance.

He said their friends are the ones on jobseekers I thought?

It’s that same right wing respnse that makes me realise that you sir are an idiot you either forgo college to survive or you get a grant and educate yourself (something that you should think about doing)