LAST UPDATE | 11 Sep 2023
A MAN AND a woman have been hospitalised after they were run over by a car that was “driving at speed” during a large brawl in a Galway city carpark involving multiple weapons.
Two men were also assaulted during the “serious public order incident” that occurred on the Headford Road in Galway yesterday evening at roughly 6.10 pm.
All four of the injured people are currently receiving treatment at University Hospital Galway for injuries that are understood to be “non-life threatening”.
A garda spokesperson said: “A large number of people were involved in an altercation in a car park.”
They added that gardaí have seized multiple weapons which are understood to have been used during the course of the incident, and that “two vehicles have been seized for a technical examination”.
Videos of the incident on the Headford road are circulating on social media, alongside videos of public order incidents that took place in Eyre Square, and near Galway train station last week.
They also show multiple people bashing a car in with weapons.
No arrests related to the incident have been reported yet.
In a video of a separate incident that took place near the train station, a man appears to throw an implement – resembling a metal bar – full force at another man’s head, before being chased down the middle of the busy junction by other men who were also wielding implements.
These incidents have given rise to calls for an increased garda presence in Galway city.
Senator Ollie Crowe said that he will be raising the need for urgent action with government ministers this week.
“Shocking footage of outright thuggery in the heart of the City again today following similar videos this week, has been a growing problem for a long time now. Totally unacceptable.
“We have to enhance Garda presence in city centre. Transforming the unused former tourism kiosk in Eyre Square into a Garda substation as I have suggested previously would go a long way towards addressing this,” Crowe said in full.
In a statement, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said she “strongly condemns a number of violent incidents which have taken place recently in Galway City”.
The Minister has engaged with local public representatives and has received a report from An Garda Síochána.
“The Minister has been assured by An Garda Síochána that these events are under investigation and that a high visibility Garda presence will continue in the area as part of the policing plan,” a statement said.
McEntee said that Galway is a “proud city” and that “all those involved would be pursued and brought to justice by the gardaí and that such displays of violence were completely unacceptable”.
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