The future of the re-branded College Week is in the balance as a number of arrests were made this week with residents and emergency services under attack by projectile bottles and students exhibiting some shocking anti-social behaviour.
A number of residents contacted this paper with reports of scenes at Dun Na Coiribe in Headford Road that resembled a war zone.
Residents said that they had been unable to get in or out of the estate due to the danger posed by the 1,000 or more strong crowd of intoxicated and rowdy students that had gathered.
It is understood that when the fire brigade was called to extinguish a bonfire the crew also came under attack from flying bottles.
One resident, who wished to remain anonymous said on Monday afternoon: “It’s like a war zone, there’s huge crowds here of drunken students throwing bottles at cars, they’ve even been throwing bottles at the fire brigade who have been out in the last half hour to put out a big bonfire.
“They’re just leaving now actually, they have been attacked. It’s been going on all day,” said the man, who added that he had to contact the gardai twice.
The resident said he had enough of the nuisance caused by this NUIG College Week and that he was even considering moving house. “I was woken early this morning by people knocking on doors, there’s been lots of criminal damage. I wasn’t able to drive in to my house because of the crowd, you couldn’t get through the crowd.
“The only way I did get through was because there was a squad car there. There was even a car in front of me with girls in it who were flashing and throwing bottles. This has been happening for the last number of years but it is particularly bad this year, I’m thinking of moving altogether. For now, this week I will be moving in to a friend’s house and move my car because it’s not safe enough. It’s just getting worse.”
Another resident also complained of the same loutish behaviour saying that although College Week, or Rag Week as it used to be known, is said to raise €20,000 it would cost that much in management fees to repair the damage caused in the estate.
A spokesperson for Galway Garda Station said on Monday that any public order breaches will be dealt with and that the Garda was monitoring the situation. He added that if the situation got out of control, the crowd would be dispersed and extra resources if needed would be brought in. Yesterday, it was confirmed that a number of arrests were made since College Week for NUIG began last Monday, however the exact figures were not available.
