This year’s St Patrick’s Day Parade was possibly the best ever, but the national day in Galway was spoiled by the drinking, loutish behaviour, vomiting, and littering which took place that night.
This is the view of Labour’s Galway City West candidate Níall McNelis who said the Spanish Arch area was “like a bombsite” after the night’s festivities.
“The amount of litter and empty bottles was unbelievable,” Mr McNelis told the Galway Advertiser. “Many businesses had to spend time this morning cleaning up the vomit and urine from people who had used them as toilets last night.”
He said the events of St Patrick’s Day portrayed the best and worst of the city to tourists.
“The parade was fantastic,” he said. “It was brilliant to see the African community, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and other groups, which we may not have associated with Galway, come out on our day and really add to the celebrations. It was good to see and it is good for integration.
“On the other hand there was a group of American visitors to the city and I’m wondering what they thought of all the litter and drinking they saw. If they were thinking of investing in Galway, they might think again after witnessing that.”
Mr McNelis said it is essential that in future the gardaí put in place a proper post-parade plan to curb and deal with the public drinking and recklessness that often occurs on St Patrick’s Night.
