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Gardaí shut down unofficial Galway Rag Week event after crush outside nightclub

The gardaí said the decision to close the ‘unofficial’ Rag Week night was made on the grounds of health and safety reasons.

GARDAÍ IN GALWAY were forced to shut down an unofficial Rag Week event at a night club last night.

A video, which has appeared on YouTube, shows a large crowd queuing up to get into the premises at Electric Theatre and Garden in Galway City last night.

Crush

There is a surge of people at one point, which causes the barrier to to collapse, causing people to fall and spill out onto the road.

(Mantas Pukelis/YouTube)

Gardaí in Galway said they were called to the premises on Abbeygate Street at approximately 11pm last night as a large crowd had gathered outside.

A garda from the Galway station present at the incident last night said that there was a very large crowd at the event and a decision was made by both the gardaí and management of the night club to shut the venue down for health and safety reasons.

“No one was injured in the event,” said the garda spokesperson, adding that it was the safer option to call off the event due to the large numbers.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, the father of a young woman attending the event likened it to the crush at Copper Face Jacks last month.

“My daughter had to pull a girl up by the hair who was foaming at the mouth,” he said, adding, “my own daughter was trampled on”.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, the President of GMIT Students’ Union Sam O’Neill said it was not a students’ union event as GMIT and NUIG had cancelled the official Rag Week a number of years ago.

“This is a perfect example of why we called off Rag Week. The crush outside the night club last night shows the type of things that can happen. It appears things got out of hand last night. Hopefully no one was hurt last night,” he said.

He added that the unofficial Rag Week was set up on Facebook by private club promoters in the town who want to promote their events.

“It is very irresponsible and damaging to all the work the students’ union has done over the years to try and get away from that whole thing of going out and drinking all week,” said O’Neill.

He added that the original Rag Week was cancelled as the original message of why it was set up in the first place was lost, noting, “it really is frustrating and a very annoying situation that these promoters get away with this”.

“It was not so long ago that all these deaths associated with neknominations was hitting the headlines, it is just very irresponsible,” concluded O’Neill.

The incident in Galway comes only weeks after a crush at a student night in Copper Face Jacks in Dublin in which a number of young people were injured.

Attempts were made to contact Electric Theatre and Garden in Galway, but no one available to comment.

Read: Seven people injured in crush outside Copper Face Jacks on Harcourt Street>

Read: Video shows crowd crush outside Copper Face Jacks>

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    Mute Patrick J. Keating
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    Aug 9th 2022, 7:15 AM

    Poke a tiger. What happens next?

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    Aug 9th 2022, 7:46 AM

    @Patrick J. Keating: he gets an Eagle on a par 4

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    Aug 9th 2022, 7:47 AM

    @Patrick J. Keating: tiger sex?

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    Mute Earth Traveller
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    Aug 9th 2022, 9:05 AM

    @Patrick J. Keating: So you would always give in to a bully? The CCP is having a hissy fit and they need to get over themselves.

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    Mute Declan Doherty
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    Aug 9th 2022, 3:41 PM

    @Earth Traveller: No-one said anything about giving in. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing position. Pelosi went on a solo run to needlessly stoke up tensions and the only people who will ultimately suffer are the Taiwanese.

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    Mute Patrick J. Keating
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    Aug 9th 2022, 4:09 PM

    @Michael Geraghty: Don’t forget to let me know how you get on with that.

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    Mute Ciaran
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    Aug 9th 2022, 9:09 AM

    Of course they are preparing to invade. Didn’t Russia do / say they were doing the same type of drills before invading Ukraine ?

    Just wondering how many people
    will be putting Taiwan flags up when China does invade …

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    Aug 9th 2022, 10:12 AM
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    Aug 9th 2022, 11:05 AM

    I always appreciated the quality difference of the Taiwan rubber King Kong as compared to the ‘made in china’ version. The Taiwan version always had a bit more character and detail, and more durability…..less ‘perishing’.

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    Aug 9th 2022, 11:58 AM

    @Keth Warsaw: there also brilliant for shoe for the 1 legged people ….

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    Aug 9th 2022, 12:06 PM

    @Keth Warsaw: LOL

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    Aug 9th 2022, 10:27 AM

    First hong kong, second ukraine, third taiwan? The russians need china to take taiwan for semiconductors for weapons as they are running out.

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    Aug 9th 2022, 7:55 PM

    @François Pignon: That’s not going to happen at all. Taiwan can’t produce semiconductors without the machinery and raw materials it gets from Europe. Any invasion would see those supplies stop immediately.

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    Aug 9th 2022, 1:33 PM

    Thanks Ms Pelosi

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