A large crowd of young people at Galway’s Spanish Point last night has sparked outrage among locals.
Images on social media show hundreds of people gathered at the famous landmark with little to no social distancing.
Gardaí say they were called to the scene at around 10pm and the crowd was “dispersed without incident.”
Spanish Arch, Galway tonight. Numbers will inevitability continue to rise. I’d expect Level 3 restriction before the end of the week.... pic.twitter.com/cBLUoJOfj9
— Cllr. Eddie Hoare (@EddieHoareFG) September 28, 2020
They also inspected a pub in Cork after locals complained about long queues - again with little evidence of social distancing.
It comes after the acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn singled out both counties as areas where we are seeing “particularly fast increasing incidences” of the virus.
The 14-day COVID-19 rate per 100,000 people in Galway has jumped from 28.3 to 54.3 in the past week.
The rate in Cork has jumped from 22.7 to 62.1 over the same period.
These are images from Cork City Centre just now
Distancing seems very limited in this que for this premises
When we need to stop the spread this does not seem helpful
Some common sense please @NeilRedFM @EoinBearla @pjcoogan @corkbeo @echolivecork pic.twitter.com/jhLxExXjAw— Des Cahill (@CllrDesCahil) September 28, 2020
This morning, Galway Fine Gael Councillor Eddie Hoare told Newstalk that something needs to be done to manage the return of college students to the city.
“Worrying scenes at the Spanish Arch in Galway last night,” he said.
“Hundreds of students descended on the Spanish Arch. The students have come back on campus this week. Lectures have been delayed but most of the students have enrolled in their accommodation and there has been a big spill-out of students on to the streets of Galway.
“It is concerning regarding public health measures and the COVID-19 virus.”
I imagine these are the students that had already travelled to begin classes. Spanish arch last night. pic.twitter.com/EAoBCtZFG6
— Jenny Dagg (@Jennyldagg) September 29, 2020
Councillor Hoare said the scenes are “concerning and very frustrating” to locals amid fears the county could soon enter Level Three restrictions.
He called for a reduction in the number of open off-licences to prevent students from accessing alcohol.
“Ultimately, it is the off-licenses that are selling the drink,” he said.
“If you can’t buy drink, you can’t drink it on the streets.”
He said pubs are used to controlling their customers and suggested opening pubs and closing off-licences would be more effective in terms of slowing the spread of the virus.
Gardaí said the gathering was in breach of public health guidelines but noted that people can’t be prosecuted for attending gatherings or failing to wear masks in public.
They said they also have no powers to prevent the gatherings taking place.
They said officers will continue to adopt a graduated response to policing public health guidelines by following the ‘Three E’s’ – Engage, Educate, Encourage.
