File with DPP over Eyre Square fireworks incident which student left blinded in one eye

A Garda spokesperson confirmed to the Galway City Tribune that their file on the case had been completed and was now in the hands of the DPP.

“We are now awaiting directions from the DPP as to how we will proceed in our investigation,” said the Garda spokesperson.

Last November, Gardaí arrested a man in his 20s in the Southside area of Dublin in relation to the incident which occurred on the night of Thursday, October 21, 2021.

A 19-year-old student from the east side of Galway City was struck that night in the face by exploding fireworks as she was sitting at a bus-stop in Eyre Square.

She was rushed by ambulance to University Hospital Galway where she was treated for severe facial injuries including the loss of an eye.

The fireworks had been set off seconds earlier in the vicinity of a group of youths in the Eyre Square area leading to a major Garda investigation involving a painstaking trawl of CCTV, dash cam and mobile phone footage.

It led to the arrest of the suspect in Dublin on Wednesday, November 17, who was questioned for a number of hours at a Garda station in the capital, under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.

At the time, Gardaí thanked the public for their co-operation and assistance in helping to track down the individual involved in the incident.

Gardaí now await directions from the DPP in relation to the exact nature of the charge to be brought against the man responsible for setting off the fireworks.

Anyone convicted of throwing or lighting an unlicensed firework can, on indictment (in the Circuit Court), be liable to a maximum fine of €5,000, or a term of imprisonment of up to five years, or both.

(Image: a still from a mobile phone recording of the incident)