Gardaí and Council to draw up plan to deal with Race Week
From this week's Galway City Tribune - A meeting will be held in the coming days to determine how to deal with the expected influx of revellers for Race Week – despite restrictions on numbers allowed into Ballybrit.
Hotels and guesthouses are reporting huge bookings for the week, with hopes high in the hospitality industry that the plan to allow indoor dining for vaccinated people will be up and running in time for the racing festival.
The head of the Galway branch of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI), Johnny Duggan, said all publicans are waiting anxiously for the guidelines to be issued by Fáilte Ireland about what restrictions will apply to indoor dining.
His preference would be to do away with the social distancing inside for the vaccinated and the 11.30pm closing time, which would take pressure off crowds spilling out onto the streets and suburbs plagued by house parties, instead allowing safe management of customers.
Uncontrollable crowds of drinkers are exactly what the authorities will be aiming to avoid when a meeting is held between the Gardaí, Galway City Council, the Galway Chamber of Commerce and other groups representing traders.
Mr Duggan, the owner of Taylor’s Bar on Dominick Street, said he has been inundated with bookings from large groups, particularly from Dublin, who want to party during the Races.
A spokesman for the City Council said like last year, Covid-19 restrictions and restrictions in relation to the gathering of large crowds will be in place for Galway Race Week 2021. This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of the story, see this week's Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.