Revellers leave City Council with repair bill for Eyre Square
From this week's Galway City Tribune - Crowds of up to 5,000 people have been flooding into Eyre Square at night, resulting in widespread damage that’s set to cost the Council thousands in repair fees.
The Galway City Tribune understands that as part of a strategy to tackle out-of-control drinking in residential areas of the city, Gardaí have been moving crowds away from Raven Terrace, Spanish Arch and Woodquay towards the Square and the nearby taxi ranks.
However, the hordes of revellers are leaving their mark on the city’s main public park as kerbs are ripped up, landscaping is destroyed by public urination and the green areas are blighted by broken glass.
A City Council spokesperson confirmed that the local authority was in regular consultation with Gardaí, but both authorities were in a quandary over how to deal with the volume of outdoor drinking caused by Covid restrictions.
He said additional bins and temporary toilets had been situated at Eyre Square in recent weeks to alleviate the problem, while an investment had been made in new equipment to ‘root’ glass fragments from the grass.
“The issue in Eyre Square in relation to crowds gathering is that it is causing damage requiring regular significant clean-ups. [There has been] damage to kerbing, to slabbing around the replica Pádraic Ó Conaire statue and to the flowerbeds and grass. In addition to the damage to the grass by the volume of people walking on it, there is also a significant amount of broken glass,” he said.
(Photo: Revellers who scaled the 17th century Browne Doorway in Eyre Square earlier this week) 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.