Rally of the Lakes attracts 40,000

A TOTAL of 27 arrests were made by gardaí during the annual Rally of Lakes, which attracted crowds estimated at between 40,000 and 50,000 to Killarney at the weekend.

However, gardaí said it was a “relatively orderly” weekend in the tourist haven compared with other May bank holidays.

Extra gardaí were drafted in, with many on traffic duty and others maintaining high visibility on the streets.

Up to yesterday morning, there were 13 arrests for public order offences, nine drug searches and five drink-driving arrests.

“We had no serious incident. It was relatively peaceful and more manageable than other years, but crowds were similar in size to other years,” said Sgt Ray Walsh, Killarney.

Also on Saturday night, a Godskitchen rave concert at the INEC, Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney, attracted about 2,000 young people.

Gardaí assigned to the concert made a number of drug detections, but otherwise the event went off without incident.

There was a large influx of boy racers in noisy, “souped up” cars, which appeared to be revving round-the-clock, leading some Killarney residents to complain about not being able to sleep.

Some people living in the Kenmare Road area put up a sign saying, “respect local residents”.

Public and private car parks where boy racers, who were not taking part in the rally, had been doing driving stunts in recent years were closed off this year by gardaí and private security operators.

Car park entrances and the entrance to an industrial estate in the town had been manned since Friday.

There were also long traffic tailbacks in Killarney town and roads leading to the town.

Roads were also closed in parts of south Kerry and west Cork when rally stages were taking place.

Thousands of rally fans were out early yesterday and on Saturday to take up viewing vantage points.

On Saturday, most of the driving action was the Moll’s Gap, Kilmackillogue, Healy Pass and Castletownbere areas.

Yesterday, the routes included Moll’s Gap and mountain roads through Ballaghbeama and Caragh Lake, in south Kerry.

Traffic was extremely heavy in Killarney last evening as the rally competitors and followers returned to the town.