‘Christmas Day’ binge sees 13 students arrested

STUDENTS taking part in discredited Christmas celebrations which led to 13 arrests on Wednesday night availed of special cut-price drink offers in some Waterford city pubs earlier that day.

Extra gardaí were deployed in parts of Waterford throughout Wednesday and early yesterday morning to combat public order offences in flashpoints on the streets and in housing estates close to Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT).

The so-called “Christmas Day” celebrations by some students at WIT have become a traditional event at this time of year.

However, the “tradition” has been disowned by the college authorities and the students’ union in recent years and the college bar was closed on Wednesday in a bid to discourage excessive drinking.

Two years ago, a large number of complaints were made by members of the public as a result of drunkenness and incidents of criminal damage, public disorder, public urinating and defecating, and even reports of sexual intercourse in gardens in a local housing estate.

Since then, gardaí have stepped up their efforts to prevent such incidents and any complaints made on Wednesday night were mainly referring to public drunkenness.

A number of incidents were reported during the night — 29 of those were in the Templar’s Hall area which is a popular rental estate for WIT students.

Three of the 13 arrests made were at Templar’s Hall, while the remaining 10 took place at John Street, Manor Street and Parnell Street in the city centre.

All of those detained were released without charge and most will be dealt with by way of an adult caution, with “one or two files” to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions, according to a Garda spokesperson.

The Garda spokesperson said some publicans distributed flyers offering alcohol specials to students on Wednesday, such as bottles of cider for €1 or three vodkas and coke for €10.

“There were plenty of those flyers around,” he added.

Asked if gardaí told pub owners not to promote cut-price alcohol on Wednesday, he said: “We talked to the publicans alright, but it’s their business.

“If the law is broken, that’s our business and we try and manage it and remind them not to allow drunkenness on their premises and that we would be making checks. But we can’t tell them they can’t run their businesses.”

WIT students’ union president Conor Doyle said they had “no hand, act or part” in advertising the event and it was “very frustrating” that some venues were offering cheap drink.

“That’s where the big problem is,” he said, “endorsing drink from early on in the day”.

A number of steps were taken in recent weeks to prevent or minimise any problems on Wednesday, according to Mr Doyle, including discussions with residents’ associations and landlord associations in estates.