Delayed return of live events sector questioned as Gardaí asked Croke Park pubs to close

Cork supporters at Croke Park for the All Ireland Final against Limerick. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Discussions will continue this week on the Government's roadmap to end all restrictions.

It comes as there was anger on social media to images that appeared to show large groups congregating around Dublin city for the All-Ireland hurling final yesterday.

Gardaí have said a number of licensed premises were inspected around Croke Park yesterday following the All Ireland hurling final and some of the pubs were asked to close in the interest of public safety.

Inquiries have also begun into alleged breaches of Covid regulations at one of these premises. 

Those in the live events sector, in particular, were asking how it was allowed to happen as their industry has not been allowed to fully reopen.

Loads of social distancing going on here anyway! The hypocrisy of our governments guidelines and the complete disregard for the entertainment sector is mind blowing! One rule for @officialgaa and another for our industry! Best of luck to Cork and Limerick anyway pic.twitter.com/zQ5TjMqVF4

— Vinny May Jr (@VinnyKodaline) August 22, 2021

Great to see people out living with Covid, just cannot understand why @MichealMartinTD @LeoVaradkar @DonnellyStephen @cathmartingreen can’t apply the same allowances to live entertainment. We can add digital contact tracing and multiple other mitigation measures to make it safer! https://t.co/aRisoHNnJw

— Shane Dunne (@ItsShaneDunne) August 22, 2021

THIS 👇🏼 and I wasn’t able to stand up and dance ON THE SPOT in my pod of 4 last night. https://t.co/H5C5df1hQx

— Anna O'Donoghue 🌻 (@AnnaVDesigns) August 22, 2021

Yesterday there was a 21% rise in the number of people in hospital, compared with Saturday, while the five-day moving average of cases has stayed the same over the past week.

Flares and colour amongst the Cork and Limerick supporters during the All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final at Croke park. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Professor of Infectious Diseases at UCD, Jack Lambert has said there cannot be an overreliance on the vaccines to keep case numbers down. 

"People seem to think that the magic bullet is the vaccine and everyone is going to be vaccinated: that's wrong.  

"Vaccines are very important but all the other Covid mitigation strategies have to be done in parallel. This is the issue. 

"The virus is much more transmissible than the first wave of the virus so it is much easier to catch," he said.

The scenes at Croke Park as 40,000 Limerick and Cork fans converged on the stadium follow comments from the Taoiseach at the weekend that there is no envisaged delay in reopening further sectors of the economy. 

The Live entertainment and Arts sector has been heavily critical of the delay in government plans to develop a roadmap for their industries. 

Speaking at the weekend, Micheál Martin said Ireland has not yet reached the peak of the Delta wave of Covid-19 but dampened any speculation that the current high number of cases would put back plans to look at how best to re-open sectors of society still closed because of the pandemic.

Mr Martin said "nothing has changed" in terms of the government's schedule of meetings that will ultimately dictate moves to deal with the next phase of Covid-19 and those sectors hoping to get the go-ahead to resume.