Cork homeowners tormented by parties 'morning, noon and night' stage protest

Magazine Road residents held silent vigil outside property where group of up to 40 people played loud music into early hours of Friday morning

Residents protest at Magazine Road, Cork City, on Friday afternoon. Picture: Larry Cummins

Homeowners tormented by late-night parties in a Cork city community have called for stringent public health restrictions to curtail “a breeding ground for Covid-19." 

A silent vigil was held by local residents outside a house on Magazine Road, near Glasheen on Friday afternoon, where more than a dozen long-suffering residents demanded action from a landlord on a property they alleged had hosted up to 40 people the night before.

The Mazagine Road Residents Association, who were supported by nearby Connaught Avenue and Donovan's Road homeowners, told the Irish Examiner that they could not stomach another summer of mass gatherings and Magaluf-style partying with anti-social behaviour and music blaring long into the night.

Jo O'Halloran, a healthcare worker, said elderly people in the area could not sleep or relax while such events kept happening, as well as young children kept up all night before heading to school the next day.

This time, it started around 1am with the music, and just became louder and louder throughout the night. Morning, noon, and night this is going on. There is no maintenance of the property, as soon as one group moves out, another is in immediately."

The residents repeated their calls for new laws to crack down on the management of rented houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs), which are houses with tenants that are not of the same family, but rather a group of unrelated adults.

Residents claim cheap short-term lets in the summertime have proved lucrative for a handful of landlords around the area, as young people starved of experiences abroad such as the J1 visa to the US look for other means of socialising. 

Chair of the residents association, and former Lord Mayor of Cork, Catherine Clancy, said: "We are not putting up with this again. There is a huge difference between this year and last, because we have built up relationships with most landlords. But there are a handful that ignore the issue, and this ensues."

A public register of rented properties, a licensing system for all landlords, and an NCT-style test would help alleviate the scourge, she said.

22 students in breach of UL code of conduct

Meanwhile, 22 students have been found to be in breach of the University of Limerick (UL) code of conduct relating to Covid-19 restrictions.

Records acquired by the Irish Examiner under Freedom of Information reveal 43 students were the subject of complaints relating to Covid-19 breaches between March 2020 and March of this year, out of a student body of almost 17,000.

Of the 22 who faced disciplinary action, 10 received a monetary fine alone, but 12 received a monetary fine in addition to being placed on academic probation.

In April, 337 Covid-19 cases were connected to a large student outbreak in Limerick. Most were residing in off-campus accommodation in Castletroy.