Students Rag Week Trouble

Amhran Nua

Columc wrote: »

grow up and deal with the real world

Its the students who will be forced to deal with the real world, my friend.

skelliser

Leo Rough Jellybean wrote: »

There were something like 300 people arrested after the celtic vs rangers match the last night, that's one night!

So we are now comparing RAG week to one of the worlds oldest and hotly contested grudge matches in world football!!
Played out between two sectarian groups!

in fairness your scraping the bottom of the barrel now!

What went on this week and in the last few RAG weeks is shameful. Simple as!
Everyone is in agreement that the behaviour of these people is simply not on. And over the last 3/4 years its gotten worse.

As i said before the few have ruined it for the many.
Im sad to say that they should now ban this event.

Nuigforce

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Its the students who will be forced to deal with the real world, my friend.

ah man love the sly wink.. lets us all know u know better;)

Columc

From http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0304/galway.html

Superintendent Marie Skehill said the gardaí had not established how many of the students were attending NUI Galway and were well aware that students had travelled from other parts of the country to Galway this week.

Just over an average of 7 per night, which from any saturday night in Galway is abou average.

Gardai even said that students not from NUIG have travelled down.

Its the students who will be forced to deal with the real world, my friend.

Ya they do, and fair play to them for enjoying the craic now befor they do. Unlike some people here who oviously have something wrong with the real world and complain how stressful it is and not enjoying it.

skelliser

skelliser wrote: »

As i said before the few have ruined it for the many.
Im sad to say that they should now ban this event.

You can stop promoting it and supporting it but I'm afraid you cannot ban it. Students can get together (and no doubt the pubs will jump on it too) and organise an un-official rag week.

If I were still a student in nuig and it was banned I would certainly be encouraging the organisation of an un-official rag week..

On the other hand everyone will just go out for the gmit rag week and make it the un-official nuig rag week.

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Its the students who will be forced to deal with the real world, my friend.

and when you are in the real world you realise how great it was to go on the beer for a week in february!

Columc

Leo Rough Jellybean wrote: »

On the other hand everyone will just go out for the gmit rag week and make it the un-official nuig rag week.

Kinda like it is now were GMIT dont go out for their one and wait for NUIGs RAG week

996tt

Leo Rough Jellybean wrote: »

W
There were something like 300 people arrested after the celtic vs rangers match the last night, that's one night!

I dont get this need to justify what is going on by continuously comparing the latest video/story of what some thugs are getting up (large bonfire in the back of a semi d in an estate/intimidation/littering/pissing in the street/bottling fire trucks etc etc) to what happens in other events(race week/celtic rangers match/Saturday night/volvo ocean race).

Whats next, well there was 4 cars burned last night but that okay because there was 50 people shot in Libya yesterday

Raging_Ninja

I worked in a busy pub in the center of town for a couple of years, but gave that up about 16 months ago as I needed to concentrate on studies. I've worked Race Week, the Volvo Ocean Race, New Years, Paddy's Day and Rag Week.

I've experienced Rag week since 2004, and in the last few years (2007 onwards) it has spilled out a lot more.

In fairness, the center of town is trashed extremely badly on Race Week, Paddy's Day, and New Years, and at 4am is about three times more badly off than on Rag Week.

The biggest difference is that before 2007 (I think), nightclubs were open during the day, doing foam parties and the like. I don't know if this was the case lately or not. I think this has stopped, and so the parties have spilled out into the estates, where instead of heading into town, they throw parties back in their own places, which leads to the bonfires and the like that you see going on nowadays.

When the clubs were going on during the daytime, the damage was concentrated in the center of town, whereas now it is spread throughout the estates.

This is the big difference I think between Race Week/New Years/Paddy's Day and Rag week, that and the age demographic of the people that participate.

reap-a-rat

I'm just going to give a different perspective on this if I may?

I'm in second year in NUIG. I went out Sunday night to the College Bar to a ticket event which was organised by the SU for the charities. Epic night, no harm done, went home and all was good. I didn't needlessy harass folks on the way home, I didn't witness any fights, I didn't vandalise property.

I got up on Monday, I live in a place that mainly houses students but there are "normal" people there too, a family or two and two elderly couples. They were going about their business, the students at the back of us were outside chilling with a few beers, listening to music. I saw so many people come and go from the houses all around us the whole week, but never heard more than a little hint of music if the window was open. No shouting or roaring.

I either spent the days myself out for a walk (because the weather was so nice) or spent it with friends, all second/third years. Just literally having a laugh, sitting playing games in the back garden or the house. A few friends came down from UCD "for the craic" on Wednesday. It was house-pub-club-food-home and none of them had got in any trouble at all, nor did they attempt to cause any.

I was only in town one day, and that was to get some food. I was there from 1pm til about 4pm and honestly I saw nobody acting the dick at all, not to say they weren't, I just didn't see them. I did see NUIG students shaking buckets for charity, however.

Now, I'm not condoning any anti-social behaviour, screaming and roaring and threatening people is not on, and neither is burning bins and stuff that you don't even own. I watched the Gort na Coiribe videos, and I'm appalled at the people running through the circle when people are firing bottles, and the eejits the are flinging beer at other people. I however think that there was what, maybe 300/400 students altogether in the green, and maybe 50 of those were complete idiots that were attacking the Emergency Services and stuff. But there are 17,000 students in NUI Galway. That's a lot. And while a small minority are fcking tools, and a slighter bigger minority think these tools are the sh!t and spur them on when they're acting out of line, most of us either don't partake at all, or just partake and have a reasonable level of fun without tearing the place apart.

Can I also just put it out there that you can often see what you want to see. When I walked from Newcastle to town Wednesday, I saw a gorgeous day, I saw buskers entertaining people, I saw shoppers, I saw workers on their lunch and I felt a nice atmosphere of the sun putting people in good form. However, when you know its RAG week, and you possibly don't like students for reasons of jealously, something A student has done to you before or you just like seeing the worst in people, then you are going to be more aware of all the bad things that go on!

I know as well that people are saying it goes on all the time but because its RAG week people think its the students that are to blame. This kind of stuff does NOT happen in a normal society. Having said that, I do think that media coverage is going a bit far. If the media ignored it, I'm not saying the same thing wouldn't happen but students wouldn't get this rep of being drunken hooligans, and because we often have this reputation, I think its likely that SOME students and young people will stick the finger to older folk and the authorities because they themselves feel like they are not respected as a group in society, so why should they respect it!

I'm not condoning anti-social behaviour, I'm just giving my opinion on the matter and why I think it all may be happening. 'nuff said.

Steyr

padraig91 wrote: »

i would like to point out that most of the "troublemakers" are just scumbags from westside who partake in ragweek although they are not even in college.....although i do accept that some people who are in nui do cause some trouble

If i was you I would retract that.

harpsbhoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDKwCvD56kw
:cool:
We are the future and i would say the majority of us wont even be in the country in three years.

harpsbhoy

harpsbhoy wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDKwCvD56kw
:cool:
We are the future and i would say the majority of us wont even be in the country in three years.

Well, the world is f*cked then.

Amhran Nua

reap-a-rat wrote: »

you possibly don't like students for reasons of jealously

Mm, I'm sure everyone was green with envy after watching those videos.

harpsbhoy wrote:

We are the future and i would say the majority of us wont even be in the country in three years.

There are at least 37 who probably will be, unless they go to the UK.

dloob

harpsbhoy wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDKwCvD56kw
:cool:
We are the future and i would say the majority of us wont even be in the country in three years.

Well the recession isn't all bad that's true.

Feel sorry for the aussies though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2bypw43Vqk

LucyBliss

I find it interesting that people are posting about some areas just being littered. Yes, absolutely there will be some littering when all that many people get together, but perhaps local residents or people in general would be feeling less stringent about College Week if there was something where the students themselves, or something organised by the students union,went about the next day and tidied up. It's basic common courtesy and the lack of it is what people are reacting against with calls for College Week to be banned.

Because in some quarters, it can feel a bit like someone having a huge party, who then fecks off and leaves everyone else to do the cleaning up.

jugger

i have been reading this thread all week with great intrest. i work night in eyre square for the last three years thats six rag weeks both nui and gmit so i see a lot of what goes on and in the city center at night,race week, paddys day , arthurs day (to be honest its diageo day) imo the city center really hasnt been that bad , all the above big events leave it in much the same state intoxicated people students or not dont see things in the same light as sober people and pack mentally kicks in a lot easier too

i really cant comment about what happened in other resident areas other then my own which is in westside and in between too student villages and i have not been disturbed at all but i do work night so maybe i missed it i did see one or two house partys on my way to work but they looked pretty tame a little loud but it was a student village so meh

i really dont condone in any way how some of the students have acted at all esp to older residents and in some cases the younger residents of the city
i have watch the videos and i dont think its really too bad its not even close to pretty but it does look like most are observing rather then take part apart from the throw the bottle into the bin clip

thirty seven people arrested out of 20,000 people drinking for five days thats not a massive number i wonder how many are arrested during race week ????

but like fine gael its ok i have a plan

step 1 BRING BACK RAG WEEK OFFICIALLY
why becaues imo if your not meant to do something when your younger just makes doing it so much better

step 2 FREE OR CHEAP EVENTS
now thats it officially back as many events as can arranged as this will help remove them from the houseing esates and remove boredom so they dont thing throwing bottles into a bin is the best thing ever

step 3 COLLEGE / GARDA
anybody at all arrested should imo receive the hardest punisment that both the garda and college can give at least during rag week i think knowing that it was a definite and not a maybe attuides could be changed.... hopefully

and thats my two cents the colleges arent going any where neither are the students and rag week collage week or what ever it will be called next year prob isnt going not going anywhere either so lets try and make it better for the students and more bearable for the residents
sorry for the lenght of the post guys

dloob

So it seems the "craic" these days is standing in a field drinking and looking at gob****es throwing bottles into a bin.
Phew that's mad craic altogether, one to regale the grandkids with in years to come.

jugger

jugger wrote: »

step 1 BRING BACK RAG WEEK OFFICIALLY
why becaues imo if your not meant to do something when your younger just makes doing it so much better

step 2 FREE OR CHEAP EVENTS
now thats it officially back as many events as can arranged as this will help remove them from the houseing esates and remove boredom so they dont thing throwing bottles into a bin is the best thing ever

step 3 COLLEGE / GARDA
anybody at all arrested should imo receive the hardest punisment that both the garda and college can give at least during rag week i think knowing that it was a definite and not a maybe attuides could be changed.... hopefully

I agree completely with these. Those arrested should face criminal charges and expulsion from the college, if they are proven to be NUIG students. However bringing back RAG week won't make things better or worse.

d-gal

For anyone that thinks this has been overhyped and just a bit of fun what about Winters Property Management who manages Gort na Coiribe?
They have to pay over 5figures worth extra for this week due to damages and hiring extra security staff. Their was over 10 security guards hired for Thursday alone and barricades had to be put up. The green is destroyed and will also have to be re done, more money wasted on ungrateful students.

Or how about the landlord that owns the house that had the bonfire in the back garden? Sure it's just a bit of harmless fun :rolleyes:

JohnCleary

d-gal wrote: »

For anyone that thinks this has been overhyped and just a bit of fun what about Winters Property Management who manages Gort na Coiribe?
They have to pay over 5figures worth extra for this week due to damages and hiring extra security staff. Their was over 10 security guards hired for Thursday alone and barricades had to be put up. The green is destroyed and will also have to be re done, more money wasted on ungrateful students.

Or how about the landlord that owns the house that had the bonfire in the back garden? Sure it's just a bit of harmless fun :rolleyes:

The deposits that won't be handed back will more than cover this.

inisboffin

JohnCleary wrote: »

The deposits that won't be handed back will more than cover this.

In an ideal world, yeah. However I learned from personal experience that the person wrecking the gaff is not necessarily the leaseholder. I'm not sure it even would cover it - that would depend on how many actual tenants were involved and are getting the boot.

d-gal

JohnCleary wrote: »

The deposits that won't be handed back will more than cover this.

The deposit might cover some of the damage done inside the house so the landlord does receive some money but the property management company does not get any compensation for them wrecking the green or having to hire extra security.
Winters will have to pay a huge amount of money and they would get a set amount of money paid annually by the Gort na Coiribe committee.
Green maintenance, cleanliness and security of the area is provided by Winters. They have to increase a huge amount of workload because of arrogant students who do not respect an estate and couldn't care who cleans up after them

Columc

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Mm, I'm sure everyone was green with envy after watching those videos.

I really think you are, keep going on how people would love to be in the class for college and all that.... some regrets perhaps of your own choices in the past ?

johngalway

Things that I've heard about "college week":

1. Peoples cars being damaged
2. Students walking naked through an estate in Newcastle

Things that I've seen thanks to "college week":

1. The grass to the right hand side of the road in Dun na Coirbe covered in glass
2. Glass and litter on the pavement/road there
3. Businesses having to shut up early due to the behaviour of the students
4. Security people having to be hired
5. Barricades erected at the entrance to Gort na Coribe
6. Fire engines/cops in Gort na Coribe

Let's call it for what it is, it's not "the craic", it's drunken vandalism from a bunch of knuckle draggers.

By the way, what I saw was just from walking into and out of the place. Pity the decent/normal people who have to live there.

The time and resources of the emergency services were completely wasted. Time and money for businesses were completely wasted.

None of this should be put upon people, and those excusing it are as bad as those doing it.

Mrs OBumble

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Students are guests in this city, and if troublemakers want to tear the place up, nobody needs to tolerate them.

+1

I'd add compulsory terms test on Friday of this week to the list. .

Amhran Nua

Amhran Nua wrote: »

There are at least 37 who probably will be, unless they go to the UK.

Getting arrested will make no difference unless they are actually charged, most will be given a night in the cells and sent on their way the next morning.

KittyeeTrix

JustMary wrote: »

+1

I'd add compulsory terms test on Friday of this week to the list. .

Great, I'll just add that to the ever growing list of college projects, lab write-ups and exam prep I have to complete before start of exams in a few weeks:(

Obviously punishing the masses for the actions of a few is not the way to go............

KittyeeTrix

Leo Rough Jellybean wrote: »

Getting arrested will make no difference unless they are actually charged, most will be given a night in the cells and sent on their way the next morning.

I can understand if those charged with criminal damage or something along those lines were expelled or faced some type of action by the college but what of those who may have been arrested for just purely being drunk ( eg. not causing trouble but drunk and arrested for their own good).
Would they be likely to face a charge and if so should the college be involved in any disciplinary process?

Iwannahurl

A night in a Garda cell might well be some sort of badge of honour for the knuckle-draggers.

I've been told by a college lecturer -- who saw class attendance seriously down due to Knuckle-Drag Week -- that students were setting their alarm clocks for earlier than usual so they could boast that they had started drinking before their mates.

Ah, the world-class Irish booze culture -- who needs cricket to put us on the winner's podium? I'd love to know how foreign students feel about their Irish neighbours and fellow students. I saw a few of them walking to college along streets strewn with broken glass (Gort na Coiribe) and I wondered what their attitude might be. While living and travelling elsewhere in Europe I have never seen people of any age at public events displaying the same pathological drive to get inebriated, loud, aggressive, out of control and destructive.

Iwannahurl

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Ah, the world-class Irish booze culture -- who needs cricket to put us on the winner's podium? I'd love to know how foreign students feel about their Irish neighbours and fellow students.

A lot of them think we are absolute legends actually, my Italian friends will be getting drunk with me and my Irish friends all weekend.

Its an absolute myth that the likes of the french, italians and germans dont drink like us. I have been on serious drinking sessions with all these nationalities and they dont hold back anymore more than we do.