Christmas Day

AdMMM · 04-12-2009 03:45PM

What was the general discussion about?

alpha2zulu · 04-12-2009 04:06PM

AdMMM wrote: »

What was the general discussion about?

Just residents stating the obvious really about the trouble that was caused and some CIT locals describing a similar scene in Cork.

However in typical Joe Duffy fashion, the 2 students they brought on air did the college no favours. The first girl talked about how there was only 1 person in one of her lectures and 3 in another on wednesday, negateing to mention a lot of subjects have pretty much come to an end of lectures because of the exams....

The 2nd guy was a masters student, who was saying all classes were cancelled wednesday and thursday...Like do these people not realise what damage this nonsense talk on national airwaves is doing to the reputation of the college when employers and parents thinking about sending their kids here listen to it.Duffy was stirring it all up in his usual manner.

gordo666 · 04-12-2009 04:20PM

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to make excuses for the mayhem or those involved with my previous post, and as a local I was disgusted to see the state of town that night... but I just don't think it would be fair to say all those arrested were WIT students when they weren't

With regards to the damage caused, I've heard that apparently Bad Bobs got pretty messy and one or two TVs were broken in there (not certain if that's actually true but have heard it from a few people that were in there) and there was the usual vandalism, mirrors, windows and wipers being broken off cars, and plenty of broken bottles and glasses all over town.... really have to pity the poor City Council workers that were cleaning up Thursday morning really

FrankieMul · 04-12-2009 04:59PM

Having worked as entertainments officer for the students union for a year i know 1st hand that the union have no say in the running of xmas day! It is a complete traditional event that while the dome is busy it only takes about a 1000 students it goes on in most pubs around town and home drinking is the main place of choice to drink!

The union worked very hard as they do most years to raise alcohol awareness and try to police the event in the estates! And while i think it is terrible what happened the college and the union have acted as responsible as they can and the blame is solely on the students who got arrested and caused damage! The locals always seem to forget that the largest group of studenst are from waterford itself. And that students and the main driving force of the local economy in Waterford.

The relationship between the college and campus services is a business agreement and they have no say in how they conduct their commercial activities on campus and they are independent of the college entirely and work from the contacts. Even if the Dome closed for the day Bad Bobs, Masons and Harveys would just expand their operations on the day.

PS Billy McCarthy seems to view this as his own personal day of glory in villifying the college and the union and should give up being the Joe Duffy wannabe

alpha2zulu · 04-12-2009 05:11PM

Even if the Dome closed for the day Bad Bobs, Masons and Harveys would just expand their operations on the day.

I guess my point was if the Dome was not involved, anything that goes on is off-campus so it would be easier for WIT to wash their hands of it.

The relationship between the college and campus services is a business agreement and they have no say in how they conduct their commercial activities on campus and they are independent of the college entirely and work from the contacts.

But surely if your main landlord makes it clear in no uncertain terms that they dont approve of the event, surely campus services would have to listen.

PS Billy McCarthy seems to view this as his own personal day of glory in villifying the college and the union

Thats true, but in some sense hes just playing up to his base, his target demographic is certainly not twentysomethings. If his listeners of more 'mature' age are totally outraged, its in his interest to play up to this and pour more fuel on the fire.It is a commercial operation after all. WLR handed the younger market over to Beat in 2003.

FrankieMul · 04-12-2009 05:29PM

No but have ya have to look at it this way campus services control everything on campus that has a commercial aspect to it and have exclusive right from the doctor to wit style to manor village they are integral to the college and their profits are larger than the endowment WIT receive. I thought this year was actually quiter except the Gardai cracked down more. Bad about the statue in the grotto on the cork rd though!

gordo666 · 04-12-2009 05:36PM

what happened to the statue?!!

imported_guy · 04-12-2009 08:11PM

FrankieMul wrote: »

Having worked as entertainments officer for the students union for a year i know 1st hand that the union have no say in the running of xmas day!

stop speaking rubbish mate, the facebook page was full off advertising who's playing what at what time in the dome, (the WITSU page is the one im talking about), its the same in UCC, theres a thread in the UCC forum that UCC SU is advertising nights out (incl cheap alcohol) which is banned on the premisis but they do it any way, WITSU president and co arent exactly angels they claim to be....

edit quote from the FB page advertising dome events, i see WITSU has started backpedaling since shizzle just got real

Witsu Waterford ***WIT Christmas Week!We need your help on Tues & Weds.This year our chosen charity is the BELARUSSIAN ORPHANAGE PROJECT.We need your help doing bucket collections throughout the day & also to come along & sing a few Carols for the craic in the Atrium on Weds morning before the madness begins!!...Live music in the Dome..., with Decky Downey-12pm, Revolver-2pm & DJ Sangers-4pm onwards!!HO HO HO!!:-)***

alpha2zulu · 04-12-2009 08:42PM

stop speaking rubbish mate, the facebook page was full off advertising who's playing what at what time in the dome, (the WITSU page is the one im talking about), WITSU president and co arent exactly angels they claim to be....

That does change things a bit, I heard myself and was led to believe from the WITSU media releases that they have zero to do with Xmas day but obviously thats not the case. Having felt some sympathy for the position of the WITSU initially in all this, now it just seems that the usual fog over student union matters has rolled in again.

Heres the quote I saw on http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1203/waterford.html

WIT and the WIT Students' Union have said they had no role in organising the day's events.

What a nonsense.

Weds morning before the madness begins!!...

Looks like mystic Meg was employed by WITSU at some point.;)

imported_guy · 04-12-2009 08:56PM

alpha2zulu wrote: »

That does change things a bit, I heard myself and was led to believe from the WITSU media releases that they have zero to do with Xmas day but obviously thats not the case. Having felt some sympathy for the position of the WITSU initially in all this, now it just seems that the usual fog over student union matters has rolled in again.

Heres the quote I saw on http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1203/waterford.html

Looks like mystic Meg was employed by WITSU at some point.;)

its actully the same FB status right now they havent changed it still wish i could take a SS, but im on a macbook running windows and dont know the shortcut, yes mac owner got owned :P haha

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/witsu?v=wall&ref=mf heres their page though, someone post a SS for people not on facebook

tbaymusicman · 05-12-2009 12:54AM

Lads above me :eek::eek:you are way off the mark with the thinking that the student union have anything to do with organizing it because they don't!!!!obviously they promote the event but noting was mentioned of the 5grand raised for charity or the fact me and several other student were acting as stewards from 10 in the morning until past 3 the following morning!!

tbaymusicman · 05-12-2009 01:00AM

LETS BE AVN IT wrote: »

crazy behaviour yesterday! there was a Q to get in the dome around the corner by 11 o clock , people were drinking in this Q and were clearly drunk on arrival , then in the bathroom students were pissing in the sink ,OMG it was sicking , guards were called by midday and i saw numerous people being thrown out! i left by 2.00 coudnt take anymore of it! As for the entairtainment the dj played a cd on repeat for 2 hours and then a one man band , come on the students union could of done more , they were charging 3e to get in like! the security and staff were great doh under the circumstances , 31 arrests i was glad to see the cops have a clamp down on this , i feel sorry for the people living in those housing estates!

5 people were thrown out over the day,1 was arrested but wasn't charged!there was a 4piece band!!the student union charged 2 euro in and where did that go??To a Belorussian charity!!31 arrests who was it do you think requested the 20 extra police on that day??the student union!!I thought Cathy went out of her way and so did all the rest within the union to have the day run smoothly after 6 o clock it was no longer on college property and still the student union had people myself included patrolling templers hall,lismore park and river walk till the early morning and no credit for it we really tried our best people:(:(:(

LETS BE AVN IT · 05-12-2009 01:11AM

tbaymusicman wrote: »

5 people were thrown out over the day,1 was arrested but wasn't charged!there was a 4piece band!!the student union charged 2 euro in and where did that go??To a Belorussian charity!!31 arrests who was it do you think requested the 20 extra police on that day??the student union!!I thought Cathy went out of her way and so did all the rest within the union to have the day run smoothly after 6 o clock it was no longer on college property and still the student union had people myself included patrolling templers hall,lismore park and river walk till the early morning and no credit for it we really tried our best people:(:(:(

Only 5 thrown out ! God i saw at least 3 thrown out by 12.30 presumed it would of been alot more over the course of the day! Did not know it was the 2e charge was going to charity , fair play to the SU for that !And also well done for patrolling the streets till the early hours , there has been no one talking about this! Next year there needs to be a bigger guards presence on browns road , templers hall shutting down every house party with guards n site from midday and river walk having security on entrance checking for resitents!

FrankieMul · 05-12-2009 03:39AM

Sorry now WITSU are a body elected by the students! If every student is going to partake in this event they are abviously going to make them aware of what is going on! It is not a charge on the door it is a donation how can they charge for a bar they dont own or rent. WITSU have always acted morally well compared with other unions and should not be blamed! Students should take responsibility for their actions!

tbaymusicman · 05-12-2009 10:55AM

LETS BE AVN IT wrote: »

Only 5 thrown out ! God i saw at least 3 thrown out by 12.30 presumed it would of been alot more over the course of the day! Did not know it was the 2e charge was going to charity , fair play to the SU for that !And also well done for patrolling the streets till the early hours , there has been no one talking about this! Next year there needs to be a bigger guards presence on browns road , templers hall shutting down every house party with guards n site from midday and river walk having security on entrance checking for resitents!

river walk was actually the only place we weren't called to this year or ballytruckle for that matter

no there was the same 2 fellas who kept somehow getting back in and thrown out again was extremely annoying but a lil entertaining as they were just being thrown out for drunkenness not for fighting or anything!!myself and the asbo officer were stood outside the dome for the whole day making sure people weren't drinking in public on campus (ie. outside the dome and carpark) now most student unions would not do that as well you know the aggro of taking someones drink is high

:o well worth the abuse do ha

imported_guy · 05-12-2009 01:20PM

tbaymusicman wrote: »

Lads above me :eek::eek:you are way off the mark with the thinking that the student union have anything to do with organizing it because they don't!!!!obviously they promote the event but noting was mentioned of the 5grand raised for charity or the fact me and several other student were acting as stewards from 10 in the morning until past 3 the following morning!!

i'd like to see you use that argument in court when your accused of being an accessory to a crime, same applies here, they were involved, directly or indirectly, in these situations bad always overshadows the good, doesnt matter if osama bin laden helped millions of afghans during the russian invasion, he is still a terrorist.

FrankieMul wrote: »

Sorry now WITSU are a body elected by the students! If every student is going to partake in this event they are abviously going to make them aware of what is going on! It is not a charge on the door it is a donation how can they charge for a bar they dont own or rent. WITSU have always acted morally well compared with other unions and should not be blamed! Students should take responsibility for their actions!

yeah i'd like to see the figures on how many students actully voted, i for one didnt, because, people always get screwed over in a democracy, doesnt matter who wins the election, no one gets things done, from what i have heard, alot of these things are riged etc etc. so spare that "you voted for them" crap.

AdMMM · 05-12-2009 01:53PM

There's plenty of ways to criticise the events of the day but, honestly, drawing vague and nonsensical comparisons between the SU Stewards and Osama Bin Laden is not the way to go about it.

My Christmas day was interesting, as ever. We all opted to spend the day in an apartment rather than brave the chaos that unfolded outside. I had a little run-in with security of the complex when they came into the apartment and threw out all non-residents. They refused to let me back in to get my bag which had my laptop and project work on it. It honestly seemed like some security were only out to cause trouble themselves and "teach those ***** a lesson". Obviously I haven't a leg to stand on given I had a few drinks in me so any complaints would only fall on deaf ears.

alpha2zulu · 05-12-2009 02:42PM

AdMMM wrote: »

There's plenty of ways to criticise the events of the day but, honestly, drawing vague and nonsensical comparisons between the SU Stewards and Osama Bin Laden is not the way to go about it.

Agreed, things were bad but it wasent Kabul.

What irked me is the hypocrisy of WITSU saying in the aftermath that they had no part in promoteing the shenanigans, when obviously advertising the thing on their facebook page is exactly that, and then trying to dodge the point by using the Chernobyl 5k as a smokescreen.

Next year there needs to be a bigger guards presence on browns road , templers hall shutting down every house party with guards n site from midday and river walk having security on entrance checking for resitents!

Hardly an efficent use of public finances to practically babysit students for the day! How about reminding them that that if ya get any sort of criminal record, your J1 application is down the toilet.Now that would put the fear of God into them!!:D

KeelanM90 · 05-12-2009 02:58PM

I find it hard to listen to complaints about the students union organising christmas day! The fact is it's a day thats going to happen with or without the SU's and WIT's support! Its easy point fingers at them but really the only people responsible are those who went out and made complete messes of themselves during the day!
Its unfair to say WITSU were advertising the event on their facebook page when all they were trying to do was get people out doing something constructive. I mentioned to people in my class that it is meant to be a day for charity and they wouldn't hear of it!
As far as i can see no members of the SU were involved in any of the mess and did nothing but give up a day to try maintain a somewhat decent image on the college!

sparkling sea · 05-12-2009 03:13PM

Most of the residents living in the Cork Road and Kingsmeadow estates are elderly and that statue in the Grotto means an awful lot to many of them. I am not religious myself but this was a horrible thing to do

The grotto has been there for over 50 years and the older residents in particular, have put in a major effort over the years to keep it in good condition. They are very upset and rightly so.

I know that some guy from Kilkenny has offered to come down and fix the statue for free but if this does not happen it might be an idea for WIT to cover the cost of the damage.

Even if this chap does fix it for free, I think a donation to the upkeep of the Grotto would go a miss.

With regard to the WITSU, most people aren't really interested in the SU or anything that they have to say, so its mad to think they could stop this happening, dont think anyone would have listened to them.
Students will have a Christmas Day out whether its offical or not, and if they get in state and cause hassle, they deserve to get arrested and fined. Pubs are not supposed to serve people who are drunk and they can be fined as well.

I wonder will the Dome be fined or Bad Bobs or any of the other pubs.

Clano · 05-12-2009 03:20PM

KeelanM90 wrote: »

Its unfair to say WITSU were advertising the event on their facebook page when all they were trying to do was get people out doing something constructive

Constructive???? dont get me wrong i was out in the dome all day too but i wouldnt call it constructive??

And another note did anyone notice the dj who was on first when the dome first opened?? wasn't he the lad in the SU who goes around with that supid megaphone trying to sell tickets for student union events?
So having a student union member djing at the event is hardly having nothing to do with it

KeelanM90 · 05-12-2009 03:30PM

Yep constructive!! Well I'd find doing bucket collections and caroling for a belarussian orphanage project instead of goin on the drink constuctive anyways:D And as for the DJ he's a volunteer and more than welcome to make a few bob durin the day

Clano · 05-12-2009 03:46PM

KeelanM90 wrote: »

And as for the DJ he's a volunteer and more than welcome to make a few bob durin the day

That dosent make sense.........

imported_guy · 05-12-2009 04:00PM

KeelanM90 wrote: »

I find it hard to listen to complaints about the students union organising christmas day! The fact is it's a day thats going to happen with or without the SU's and WIT's support! Its easy point fingers at them but really the only people responsible are those who went out and made complete messes of themselves during the day!
Its unfair to say WITSU were advertising the event on their facebook page when all they were trying to do was get people out doing something constructive. I mentioned to people in my class that it is meant to be a day for charity and they wouldn't hear of it!
As far as i can see no members of the SU were involved in any of the mess and did nothing but give up a day to try maintain a somewhat decent image on the college!

if they wanted to play no part in it they wouldnt have advertised it, there are other ways to go about collecting money rather than sponsoring a load of piss ups, i doubt many people actully went out of their way to give a couple of bob to charity rather than to pay the fees for going to an event which would be a sure fire piss up.

sparkling sea wrote: »

With regard to the WITSU, most people aren't really interested in the SU or anything that they have to say, so its mad to think they could stop this happening, dont think anyone would have listened to them.
Students will have a Christmas Day out whether its offical or not, and if they get in state and cause hassle, they deserve to get arrested and fined. Pubs are not supposed to serve people who are drunk and they can be fined as well.

I wonder will the Dome be fined or Bad Bobs or any of the other pubs.

exactly my point, no 1 gives a toss about the SU, they should really not advertise these kinda things if they dont want to take part of the blame, its pointless they did nothing wrong (albeit advertise, and endorse the dome), so that automatically does put them at fault and responsible somewhat.

and since this point is also what im trying to get across i'll bold it out

Clano wrote: »

Constructive???? dont get me wrong i was out in the dome all day too but i wouldnt call it constructive??

And another note did anyone notice the dj who was on first when the dome first opened?? wasn't he the lad in the SU who goes around with that supid megaphone trying to sell tickets for student union events?
So having a student union member djing at the event is hardly having nothing to do with it

and keelan

KeelanM90 wrote: »

Yep constructive!! Well I'd find doing bucket collections and caroling for a belarussian orphanage project instead of goin on the drink constuctive anyways:D And as for the DJ he's a volunteer and more than welcome to make a few bob durin the day

do you actully know what your saying?, your not "welcome to make a few bob" when your working for a student body like WITSU, your representing the whole college, and anyone who voted for the current WITSU president/members, and that sort of thing gives them a bad name too, i know there are alot of nice people working for the WITSU, but imo they are just wasting their time because when they do something stupid like endorse the dome or advertise for them, they automatically have to take some blame. i have to say who ever runs that facebook page is a bit of an ejit.

5 and 7 · 05-12-2009 04:11PM

Let's be honest; was it really THAT bad?

Clano · 05-12-2009 04:12PM

imported_guy wrote: »

and keelan

do you actully know what your saying?, your not "welcome to make a few bob" when your working for a student body like WITSU, your representing the whole college, and anyone who voted for the current WITSU president/members, and that sort of thing gives them a bad name too, i know there are alot of nice people working for the WITSU, but imo they are just wasting their time because when they do something stupid like endorse the dome or advertise for them, they automatically have to take some blame. i have to say who ever runs that facebook page is a bit of an ejit.

Exactly my point

imported_guy · 05-12-2009 04:18PM

5 and 7 wrote: »

Let's be honest; was it really THAT bad?

take it which ever way you want mate, 31 people got arrested, most of them students at WIT, could it have been worse? ofcourse it could have, but tbh it could have been handled alot better by WITSU, no point in telling lies to RTE etc, i actully couldnt give a toss about the 31 people who got arrested, but i do give a care about the event being sponsored by people representing me.

Clano · 05-12-2009 04:25PM

Whats with all the people who have joined since wednesday and are on here defending the union or students????
suspicious me thinks

5 and 7 · 05-12-2009 04:28PM

imported_guy wrote: »

take it which ever way you want mate, 31 people got arrested, most of them students at WIT, could it have been worse? ofcourse it could have, but tbh it could have been handled alot better by WITSU, no point in telling lies to RTE etc.

I personally wasn't out that night so I can't judge what the situation was like.

But regarding the arrests; some people say a good number of them were due to a raid (in Templars Hall?), on another thread here someone said only 1 of the arrested was a WIT student, and others are saying the number of arrests should have been much higher because the Guards selectively went after the 'more serious crimes.' Which is which?

SteelyDanJalapeno · 05-12-2009 04:28PM

sparkling sea wrote: »

Pubs are not supposed to serve people who are drunk and they can be fined as well.

I wonder will the Dome be fined or Bad Bobs or any of the other pubs.

What the fudge?

Every pub in the country will be fecked for serving drunk people so,

c'mon get real,

A pub is a business, selling alcohol, not forcing it on anybody,

they are not the problen here.

Christmas Day

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