GARDAI ARE FORCED TO BACK DOWN by STUART CLARK

As a result of this embarrassing climbdown, Galway clubbers were able to celebrate Paddy s Day with the requisite amount of gusto this week, following the Gardai s decision to abandon what d become known locally as the disco dinner break .
Acting on the advice of the men in blue, as previously reported in Hot Press, Judge John Garavan had decreed last month that to qualify for bar extensions, nighteries would have to stop playing music between 11.30pm and 12.15am and also to serve a substantial meal.
The Judge s warning that licences were at risk if owners failed to comply was welcomed at the time by Inspector Jason Lee who said: We believe that imposing these conditions will reduce the number of incidents under the Public Order Act in the city in the early hours of the morning.
As it transpired, though, the only thing the force-feeding managed to reduce was the number of people going out in, and indeed visiting, the City of the Tribes.
What really tipped the balance, I think, was hotels having groups of people who d intended travelling down from Dublin or Belfast or wherever, cancel their bookings because they didn t want to be sat around half the night eating chicken and chips, ventures GPO Club manager Simon Heaslip. Galway s tourist industry is based, in part, on our reputation as a party city. Damage that and you damage the local economy.
It s perhaps significant that despite repeated requests, the Gardai were unable to tell Hot Press whether city centre arrest figures went down as a result of the policy. Either way, the controversial measure is now a thing of the past, and people involved in music in the city are celebrating though the experience wasn t without its cost.
Our opinion, Heaslip continues, is that the conditions made absolutely no difference to the level of drunkenness or violence on the streets. You re not going to stop someone acting the bollocks just serving them a plate of food.
What it did do, though, was put people off going to clubs. We re the ones who ve had to pay for a failed experiment. n