A LEADING Donegal Garda has said that a proper plan must be in place to manage future ‘car cruise’ events in Letterkenny.
The weekend past saw chaos on the streets and surrounds of Letterkenny as thousands of car enthusiasts converged on the town.
There were 53 people arrested over the weekend, which traditionally would have been the holding of the Donegal International Rally.
Recent years have seen numbers visiting Donegal on the third weekend in June swell with other events held on ‘rally weekend’.
After a weekend of mayhem, Sergeant Paul Wallace says that leading agencies and groups must work together to manage future events.
“There has to be a plan in place to manage it,” he said.
“There is a conversation to be had and a management plan to be put in place. It’s not just a policing problem alone.
“Everyone has a role. Thee is engagement with the Chamber of Commerce, anyone who can help out and structure it. Meetings need to start.”
Sgt Paul Wallace
Sgt Wallace defended the policing of the weekend gone by, noting that other supports, such as the Garda helicopter, were not in use at the weekend, as they would be on ‘rally weekend’ normally.
He said: “The Gardaí did have significant resources deployed at the weekend. The people I feel sorry for are the older residents on the Main Street or people in the nursing home, say out by the Dry Arch, who have to hear all this revving noise and backfiring; that can have a freighting effect. I also heard of a lot of people trying to get youngsters to sleep who were affected.
“There is always a robust plan around the rally and it has a lot of support. The guards have a role, but they also have to attend to other calls.”
Scenes from Letterkenny last weekend
Sgt Wallace said the Gardaí engaged with a lady who organised a diffing competition. Another ‘unofficial’ diffing competition also took place, he said.
He said other individuals such as bloggers and influential TikTokers in the area should be engaged in any conversations regarding the future structuring of such events in the future.
Gardaí estimate that there around 600 cars converged on Letterkenny on Friday with up to 800 said to have been in town on Saturday. Garda figures suggest that, on average, there were three people to a vehicle.
Sgt Wallace said: “It was massive and a lot of people were discommoded.
“Common sense has to prevail and there are a lot of factors in this.
“I don’t see ‘banning’ as an option. We have to manage it. This is going to be a feature. The car culture draws a younger type of a person who follows this type of Jap car culture and a lot of them traveled up from Cork, Kerry and these areas.
“We have to think and use some common sense. A lot of these young people are people starting off in life. They have had a very difficult year with Covid and also none of the licensed premises were opened – there was nowhere for them to go.”
There were 53 arrests in the Letterkenny Garda District over the weekend with 44 of those occurring in the Letterkenny town area.
Of those, four were on Friday (three for dangerous driving and one for drug-driving), 18 were on Saturday (10 dangerous driving, one drink-driving and seven public order) and 22 on Sunday (17 dangerous driving and five public order).
Sgt Wallace said: “It was a very busy weekend for the Gardaí and a lot of the emergency services.
“We had a lot of resources deployed. We had some advance warning, but maybe not as specific as we would have liked.
“The attitude of a lot of young people, even those arrested, they were very sorry. There were arrested and that’s a significant number, but we can’t go around arresting everyone who steps out of line.”
Sgt Wallace said there wee no injuries or accidents reported to Gardaí over the weekend’s activity.
Tags: