On Friday night last I set off from home to collect Evin,
one of our sons who was coming home for the bank holiday week end from
college. Leaving home at 8, I’d have
time to get a few things in Dunnes and we’d be home in 30 minutes. What could
be easier?
As I drove along the Quays I noticed a crowd gather outside
Mooneys. As it was a bank holiday the roads were busy and traffic hoping to
turn over the bridge was backed up towards Mooneys Bar where I had to
stop.
I changed lanes as I was heading straight on. The group of
kids standing on the kerb within inches of where I was driving looked bigger
and were certainly getting closer. One
or two were definitely swaying and I slowed down further lest I tip off
them. I recognised a face or two and
proceeded to the junction with Charlotte St.
There I could see a girl lying on the footpath. Her back was probed up
against the side wall of an estate agents while a friend kneeled over her.
Neither of the girls were more than 15.
I was in a line of traffic and continued on until I got to
Redmond Square. I parked and noticed a bus discharging its passengers onto the
street. All young and hardly more than
15. Some girls had clearly raided their
sisters wardrobes and were staggering as they weren’t used to the high heels
and platforms. Others may have raided their younger sisters wardrobes for a
shorter dress while others just staggered.
They all set off in the direction of Mooneys on the Quays as if a pied
piper was drawing them all to party.
Something worrying struck so I posted my feelings on facebook using the
old Nokia blockia.
Once I had collected our son we set off home. The girl at Charlotte St had disappeared and
while there was still 40 young people outside Mooney’s I didn’t recognise any
faces this time. A girl was hanging on
for dear life to a sign post outside the pub door as she negotiated the last
few steps to the night club with her sister’s platform shoes. But still there
was the nagging worry at the back of it all.
On Saturday morning the town was full of rumour. Let’s not
give any of it legs here but what I saw and describe above I stand over. I was told that the night club closed prematurely
at about 10 O’Clock. I understand that
one girl needed medical treatment. But
Facebook told another story. Parents
posted complaints that their children were worried when clearly drunk children
were admitted and it’s easy to see how panic set in.
Mooney’s facebook page had posts from parents complaining
and rating it poorly. Today many of those posts have been deleted. Like their
children who had been shown the door and refused a refund, when it really
counted the opinions of these parents didn’t matter either. Indeed a message in
the name of Mooneys on the Quays to their teenage base on facebook describes
the event as a disaster however it asks the teenagers to stop rating the event
on its page as a one star event as this would jeopardise further JC Balls.
This morning I spoke on Morning Mix on South East Radio with
the owner of the nightclub and the presenter, Alan Corcoran. To put it mildly texts and calls to the show
were greatly critical of the event. One
woman described how her daughter complained that teenagers were drunk and
vomiting, in some cases on themselves.
What particularly struck me was the admission by the owner
that the ticketing is run by organisers who are legally children. The legal reality however is that it is the
owner who is ultimately responsible for his own venue and what happens there. A
duty of care exists, not just when the person enters the night club but also on
transport to and from the event and also as they stand outside the nightclub. The owner claims that tickets to the event
were forged. However this poses further questions. Why when tickets were
discovered to have been forged was money accepted for admission? What steps are
the nightclub taking to discover who forged the tickets and whether they have
reported the forgery to the Gardaí?
The event seems to try to normalise in youngsters the worst
aspects of adult behaviour; binge drinking and anti-social behaviour. I spoke
with a local authority worker who told me that on Saturday morning there were
bottles and cans to beat the band to be collected along the Quays.
No amount of
apologies by the nightclub owner can change that. There are good teen events available to young
people in Wexford, but this isn’t one of them.
A pub is for drinking or eating a meal, not for 15 year olds on the day
celebrating their midterm break.
There are problems in some parts of the country with stags
and hens parties. However who sees any merit in adding youngsters to that
lethal cocktail? Parents with children who are travelling long distances to
Wexford need to ask themselves what their kids are up to. They also need to take responsibility and educate
their kids about alcohol.
Because after every hangover, reality returns and the
reality of JC Balls is that 14 and 15 year olds are simply not emotionally
mature nor legally entitled to decide who comes and goes to a nightclub.
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