Garda fears after breaking up ‘particularly large’ gathering in Cork

Garda bosses are increasingly concerned at public flouting of Covid-19 regulations after breaking up a “particularly large” gathering of so-called ‘boy racers’ in Cork on Saturday night.

The mass event — described by a senior garda as “disgraceful” — attracted over 250 cars and involved up to 800 people with little regard for social distancing or mask-wearing.

Garda HQ issued a detailed statement on the event just a day after going public about uncovering ‘wet’ pubs operating as normal, gastro pubs ignoring food requirements, and packed shebeens.

“We are at a very delicate stage at the moment with Covid, and we are looking across the water, to England, as to what’s happening,” said a senior garda.

“People think we are doing fine and it’s Christmas and the vaccine is coming and everyone is doing their best — but not everyone is, as we can see in recent days. A significant proportion of people are not getting the message.” 

The source said gardaí were “caught by surprise” by the sheer scale of the boy racing gathering in Little Island in Cork, located in the Eastgate commercial park.

Garda sources said they are used to car enthusiasts gathering in numbers of 20-40 cars at industrial parks.

“This gathering was a particularly large one, this was a huge number of cars and people,” said one source. “Two hundred and fifty cars is a lot of cars, and two to three people in each. The size of this caught us by surprise.”

Gardaí believe the fact that it was the first weekend since the lifting of restrictions, including on inter-county travel, contributed to the size of the gathering.

Local politicians said they were used to meet-ups at the Eastgate Commercial Park, but that Saturday night’s incident was on a completely different level.

“When I was there at 7.30pm, when I was going to the local shop, I was bewildered — there were scores of people huddling around and chatting,” said Fianna Fáil TD Pádraig O’Sullivan.

“I observed groups with no masks and very little social distancing. It was a cold night and all the cars were loud and revving, so they naturally huddled together to chat.

“We do have an issue there with boy racers, but nothing on that scale — we might maybe have 30-40 cars, but nothing akin to what the gardaí say, with 250 cars and 800 people, all during a pandemic.

“This was obviously organised and there was inter-county travel. There was traffic down the Cork-Midleton motorway heading west, a queue of traffic.” 

He said gardaí tried to make it difficult for those driving to the park. 

“They did their best to curtail it. I saw gardaí stopping cars asking for licences, checking engines, pulling up bonnets, trying to make it difficult for those trying to get in.” 

A detailed statement issued by Garda HQ on Sunday said they responded to reports of a large “car meet” at Eastgate on Saturday evening.

“Upon arrival at the scene, Gardaí observed in excess of 250 vehicles and 700-800 persons gathered,” the statement said.

“There was very little evidence of social distancing, wearing of face coverings, or general compliance with public health guidelines. Ages of participants included older males in their 30s/40s, some accompanied by young children, but mainly males and females in their 20s.” 

It said participants had travelled from outside the greater Cork area and various parts of Munster.

It said the senior Garda inspector at the event described it as “a disgraceful gathering of persons, despite the health advice in the last few days”.

The statement said: “Gardaí immediately engaged with this large group and advised them to disperse, a direction which was complied with by all in attendance within a short period of time.

“There were no public order incidents and sufficient gardaí attended the scene to effectively disperse the gathering.” 

Gardaí stated that one male, aged in his late 20s, was arrested, charged and bailed to appear in court at a later date for drunkenness offences, and one car was seized under Section 41 of the Road Traffic Act.

The statement said gardaí were now conducting a criminal investigation into the organisation of the event, reiterating that organising any event attended by more than 15 people was a penal regulation attracting a possible prison sentence.

“While this event appears to have been organised on social media, An Garda Síochána has and will continue to investigate any event held in breach of the Covid-19 regulations and advice will be sought from the DPP in each case,” the statement said.

Sources said that trying to identify organisers through social media posts was difficult, particularly if much of it originated in closed WhatsApp groups as opposed to open Facebook posts.

Mr O’Sullivan said there were some reports of an advertisement on a Facebook page some weeks ago about the event.

Local Fine Gael councillor Anthony Barry said he knew of at least two similar incidents in another commercial park in recent months, though not as large as the one in Eastgate.

He said he drove by two of them, the most recent three to four weeks ago, and said they were “quite intimidatory”.

As well as being concerned at the health implications of these gatherings, he said gardaí could be “putting themselves at risk” by having to break them up.

The Garda statement on Eastgate came just a day after they revealed they had identified some wet pubs continuing to trade and gastro pubs breaching food serving requirements as well as a shebeen with 30 people in it.