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An attendee at the Cork car meeting, described by Gardaí as “an embarrassing meeting”, has said that the public’s reaction to the event is “very upsetting”.
Gardaí in Cork dispersed a large crowd of people in Eastgate, Little Island, just outside Cork City last Saturday night.
They said some participants had traveled from outside the Cork metropolitan area and various parts of Munster.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, the man said: “What is very annoying is the whining and the excessive hype about the whole event.
“The guards had no problem once their car was legal, etc. 99% of people complied, a car was impounded for taxes, but you could meet many more people without taxes if you walk into a supermarket parking lot and look around it .
“Just because we are young and a head of gasoline does not mean that we do not have a brain cell.
“Car enthusiasts / modified car drivers actually inject silly amounts of money into cars and often keep them at a higher level for many cars on the road, based on my own experience and the experience of my own friends, and we work hard and hold jobs to do it, yet we all paint us all with the same brush ‘oh, you have to be a bastard’, ‘we must not make sense,’ “he said.
The car enthusiast said the event was much safer than the binge scenes seen in Cork city center over the weekend and in recent weeks.
“It was much safer than what was happening in Cork City on Saturday night. There were massive crowds outside Rearden’s bar, where buying chicken nuggets gives you a pass to drink at night, etc. And the people with drink on board spread it much more easily, “he said.
In a statement after dispersing the event, Gardaí said that “they observed more than 250 vehicles and 700-800 people gathered.”
Gardaí said that “there was very little evidence of social distancing, use of face covers, or general adherence to public health guidelines.
“The ages of the participants included older men between 30 and 40 years old, some accompanied by young children, but mainly men and women in their 20s.”
Gardaí “immediately engaged with this large group and advised them to disperse, a direction that was fulfilled by all present in a short period of time.”
There were no incidents of public order and “enough Gardaí came to the scene to effectively disperse the concentration,” the statement added.
The attendee questions the number of people in the car and said the people were complying with public health guidelines.
“It’s the meeting at 9pm, on the road at 10pm. It’s parking, taking pictures and getting out on the road again at 10pm. I’d say a more realistic figure would be 200-300 odd,” he said.
Gardaí said the event appeared to have been organized on social media. They arrested a man in his 20s for drunken crimes. He was later charged and released on bail to appear in court at a later date. A car was seized under Article 41 of the Road Traffic Law.
The man said the public’s reaction to the event is disproportionate and that the guards handled the car encounter well.
“It would be a different story if he was reckless, making donuts, etc. It is literally parking his car. They had warned the people in the group not to speed up. From my experience, there was no harassment from the guards as some people said what if They did it for a reason, for example, the car is not roadworthy. And if you attend meetings, it is stupid to even consider a car unfit to drive, “said the man.
A Garda veteran who spoke to the Irish Examiner after the event said they were “taken by surprise” by the magnitude of the meeting.
“We are in a very delicate stage at the moment with Covid, and we are looking across the water, towards England, as to what is happening,
“People think that we are doing well and that it is Christmas and the vaccine is coming and everyone is doing the best they can, but not everyone is, as we can see in recent days. A significant proportion of people are not getting the message, ”said the senior garda.
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