Gardaí makes arrests as crowds gather in Cork city

The Gardaí made a series of arrests for public order offenses in Cork City on Saturday night as part of an increase in patrols to comply with Covid-19 restrictions.

Large numbers of people gathered in the city center in what one garda described as “a carnival atmosphere.”

The crowd footage was filmed by charity worker Ali Hamou.

Hamou, who volunteers with the charity One Human Community that holds soup races on weekends, said he filmed the area at 8 p.m.

It shows people, many without masks, circling the Grand Parade and some skateboarding. At one point, a Garda car appears.

Hamou said it was a similar story last weekend in the city.

“We will never get out of this confinement if we keep doing this,” he told The Irish Examiner.

Hamou said he appreciated that many people on the streets were young, but added that many appeared to be drunk and did not wear masks or practice social distancing.

Alcohol to go

What is captured in the images was corroborated by a Garda source familiar with the activity in the city center this weekend, who told The Irish Examiner that there was an alcohol-driven “carnival atmosphere” to bring.

This placed officers in a difficult position due to the large number of people on the streets, the Garda source said.

The garda said people were congregating outside pubs serving take out alcohol and that the recent lighting of Christmas lights had proven to be an added attraction.

It is understood that large groups of people gathered at various points in the city center.

Gardaí said there were no major incidents and most people complied when asked to go ahead, but that monitoring such a situation presented great difficulties for personnel on the ground.

Speaking in response to the events on Saturday night, Labor Secretary John Maher and Labor Local Area Representative Peter Horgan called on the Garda Commissioner to come to Cork this week and address resource issues for frontline Gardaí .