Group that ‘destroyed’ Laois’s home during Dublin’s illegal end-of-year event



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A group of people who held an illegal rave that caused extensive damage to a rented house in Co Laois are planning another event in Dublin for New Year’s Eve.

Videos of the rave, seen by The Irish Times, showed more than 80 people dancing without masks and without social distancing.

The homeowner was unaware of the rave, which took place on December 12, and said extensive property damage was caused.

They had rented the property through Airbnb to a person who said they wanted to rent the house for a weekend hiking trip with coworkers.

Lisa Wilkinson, whose partner owns the home, said the property was “absolutely destroyed” after the rave.

She said the inside of the house was littered with empty beer cans and bottles, using nitrous oxide laughing gas canisters and other garbage strewn on the floor.

In the middle of the disaster, several mostly empty bags were also found, which appeared to have been used to transport other drugs, such as cocaine and ecstasy pills.

The group behind the rave organized the Co Laois event through a private Instagram and Snapchat account on social media.

The group has since announced tickets for a rave in Dublin on New Year’s Eve, in violation of public health restrictions.

In a post on a private Instagram page last week, the group started selling € 35 tickets to a Dublin “warehouse” rave, complete with techno and house DJs and a “fully stocked bar.”

People can only view posts or send messages to accounts after requesting to follow the account and being approved.

People buy tickets through an online link and after providing proof of purchase they are added to a WhatsApp group chat.

For the rave in Co Laois, organizers informed people that an initial pickup location would be provided in the group chat and from there attendees would be transported by bus to the venue, which was not disclosed beforehand.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Ms Wilkinson said that the house in Co Laois had been “completely destroyed”, with broken furniture and crockery, and that the whole house smelled of “stale beer”.

“The whole floor is a beautiful tile floor that was buffered, and it only had mud, sand, and ground glass. They scrambled around the garden making donuts in the car, all over the property, ”he said.

“I got cleaners from Dublin to work for me… it took us three days to clean the house. We cleaned a container full of garbage, ”he said. It estimated that thousands of euros had been damaged.

Under the Level 3 restrictions in effect at the time, meetings organized indoors were not allowed.

It is a crime to organize meetings in contravention of public health guidelines, with fines ranging from € 500 to € 2,500, or six months in prison in case of conviction.

The Garda Press Office did not respond to inquiries about whether a criminal investigation into the event had been opened.

An Airbnb spokesperson said it had “zero tolerance for this type of behavior and has removed the guest from the platform.”

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