Safety plea issued after Kilkee ‘party’ concerns

APPEALS have been made for more responsible behaviour amid concerns about large gatherings in Kilkee on Saturday night (August 1).

Footage has emerged appearing to show large numbers of younger people socialising in Kilkee in a manner that breaches public health guidelines on Covid-19 control.
The video clips, which are circulating widely on social media, have prompted Clare County Council to appeal to all members of the public to act responsibly this August bank holiday weekend.
Chief Executive of Clare County Council, Pat Dowling, said: “Young people must remember that anyone can contract the virus. Furthermore, anyone not adhering to the guidelines risks transmitting the virus to more vulnerable members of their families and communities, for whom the consequences may be dire. There must be no repeat occurrence of the scenes shown on social media, in Kilkee or anywhere else in County Clare.”

Meanwhile, in a social media post, Councillor Cillian Murphy who lives in the town appealed to parents of young people to help to prevent a repeat of Saturday night’s scenes.

“I’m living in Kilkee for over 30 years and I cannot ever remember this sort of behaviour on anything like this scale before,” a post from Councillor Murphy said. “I have been up since 6.30 this morning dealing with the consequences of last night’s “events,” helping our ground crew pick up litter, smashed glass, tidying up the vandalised shelters. By 8am, they had the worst of it sorted, but it really had to be seen to be believed.”

“I have seen a number of videos from last night posted publicly on other social media feeds and the behaviour on display is truly shocking. I have also been on to the Gardaí this morning asking for a significant allocation of extra resources up to and including the public order unit.”