Lord Mayor criticises 'party fever' atmosphere in Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin Tom Brabazon has told of how he came upon a street party in his area on Saturday evening.
“These people were putting their neighbours in danger and I felt it was very selfish behaviour on their part,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Séan O’Rourke show.
“At about 6 o'clock on Saturday evening I picked up a message on my phone at home. A gentleman had left a message saying there was a cabaret type of effort going on in his street, he was very concerned that social distancing hadn't been observed.
“It was close by to where I live so I took a spin around in the car and had a look and I was just absolutely gobsmacked to see crowds of people in gardens - judging by the numbers in the gardens they weren't all from the same family.
“They were drinking beer, carousing, having a great time all together and social distancing was gone out the window.”
Cllr Brabazon said he was subsequently forwarded some footage on WhatsApp of that particular area “and then I got further phone calls from other estates saying that there were parties going on in houses in those estates as well, and social distancing wasn't being observed and that music was being played quite loud.”
The Lord Mayor said that the vast majority of people are complying with social distancing, “but this was just foolish, on one of the streets there is a cohort of over 70s upwards, quite prevalent, these people were putting their neighbours in danger and I felt it was very selfish behaviour on their part.”
The gardai had been called by the man who had phoned him, he said. “They were on the way so there was no role for me to intervene.
“The behaviour was incredible and unbelievable.”
