Youth Affairs Minister Frances Fitzgerald has said all entertainment venues should review their promotions and security arrangements after a teenage girl was left critically ill when a crush developed outside a city nightclub.
Gardaí are investigating how the 18-year-old girl and six other young people were injured in a crowd surge outside the Copper Face Jacks nightclub in Dublin just before midnight on Monday.
Around 1,500 young people were waiting to get into the club, which had reduced its admissions age to 18 for the night, billed as ‘Messy Mondays’, and had heavily promoted cheap drink deals on Facebook.
One student, 19-year-old Hannah Kelly from Glasnevin, Dublin, who queued in an adjacent laneway outside for half-an-hour with college friends waiting to get inside, said the situation got “completely out of control” despite the efforts by bouncers to intervene.
“It wasn’t too bad at the end of the queue, but as you got up towards the top, it started getting bad. I was in towards the wall and the railings and the crowds just started to surge forward. I was shouting out ‘I can’t breathe’ and my arm was getting stretched and twisted. Some of the lads around me were shouting ‘she needs to get out’, but I didn’t get out.”
Ms Kelly, who was left with extensive bruising, said when the crush eased she saw security barriers dented and overturned and a girl lying unmoving on the ground.
Ms Fitzgerald said a full investigation into the incident was needed.
“There is a major issue of public safety if somebody ends up critically injured after they go for a night out. I would obviously want to ensure that all venue managers are examining the implications of what happened.”
Source: Caroline O’Doherty and Cormac O’Keeffe, Irish Examiner, 29/01/14
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