Cllr claims rugby fans are ‘dancing naked' in Kinsale

ORGANISERS of the Kinsale 7s rugby festival have been called on by councillors to help part-fund the massive clean-up that takes place each year after the event. 

They would also like to see a complete ban on all glasses being brought into the town by revellers on buses, due to the amount of glasses littering the streets.

At a meeting of Bandon Kinsale Municipal District last week, Cllr Kevin Murphy (FG) said: ‘The problem is the number of undesirables coming to Kinsale off buses ossified and dancing naked in the town.’ 

While the Kinsale 7s, which traditionally runs over the May Bank Holiday weekend, brings business to the town, the issue is the massive clean-up which has to be done by Council staff afterwards.

 ‘It leaves a sour taste in peoples’ mouths and I think we should meet with the organisers of Kinsale 7s before the next one and that they should fund part of the clean-up after the event,’ said Cllr Murphy.

Executive engineer Brendan Fehily said he would encourage anyone to go to the car park in the town centre during the Kinsale 7s to see it for themselves.

‘The place is covered in glass and there are shards of glass which is very difficult for us to clean, and there is litter thrown all over the place. Those that come there do what they want, and nobody does anything about it. Surely there’s a better way to deal with it,’ said Mr Fehily.

‘It becomes our problem and it’s very difficult to get glass off the carpark. It’s in the middle of a heritage town and we tolerate it. It definitely needs co-operation from everyone.’

He said it was a credit to the Council workers for cleaning it up and pointed out they don’t have the right equipment to pick up the shards of glass.

Cllr Alan Coleman (Ind) said that glass appears to be a big problem during the Kinsale 7s weekend and that people were coming off buses with ‘rucksacks full of glass’.

‘There should be some security in place stopping them from coming with glass into the town,’ said Cllr Coleman. While senior executive engineer Charlie McCarthy said that in terms of enforcement, they need the gardaí for that.

Cllr Murphy said that as a Municipal District they should arrange a meeting with the Kinsale 7s committee, in conjunction with the gardaí, and make it clear that it’s not acceptable anymore for the Council to fund the clean-up themselves.

When contacted by The Southern Star, Philip Stokes of Kinsale 7s said that they wouldn’t have a budget to contribute to a clean-up downtown as they don’t see themselves as a player in the town.

‘We don’t get a cut of the sales in the town centre and we spend a lot of time and money tidying our own festival site and we don’t supply glasses either at our event. This event brings a lot of business into the town and I wonder would the businesses in the town centre contribute to a fund to help with the clean up?’ asked Philip.

Chief Superintendent Con Cadogan said that any clean up arrangement would be a matter for the Council  and not the gardaí.

‘From a public order perspective this year’s event was relatively quiet but we did have 26 drug detections, primarily for cocaine. Regarding rubbish and glass it’s very hard to control it and there are no by-laws banning drinking on the streets in Kinsale and maybe that’s something the Council should look at,’ said Chief Supt Cadogan.