Cancel Reckless ‘Paddy’s Day Lockdown Rave’ – Higgins

Fine Gael’s Social Media Spokesperson has called on social media companies to remove all content from their platforms about a planned event billed as a ‘Paddy’s Day Lockdown Rave’ and asked the organisers to have a bit of cop-on and cancel this reckless event.

TD for Dublin Mid West, Emer Higgins said: “A planned St Patrick’s Day Rave currently being organised at an undisclosed location in Dublin or Kildare is being promoted online, and I am calling on social media companies to remove all content in relation to it.

“We are all subject to Lockdown Level 5 and while Professor Ronan Glynn noted yesterday that the compliance levels of Irish people are extremely high, we cannot afford to become complacent. The idea of people going to an organised, ticketed event in the height of social restrictions is absolutely outrageous.

“A private social media group advertising a ‘Paddy’s Day Lockdown Rave’ was initially set up on Instagram and seems to have now migrated to Snapchat. It is being advertised as a paid event, with tickets priced at €20 for ravers who want to attend this reckless rave in a warehouse at an undisclosed location in Dublin or Kildare. If this event goes ahead it will be a flagrant dismissal of the current legislations and a mockery to all the efforts everyone has made in the battle against Covid-19.

“The current restrictions have been tough on us all and I understand the desire to socialise and have some normality but now is not the time. I would urge anyone considering attending this illegal event to think again. Think of your families. Think of the vulnerable people in our society who might die if they get this virus.

“When this event was first mooted, the organisers, I understand, said that it would be permissible once we passed March 5^th when Level 5 restrictions were to be reviewed. There was never any indication given by Government that large gatherings would be allowed as soon as March, quite the opposite.

“It could not be any clearer that this event is reckless, illegal and nothing short of outrageous. I am calling on the organisers to have a bit of cop on and cancel this event, but I’m also asking our social media platforms to up their game so that social media accounts cannot be used to advertise illegal mass gatherings,” concluded Emer Higgins.