NUI Galway Rag Week get the boot

by Rebecca Bermingham

NUI Galway Rag Week 2010, Dun na Coiribe pic: www.advertiser.ie/galway

NUI Galway Rag Week has been abolished in favour of five concessions agreed by the university. The decision was made on Monday October 7th in the College Bar. 114 members of the Students' Union Council placed their vote.


Controversy has surrounded NUI Galway Rag Week in recent years. Explicit antisocial behaviour and numerous arrests led the University to change the tradition. The vote to abolish the week-long event saw a landslide of 107 in favour of the University’s replacement proposal while 7 voted against.

President of the SU Emmet Connolly was happy with the result, "The students of NUI Galway showed themselves to be the mature, responsible, and reasonable people I always knew them to be." The abolition, however, sees a mixed response from the public.

The first concession offered by the University is to replace Rag Week with a one-day festival. This is an approach adopted by other Universities such as NUI Maynooth and their one-day festival, The Gathering.

"I would prefer one big event. Our Class Rep says no one goes to all the stuff during Rag Week anyways," said Deirdre Murphy, an 18-year-old student from Co. Laois.

"A one day event is a good idea. The students still deserve something," said Mary Cunnane, a librarian in NUI Galway. She is local to the area and says she has never been affected by the events of Rag Weeks past.

The other four concessions agreed by the university are an extra €60,000 a year contribution to the Student Assistance Fund (SAF), a guarantee not to introduce charges at the Student Health Unit, the abolition of the current €2 Kingfisher charge for members of University sports clubs and an increase in the number of permanent SU notice boards around campus.

NUI Galway has a reputation nationwide for being among of the most troublesome during Rag Week. The recent QS World University rankings has shown a huge drop in the standards NUI Galway. The university dropped a staggering 66 places this year.

Emmet Connolly, President of the Students Union, hopes the new connessions will revive the Universities reputation.

Gemma Burke, 19, from Claregalway expressed her annoyance at the abolition of Rag Week. She also added: "What can you do really, last year was a mess... I saw a couch lit on fire last year."

"I will miss Rag Week, but we all knew we couldn’t get away with that type of behaviour. Hopefully the one day event will help," said Sinead Miley, 21, a third year student from Co. Wicklow.

Rag Week is often dubbed a right of passage for students. Brid Quinn, 21, Co. Galway stated, "Me personally, I’m in my final year. Everything is coming to an end," She does, however, feel for her younger sister in first year, ‘My sister is in first year now and she won’t get the same college experience as I did." Brid said she will miss 'everyone coming together, having a week off and a good time’.

Rag Week is a charity event with ‘Rag’ standing for raising and giving. The focus has not been on the fundraising but on drinking which has led to antisocial and criminal behaviour.

Some people were overjoyed with the news. "Rag Week causes nothing but trouble," said Jim Murphy, 54, Barna. "They can’t keep the students under control" he added.