Christmas Day is Cancelled in UCC

UCC's Christmas Day celebration next year has already been cancelled following complaints from staff and local residents to both the college and the city council. Cork City Council's Joint Policing Committee heard of the "havoc" caused in the local UCC area on Christmas Day, which was held on November 23rd, this year. UCC Students' Union have promised that the event will not be held in the next academic year.UCC Christmas Day was an event ran by UCC Entrepreneurial & Social Society (E&S) and UCC Students' Union. Several venues across the city acted as venues for the event, including The Rock Bar (Gilabbey Street), Cissie Youngs (Bandon Road) and the New Bar. The Old Bar was also open, but not officially a venue for the event.There were reports of anti-social behaviour throughout the day, leading to reported temporary closures of several of the venues.Speaking to the Evening Echo in December, UCC SU President Martin Scally said he was upset by some of the events that unfolded on ‘Christmas Day’: “It is an event that had been running for the past two to three years, in conjunction with the turning on of our Christmas lights,” he said, “It was supposed to be a fun event. We had the new UCC president turn on the lights, we had carol singers, mince pies and mulled wine.”Despite having an additional pub from previous years as an overflow venue, SU President Scally said that they were inundated with people. “The level of students that turned up to the event was unprecedented. We were not happy with what happened. We don’t condone it and we are very upset by it.”Speaking to the Echo, Mr. Scally said a similar Christmas Day event had been held in CIT until recent years, and that it is possible that some CIT students attended the UCC festivities instead.Superintendent John Deasy said the event is under review by the college, and that Gardaí had been in contact with UCC and the local residents association.Re-Freshers Week and Raise & Give (RAG) Week events will likely still go ahead as planned, with the RAG Charities having been announced in December. They are Friendly Call Cork, Saint Vincent de Paul and the Meningitis Research Foundation. It is unknown if UCC Charitable Societies will be beneficiaries of the event this year as they have the previous three years.