Cookstown Incident

[toby47]

Police investigating the deaths of three teenagers in Cookstown say a 52 year old man arrested on suspicion of manslaughter has been further arrested on suspicion of possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply.
It follows a house search in Moneymore.

[Eamonnca1]

Perhaps when the dust settles on this tragic event, we can have a serious conversation about the drinking culture in Ireland, not only among young people, but in general.  The utter dependency on alcohol is frightening -even check out the t-shirts on those hen night girls and you can see that virtually all our down time with friends is spent in the company of alcohol and we have a crazy obsession with it.  400 people in a car park is not a risk and should never be a risk, but young people getting off buses, tanked up, drunk and possibly many having taken cocaine and suddenly the vulnerability of those at the front and those who are smaller and lighter can be understood.  We also need to realise that parents allowing their children to have fake ID is not good parenting.  This was an 18+ disco.  If so, why was there a crowd of 400 children of 16 and under in that car park?  Why did parents let them out?  Did parents know they were drinking?  Are parents so stupid as to turn a blind eye to their children drinking at that age?  The thing that drives me mad is the old story - 'sure we all did it when we were their age'.,  This is why there needs to be a serious culture change in this country, starting with a bit of soul searching as to how we interpret St. Patrick's Day. Around six dead at the last count. Arresting the hotel owner is just typical of an attitude that will seek to punish a man for putting on an event, checking ID and assuming they were all over 18, therefore selling alcohol, while the parents, the bus drivers, the off licence owners and the teenagers themselves will go scot free.

This is a great point.

I started my drinking career at 16. My nephew came along years later and did the same, but with a difference. In my day the drinking was done out of sight of our parents or any adult supervision, usually behind a hedge in a field near some off-license where they didn't check IDs. When my nephew started drinking, it was around the pool table in my brother's garage with his friends. Not directly under supervision, but close enough for his parents to keep tabs on things if necessary, which is enough to stop anything from getting out of hand. I think his way was better.

I don't think the age at which people start drinking is the issue, I think it's more important that alcohol is consumed in a responsible manner, which means in a responsible quantity and for social reasons rather than substance abuse reasons.

[RedHand88]

https://news.causewaycoastcommunity.co.uk/local-news/man-further-arrested-following-the-deaths-of-three-teenagers-in-cookstown/

Anyone heard of this news site? Is it reputable???

[WT4E]

Gettin messy.

And a bit like this thread all gettin away from the fact that 3 young people are dead. And i know ive contributed so gonna try leave it at that for a bit.

Agreed - I'm out - its hard to understand - I had defended Mickey in previous posts so don't want to say anymore.

[clarshack]

https://news.causewaycoastcommunity.co.uk/local-news/man-further-arrested-following-the-deaths-of-three-teenagers-in-cookstown/

Anyone heard of this news site? Is it reputable???

It's on PSNI social media anyway.

Unbelievable.

[RedHand88]

https://news.causewaycoastcommunity.co.uk/local-news/man-further-arrested-following-the-deaths-of-three-teenagers-in-cookstown/

Anyone heard of this news site? Is it reputable???

It's on PSNI social media anyway.

Unbelievable.

What the hell is going on in the world. I can't get over this.

[whitey]

https://news.causewaycoastcommunity.co.uk/local-news/man-further-arrested-following-the-deaths-of-three-teenagers-in-cookstown/

Anyone heard of this news site? Is it reputable???

It's on PSNI social media anyway.

Unbelievable.

What the hell is going on in the world. I can't get over this.

My mate had an 18th birthday party for his daughter in their house and afterwards there was joint party with 2 other girls in a pub function room. He was shocked at the amount of people who were coked up to the eyeballs-17 and 18 year olds. Late night a huge row broke out and the Guards were called. All this happened in a small town in the west of Ireland

[toby47]

The finding of Class A drugs will be a complete separate trial to the manslaughter one I take it.

One case wont have an effect on the other will it?

Another genuine question - why would they have been searching his house? Could he have spilled on himself possessing drugs or was it likely his house was searched anyway?

[sid waddell]

Whether this man supplies or supplied drugs to anybody or not is utterly irrelevant to what happened on Sunday night.

[Armagh18]

Kid drinking would have a lot to do with it.  Gross negligence may be the cause or may not, but its as likely that the cause was those who were pushing the crowd forward for what they probably thought was a bit of craic.

There's alot of nervous teenagers knowing full well what they did, waiting on a knock on the door.

I don't understand this train of thought.... in fact I think its disgusting/disgraceful. This is the type of rhetoric that was coming from the Sun news paper after the hillsborough disaster:

'drunken fans'
'people pushing at the back new they where killing people'

These children have been let down .... end of.

I know Mickey McElhatton to be a nice man and will be heartbroken about this... in my opinion he has been let down by his door staff.

If you've ever queued to get in to a nightclub you'll know theres always an element of pushing and shoving, people get caught up and think its great craic, except this time it's tragically gone too far. None of the lads at the back who were pushing set put to hurt anyone of course and I'm sure they are feeling absolutely horrible about whats happened.

[Armagh18]

Perhaps when the dust settles on this tragic event, we can have a serious conversation about the drinking culture in Ireland, not only among young people, but in general.  The utter dependency on alcohol is frightening -even check out the t-shirts on those hen night girls and you can see that virtually all our down time with friends is spent in the company of alcohol and we have a crazy obsession with it.  400 people in a car park is not a risk and should never be a risk, but young people getting off buses, tanked up, drunk and possibly many having taken cocaine and suddenly the vulnerability of those at the front and those who are smaller and lighter can be understood.  We also need to realise that parents allowing their children to have fake ID is not good parenting.  This was an 18+ disco.  If so, why was there a crowd of 400 children of 16 and under in that car park?  Why did parents let them out?  Did parents know they were drinking?  Are parents so stupid as to turn a blind eye to their children drinking at that age?  The thing that drives me mad is the old story - 'sure we all did it when we were their age'.,  This is why there needs to be a serious culture change in this country, starting with a bit of soul searching as to how we interpret St. Patrick's Day. Around six dead at the last count. Arresting the hotel owner is just typical of an attitude that will seek to punish a man for putting on an event, checking ID and assuming they were all over 18, therefore selling alcohol, while the parents, the bus drivers, the off licence owners and the teenagers themselves will go scot free.

what a ridiculous post - any facts to back that up or just wild speculation on your part

I agree stupid statement blowing it out of proportion its very sad what happened and how it has went wrong but saying many of them teenagers having taken cocaine is ridiculous.

Not that ridiculous to be honest, go out in any towm and you'll see plenty of it.

[GetOverTheBar]

Kid drinking would have a lot to do with it.  Gross negligence may be the cause or may not, but its as likely that the cause was those who were pushing the crowd forward for what they probably thought was a bit of craic.

There's alot of nervous teenagers knowing full well what they did, waiting on a knock on the door.

I don't understand this train of thought.... in fact I think its disgusting/disgraceful. This is the type of rhetoric that was coming from the Sun news paper after the hillsborough disaster:

'drunken fans'
'people pushing at the back new they where killing people'

These children have been let down .... end of.

I know Mickey McElhatton to be a nice man and will be heartbroken about this... in my opinion he has been let down by his door staff.

If you've ever queued to get in to a nightclub you'll know theres always an element of pushing and shoving, people get caught up and think its great craic, except this time it's tragically gone too far. None of the lads at the back who were pushing set put to hurt anyone of course and I'm sure they are feeling absolutely horrible about whats happened.

This is exactly what has happened for me. On the head. Tragic accident that's got out of hand and looks to be great craic completely unknowingly the root cause.

As for the drugs thing - it's a house owned by McElhatton....it's not his own home house.  EDIT - This is what I heard, not proven fact.

[Itchy]

52 year old man has been further arrested on having class A drug with intent to supply. The owner I presume.

[Armagh18]

Kid drinking would have a lot to do with it.  Gross negligence may be the cause or may not, but its as likely that the cause was those who were pushing the crowd forward for what they probably thought was a bit of craic.

There's alot of nervous teenagers knowing full well what they did, waiting on a knock on the door.

I don't understand this train of thought.... in fact I think its disgusting/disgraceful. This is the type of rhetoric that was coming from the Sun news paper after the hillsborough disaster:

'drunken fans'
'people pushing at the back new they where killing people'

These children have been let down .... end of.

I know Mickey McElhatton to be a nice man and will be heartbroken about this... in my opinion he has been let down by his door staff.

If you've ever queued to get in to a nightclub you'll know theres always an element of pushing and shoving, people get caught up and think its great craic, except this time it's tragically gone too far. None of the lads at the back who were pushing set put to hurt anyone of course and I'm sure they are feeling absolutely horrible about whats happened.

This is exactly what has happened for me. On the head. Tragic accident that's got out of hand and looks to be great craic completely unknowingly the root cause.

As for the drugs thing - it's a house owned by McElhatton....it's not his own home house.  EDIT - This is what I heard, not proven fact.

Strange, why would they be searching the house I wonder?

[Armagh18]

52 year old man has been further arrested on having class A drug with intent to supply. The owner I presume.

Haven't seen anything to confirm whether its the owner arrested re the drugs or the other man who had been  arrested. (A bouncer I'm assuming)