Belfast Students

[Doogie Browser]

the majority of students were doing nothing wrong. batons were used on people for being outside the houses. a few bottles were thrown by spides and a handful of students

The clamour to associate in a large gang each St Patricks day is the problem, I have no doubt the 'majority' did little wrong, but the siege mentality is only going to cause trouble.  You are being a wee bit naive blaming the peelers and spides, we have all seen the mayhem students cause at this time of the year many times before. 

[full back]

It is usually a culmination of all parties & not any particular group
The thing is that when it starts & a lot of people are floating about it is very difficult/impossible to stop

[stiffler]

Are there any reports of what the students/residents/day trippers/MS's done in order for the riot squad to be brought onto the scene?

[SidelineKick]

Apparently an inter county footballer walked into a house on Carmel St.  Hearing this a large contingent of Mucksavii swarmed the area.  It was all downhill from there.

[fitzroyalty]

Are there any reports of what the students/residents/day trippers/MS's done in order for the riot squad to be brought onto the scene?

Apparently a firework was thrown at an officer and it was then decided to deploy the riot squad and helicopter.

Funny the more I hear about it the more stupid the actions of the PSNI appear. Instead of allowing the crowd to disperse, they sealed off Carmel St and told everyone to go indoors or else face being arrested, regardless of whether they lived on the street or not. People trying to leave the area weren't allowed to do so and instead had to bail into the closest doorway. Suffice to say this isn't the best way to go about an operation involving a hundred or so drunken students.

[The Iceman]

I used to live on Carmel Street  -it was quiet enough in comparison to a lot of the other streets in the Holy Lands with a lot of local residents.
I remember a lad from Armagh town got jumped in Carmel Street on New Years Eve - probably 10 years ago now and had a breeze block dropped on his head by a group of local teens - he lost an eye because of it.  There are plenty of Armagh boys on here who know the lad but may not remember the story.

Students are going mad down in Belfast and it is getting worse - but the locals are not all innocent victims either.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Having saw this on the news a few times I've yet to see any sign of the serious riots that they kept talking about. The only thing they showed was 1 or 2 bottles being thrown by a few in the crowd. There was the damaged car as well but it wasnt even clear if that was the students. When you consider some of the riots in this country over the last 40 years to describe that as a serious one is a bit of a joke. Most of the crowd seemed to be standing about having a bit of craic although I suppose its very unfair on the non student residents but you cant complain too much about noise during the day on St Paddys day.

[Puckoon]

"There was people runnin about with no clothes on so there was".

That is a comedy line if ever I heard one.

[gawa316]

Anyone see the eejit with the cape on running in behind the residents who were gettin interviewed?

My mother said if she had ever seen any of us at it she would've driven up from fermanagh and got us by the scruff of the neck and knocked pur blocks off

[whiskeysteve]

Took a drive through the holylands yesterday upon hearing of all the commotion. Why there were riot police there I have no idea, complete overreaction that made the situation worse. The vast majority of students were standing outside watching this spectacle and it mostly served to bring hundreds of people into the streets. I have to stress there was no 'riot' and some of the posters on here calling for the police to lay into the mass of students need to wise their head. I didnt see any students throwing bottles myself but others i talked to said a few eejits were throwing objects. If these were students or not I dont know, if so they should face criminal charges. The majority of the bottle throwing was being done by wee spides from the alley ways particularly round Carmel/Agincourt.

I lived in the Holylands for two years, on St Paddys day if you take a look down the alley ways you see wee groups of spide hanging about and these are the crowd responsible for the vast majority of bad shit like throwing bottles, damaging cars etc. Being the rats that they are they generally stick to the cover of the alleys and are lot less visual to the cameras. But they are drawn in in big numbers (as are many other outsiders) by the atmosphere/controversy of the place on big days. Naturally there is a handful of gobshite students who get up to criminal acts but the vast majority of the students you see on the videos are at worst guilty of being very drunk and maybe very loud, as we have nearly all been at parties. This will be reflected in the handful of students (of the several thousand) who will be taken to court despite the massive camera presence yesterday. Most dont warrant some of the flippant crap proposed by the holier than thou crowd on here most of whom weren't there and get their info from hyped up reports which invariably multiply and exaggerate every serious incident.

In case I get a pints style sarcastic response complete with rolling eyes, no i do not believe that the bad behaviour yesterday was acceptable and the Holylands is a troubled area. For one thing drinking outside the houses should be banned and cameras should go up. I do feel very sorry for the residents in all this

[mountainboii]

From the few clips on the news there the bottle throwers appeared to be your archetypal spides complete with hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, and scarfs around their faces. Not saying they definitely weren't students but they weren't dressed like the rest of the people on the street (no GAA/ Ireland/ green t-shirts, etc.) so I'd have my suspicions.

[milltown row]

Anyone see the eejit with the cape on running in behind the residents who were gettin interviewed?

My mother said if she had ever seen any of us at it she would've driven up from fermanagh and got us by the scruff of the neck and knocked pur blocks off

it was Batman

so the students are at it again? completely bonkers. it may be all three groups mentioned who caused the "riot" but it was one area. all the spides on the Falls road were out drinking walking about going from pub to pub, police cars about and not one riot.

at the end of the day the "riot" happened in a student area and 4 students were arrested. not 4 "Muckers" from the Markets area

[qub la la la]

it was 4 students in court today but there was more than 4 arrested according to reports so as for the others it is unknown whether they were also students or not.

[Maguire01]

Police need to calm the fook down too as I remember my first Paddys in the Holylands there was no trouble all day yet there were 4 land rovers in  gear waiting outside Renshaws and Dukes. Sure when you have 1,000 odd drunken nationalists celebrating their Country's day and they're faced with that at 1.30 in the morning what are they gonna do but chuck stuff over at them.

That doesn't give a very good impression of Nationalists. What are they gonna do? Go home to bed, like anyone else does on a night out? Don't throw stuff at the cops?

[leenie]

Apparently an inter county footballer walked into a house on Carmel St.  Hearing this a large contingent of Mucksavii swarmed the area.  It was all downhill from there.