GARDA PLAN TO OBJECT TO DANCE FORCES CANCELLATION

A giant dance party organised to celebrate graduation day at the
Institute of Technology in Sligo has been called off after students
claimed the Gardai said it would search and possibly stop people from
going to it.

The students' union, which organised the event, has rejected
suggestions that there would have been drugs at the party, which was
to have been held at a specially constructed marquee in Strand Hill
outside Sligo last night.

"We never had any intention of hosting a rave and we abhor the use,
consumption or sale of any illegal substances," the president of the
union, Mr Jude Devins, said yesterday.

It was planned to provide two nights' entertainment at the marquee for
graduates coming back to Sligo, a "ministry of sound" concert
featuring guest DJs from London last night and a graduation ball
tonight. The ball will now be held at a night club in Castlerea, Co
Roscommon.

Some 600 tickets had already been sold for last night's party, and it
had been arranged to have crash barriers and an ambulance at the venue.

Mr Devins said the union would lose up to IEP10,000 because the hire
of the marquee alone had cost IEP6,000. An application for a licence
for the two dances, due to come before the District Court in Sligo
yesterday, was withdrawn by the students' union. The Gardai confirmed
it had intended to lodge an objection.

Supt Jim Sheridan said: "The students were aware that we were going to
lodge an objection, but it was a matter for the judge to consider both
the application and the objections, and his prerogative to decide
whether to grant the licence or not." He had never told the students
that people would be searched or stopped from going to the party.

It is believed the Garda's objection was based on its belief that it
was going to be a rave and would attract "an unsavoury element".
Tickets for last night's party were also on sale to the public.

Mr Devins said: "We were told by the guards that if the licence was
granted they would then be operating a special plan whereby they would
be diverting people from the area. People would be searched and
stopped. Regrettably then, it had to be cancelled."

Mr Devins said graduation events in previous years had been held in
hotels in Donegal and Leitrim, and that the students had "an exemplary
reputation". The pubs, restaurants and shops of Sligo would now lose
financially, he added.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry