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Drunken Teens Run Wild On Exam Celebration Rampage

HUNDREDS of teenagers celebrating their Junior Cert results went on an alcohol-fuelled rampage in Dublin city centre last night. There were tears, drunken brawls in the middle of traffic, and paralytic girls whisked off on stretchers or carried kicking and screaming into garda vans. The scenes were played out graphically on the streets of the capital as 58,000 students across the country celebrated their results last night. Twenty teens were taken to Store Street garda station but were released later into the custody of their parents.

While most students around the country were well-behaved with many attending alcohol-free events, the so-called party started early for some. They were seen openly drinking alcohol in alleys and back streets off Dublin's O'Connell Street at 6pm. Some of the more brazen ones made no effort to conceal the alcopops, beer and cider they were drinking as they staggered down O'Connell Street in stiletto heels, in revealing dresses and mini-skirts. In many cases they were egged on by pubescent boys swigging from their own bottles.

The gates to The Point Depot, where 5,500 students attended an alcohol-free party hosted by Grooveyard Promotions, were littered with empty beer cans and bottles as ambulances waited inside the gates. One unconscious girl was taken out by stretcher. Another was wheeled out into an ambulance. Another teenage girl screamed abuse at three gardai who bundled her into a garda van while a teenage boy staggered past, bawling his eyes out.

A steady stream of teenagers unable to walk or stand on their own were escorted to a special holding area to be picked up by their parents. A group of bus drivers walking past the venue said they were sickened by what they saw. "It's a disgrace," said one. "It's like something you'd see at a wino convention," another added.

Earlier, hundreds of other Junior Cert students took over Middle Abbey Street, screaming, yelling, bashing into passers-by on the street as they queued outside the Traffic nightclub, which was also hosting an alcohol-free party. A drunken street brawl broke out about half-an-hour after the doors opened at 7pm. Four or five girls took swings at and pushed each other out into the middle of oncoming traffic. Another skirmish involving the same group broke out minutes later.

Ah, those carefree school days. "'It's like something you'd see at a wino convention,' another added". Winos have conventions?