The scenes of drug and alcohol abuse, and violence seen recently in the Phoenix Park will be replicated in towns and villages right across Cork tonight.
Emergency consultant in Cork University Hospital, Dr Chris Luke, said the incidents in the Phoenix Park during the Swedish House Mafia concert two weeks ago are no different than what takes place in every town and village across the country on a weekend night.
“The Phoenix Park represented modern Ireland — it is going on, on every street in every town and village every weekend. It is what we see on Grand Parade in Cork city, in O’Connell Street in Dublin and other streets in our cities,” he said.
“The high number of incidents at the concert was because of a convergence of people in the one place who would otherwise have been acting similarly in different towns and villages elsewhere,” he said.
Dr Luke said it was clear from people presenting in emergency departments every weekend that young people are using alcohol with a concoction of other drugs including cocaine, cannabis and prescription drugs such as tranquillisers.
This leads to increased tendencies for violence, he said: “From my point of view, the combination is much worse than a single drug being taken on its own as it is more potent. One of the major issues is that the strength of alcohol is going up steadily over the last 20 years.”
At the Phoenix Park concert, two young people died.
The results of toxicology tests are now being awaited, to establish the cause of the deaths.
Nine people were also stabbed during the event.