RAG Week, what does this involve? And how does one stay safe?

By Fionnuala Gray

University of Galway’s annual RAG week finished up a few days ago. This event, which stands for Raise and Give, is focused on a range of activities during the week which are organised by University of Galway’s student union and a number of societies within the college, with the aim of raising money and awareness for charities. Donations this year went to two chosen charities, the Galway Rape Crisis Centre, and the Galway Autism Partnership. Charity events this year included a RAG Sale in Áras na Mac Léinn with a pop-up charity clothes shop coordinated alongside the Galway Simon Community; a pub quiz with Amnesty Soc in Seven; and a societies games night in the Bailey Allen hosted by Fansci.

However, alongside these fundraising events, a culture of going out and drinking every night follows with RAG week. With many themed nights such as Mayo night, where everyone goes out on the town in Mayo GAA jerseys, and Donegal night, much the same as Mayo night except with Donegal GAA jerseys. But fun isn’t the only aspect of a night out, safety is important when going out as well, and with known events such as RAG week, people need to be more vigilant when it comes to staying safe on nights out during this week-long event.

We spoke to a local Galway bouncer, who wishes to remain unnamed, regarding the role of bouncers on a night out and how to stay safe while out. As we all know, nights out can get busy, however, a lot of venues know about college events such as RAG week and they can get busier than the usual nights. The bouncer we spoke to gave us a background on how venues and security deal with RAG week, “we always have a meeting beforehand or the weeks before to talk about what to expect, the crowds, potential incidents that could happen and how to deal with them, having extra security”. But compared to other years, according to the bouncer, this year’s RAG week has been much quieter than previous years, “students have kinda started to relax”.

Despite this, drinking and going out is still a massive element in RAG week and college nightlife in general which can influence how people act on nights out, “you do come across the odd one that would kick off in a fight, even drugs nowadays are a big problem”. The bouncer we spoke to went on to talk about the new culture of drugs on nights out, which is something they look out for while working the doors, “as a doorman we’re trained to notice everything that happens around you, to know by interacting with customers, to know how to react when different substances are mixed with drink”. A bouncer’s job is to be able to catch these things before anything bad can happen, he goes onto say, “we’re not there to be the thick ignorant type of security guy most people think we are, we’re a friend, we’re there as someone that if you feel endangered you can come to us, and that’s the way it should always be”.

But RAG week isn’t the only thing this bouncer wanted to talk about, alongside his experience with RAG week, he had some safety tips to give college students on nights out. For young people his advice was to “stay with your groups, if you’re going off for a cigarette, wandering off to go dancing, or need to leave to go to the toilet, always carry your drink on you, never leave it behind, it doesn’t matter if you think it’ll be safe with your friends, you don’t know who’s going to go near it”. Another piece of advice for people on nights out that he spoke about was the term ‘Ask for Angela’ which he describes as a code for saying “I’m in danger”. Other codes for danger this bouncer spoke about was asking a bartender for ‘an angel shot’, when you feel endangered ask for Angela or an Angel shot, “we would know in an instant to bring you to the side and look after you and see what’s happening”.

The bouncer then told us that every few months they will get updated on their training, and as events such as RAG week approach, bouncers will make sure that they are refreshed on the different types of training they need to know, “we’ll do courses to make sure we’re up to date, especially for them type of scenarios [asking for Angela], crowd control, first aid, fire safety”. Bouncers are there for safety and one of the main things this bouncer wanted to emphasise was that they are there to look after others, to make sure someone can go out, enjoy themselves and have a safe night.