“Rag”: A Cloth, A Taunt, A…Drinking Week?

Shenanigans.  Absolute shenanigans.  That is the only way to describe the Irish University phenomenon that is “Rag Week.” 

A little background:

Rag Week is celebrated at EVERY big university in Ireland: Trinity College, University College Dublin, NUIG, GMIT, University College Cork, etc….  In the Victorian Era students took time away from studying to collect rags to clothe the poor and destitute.  It then evolved into the more modern sense of the word, “to rag,” like pester…so students would pester others for money.  Finally, currently Rag technically stands for “Raise And Give” and it is supposed to be a week for students in university to band together and raise money for a good cause. 

However…don’t be thinking this means that the average Irish student is totally concerned with charities for a week.  No no, let’s not be naïve.  I know the parents and grandparents want to think that their darling sons and daughters are do-gooders out to save the word, well….not so much. 

Rag Week is an excuse to drink, nothing more, nothing less.  Don’t get me wrong the week DOES raise money for good causes; NUIG’s 2009 Rag Week raised €32,000 for good causes like Galway Rape Crisis Centre, CD's Helping Hands, L'Arche and the Belarusian Orphanage Project.  However, after last year’s shenanigans the university pulled support from Rag Week after 40 students were arrested.  This year the university attempted to re-brand the charity week by calling it “College Week,” but I don’t know who they were kidding.  There were still 37 arrests.

Now you’re probably wondering why were there so many arrests?  Kids were partying, what’s new about that?  I’ll tell you what I saw during Rag Week.  Drinking began at 8am on Monday morning, and NO ONE went to class all week.  My 100-person lecture was reduced to 10 visiting American students.  I unfortunately had two assignments due during this week, so I wasn’t able to really participate except for one evening. 

So, drinking began early and continued ALL DAY LONG.  At my apartment complex people were playing drinking games, getting into brawls, and screaming at the top of their lungs on the lawn in the middle of the complex from about 10am until 2am.  Kids got so drunk that they threw their televisions out of their windows!  One of the student accommodation complexes, called Gort na Coiribe, was so ridiculous that students even started a bonfire!  Hundreds of students burned COUCHES and other articles of furniture in all out drunken revelry. 

My own participation in Rag Week was minimal, but totally fun.  On Wednesday I went to my classes, and then at 2pm hit the college bar with some friends.  After relaxing for a bit we went into the auditorium called Bailey Allen Hall where a bunch of bounce houses were set up!  There was a bounce house that was black and had glow-in-the-dark stuff, one of those bungee cord races (where the two people race to see how far they can stick the Velcro piece as they get pulled backwards by bungee cords), and a mechanical bull!  After that we headed back to my apartment (there were 5 of us: me, Kelsey, Tara, Annie, and Caitlin).  We got ready and got festive until we headed out to meet our friends at one of our favorite pubs, the Quays.  The evening that followed was one of dulled shenanigans: I Irish step-danced through the streets with my Irish friend Laura, and jammed out to a great live band!

Every other night of Rag Week I was working on my assignments.  One night as I sat in the library quietly being studious, a group of 7-10 girls decked out in club wear ran up, down, and around the library drunkenly screaming “Woohoo Rag Week Yeeeaahhhhh!”  Another day as I sat in class with all 5 of us there, three guys poked their heads in to yell “RAG WEEEEEEKKKKK!!!!!”  Let’s just say I wasn’t the happiest camper in the forest. 

I’ll be interested to see how this tradition holds up though, because the Head of NUIG has called for the cancellation of “College Week” in the future, saying that a larger problem of alcoholism needs to be addressed within the university community.  So…I may have been a part of NUIG’s last Rag Week.  I have to agree with the head however I would argue that the problem of alcoholism isn’t confined to the college community, and probably isn’t going to be combated just through the cancellation of the week.  In all likelihood this is just going to spur student protest.  All in all, I had a good time (if not a quintessential Irish Rag Week) but it did kind of freak me out, and I’m glad I don’t have to experience four of them. 

A Night Out during RAG Week
Left to Right: Caitlin, Me, Caitlin 

Don’t worry it gets a tad bit more upbeat… look for my next entry about my visit to the land of the “Quiet Man” and nuns!