Gardaí are to prepare a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions after releasing without charge a man and a woman arrested following a brawl at a bingo event in a Cork city hotel over the weekend.
Gardaí were called to the Rochestown Park Hotel on Saturday night after a fracas broke out at an event which was billed as Bingo Loco. A man in his 50s and a woman in her 20s were arrested for public order offences.
Two men were taken to Cork University Hospital where they were treated for minor injuries before they were discharged from hospital.
Footage of the brawl posted online showed men and women, with some dressed in Halloween costumes, throwing punches at each other and dragging each other to the ground, while chairs were also thrown.
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According to a source, the brawl involved about a dozen people from two rival families in the city and gardaí are still trying to establish a motive for the fighting.
The Rochestown Park Hotel has issued a statement to The Irish Times in which it said hotel management were “horrified” by the incident.
“A popular social event that the hotel has hosted numerous times over the last five years was marred by a couple of groups of people who attended on the night,” the hotel said.
“The hotel will be fully cooperating with the Garda investigation that is now ongoing and hopes that this investigation will hold those responsible for their actions on the night fully accountable.”
