What a sight...
It's the morning after the night before and there are likely a lot of sore heads in the country right about now.
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While Friday wasn't quite 'Freedom Day' in the end – not least because of fresh confusion over how the nightlife sector is supposed to operate – there was a visibly huge response to the return of nightclubs.
In footage shared via social media, nightclub queues across the country stretched far and wide, though it was the ones based in the capital that raised the most eyebrows.
Dublin staple Copper Face Jacks boasted a colossal queue well before 9pm on Friday as eager punters lined up on Harcourt Street to finally get back into the venue after 19 months.
@discoverdublinThe queue for Coppers tonight #dublin #ireland #irish #irelandtiktok #dublintiktok♬ original sound - DiscoverDublin
Lads! 7.30 and the queue is 90. Young bucks who’ve yet to darkened the door. Coppers is back. #coppers #shift #FreedomDay pic.twitter.com/YlqgBS0j6R
— Alex O'Mahony (@alexomahony) October 22, 2021
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Shortly after 6pm on Friday – with mere hours to go before nightclubs threw open their various doors – news broke that clubs and events must now be strictly ticket-only affairs in line with the latest health guidelines.
The ticket-only element is expected to come into effect after the bank holiday weekend.
The last-minute change – and the general communication from Government to the nightlife sector this week – drew a fiery response from the Vintners' Federation of Ireland.
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"When it comes to reopening guidelines for the late night sector the government appear to be all over the place with no practical knowledge of how the sector operates," said VFI Chief Executive Padraig Cribben.
"This really has been a shambolic process from the press conference last Tuesday to this last-minute senseless u-turn," he added.
Photographs via Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie
