The arrest of former gang leader Gerry “The Monk” dominated the headlines in the past week but dozens of other violent crimes committed in that time will have gone unreported.
If you’re not a celebrity, there’s every chance your assault will become just another statistic of Ireland’s increasingly violent society.
The unprovoked attack on Olympian Jack Woolley was a despicable act which shocked the public because of the extent of his facial injuries.
But they would not surprise the doctors and nurses in the country’s hospitals who deal with such injuries on a daily basis.
Had the 22-year-old been an ordinary citizen who suffered a similar violent assault there, it would not have made the newspapers or the airwaves.
Such is the frequency of street crime in this country, especially in the capital, it is unfortunately deemed not newsworthy by national media outlets.
It’s a simple fact of life that there are too many of them to be of interest unless there are life-threatening injuries or a death.
What made this assault even more unusual was that the victim was a national hero who had just returned from Japan unscathed after fighting for his country, only to be maimed on the streets of his home city.
That, and the disclosure that a mob of up to 12 men and women were involved randomly viciously assaulting passers-by a stones’ throw from O’Connell Street, only served to highlight the lawlessness on the streets of Dublin and other cities and towns and the absence of a police presence.
In the wake of the attack on Mr Woolley, RTE’s Drivetime was inundated with personal stories from listeners about assaults, violence and anti-social behaviour on the streets of our capital city.
If you want to see the violence for yourself and can spare a few hours just Google “Dublin, gang fights and antisocial” and there’s plenty of it on video.
One man told Drivetime that himself and three friends have come from the country up to Dublin and all four have now been assaulted.
Another woman told how her son was robbed at knifepoint on Grafton Street but even though the attack was reported to gardai they never got back in touch. A woman whose 17-year-old son and his friends were attacked by up to 20 youths near Heuston Station told the programme that their experience of Dublin was one of “fear and violence”.
She wanted to warn people coming to Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final not to walk from the station to Croke Park because it’s just not safe.
She is right and independent Councillor Mannix Flynn is claiming the city is becoming a “no-go area”. Unlike other European cities there appears to be a total absence of police foot patrols, especially late at night and in the early hours of the morning.
But then why bother as the Labour Lord Mayor of Dublin Alison Gilliland is claiming crime in the city is decreasing.
Which will come as news to Jack Woolley and all those who have been assaulted.
From the parallel universe that is Mayor Gilliland’s residence in the Mansion House, far from an explosion in crime since the lockdown, things are getting better. Dublin City Council chief executive Owen Keegan is also in denial about crime and doesn’t believe it’s necessarily unsafe – it just has that perception.
You can almost smell the contempt in both the above claims.
Whether the Mayor or the CEO may be in denial, Dublin is fast gaining an international reputation as a violent city where gangs of feral youths roam the streets looking for victims and open drug dealing takes place in daylight.
Personally, I would do everything in my power to persuade my 20-year-old son not to go out socialising anywhere near Dublin city centre and I would advise other parents to do likewise.
North inner city councillor Christy Burke hit the nail on the head when he rightly claimed that working class areas had been “abandoned” by gardai.
And you can be sure if these attacks were taking place in the likes of Ballsbridge, both the Lord Mayor and CEO Keegan would be declaring a state of emergency.
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