@Jimmy Reid: that’s not really the point I was making. You were being slightly superior about your behaviour. I was merely pointing out that the people out in town drinking are the same as you and behaved the same as you.

@David Clements: I think he was just pointing out that you can have some craic without acting the sac. Nothing superior in that.

@filthypete: yes and I was just pointing out that those that went into town to have the craic didn’t act the sac either.

@David Clements: I agree but there’s also the fact that an open alcohol container is an offense. One I’m not really a fan of in the circumstances but the law hasn’t been suspended.

@Dave O’Keeffe: I’d also add that the 14 was just on that day, not the entire weekend

@Alan Wright: well there shouldn’t be any on a normal bank holiday either

@Alan Wright: Hit the nail on the head. Click bait sensationalism. These toe rags causing trouble are always around. Some groups, political and criminal, thrive on social chaos and are exploiting it for their own advantage.

@Alan Wright: excellent point!

@Alan Wright: In all my years of enjoying Bank Holiday weekends in Dublin, never have I seen this level of feral youth taking over. 16/17 year olds all drinking on the street and dancing on taxis in the city centre, egging each other on in their grey trackies and Canada goose jackets. That’s unlike any bank holiday I’ve ever witnessed. They all need a serious reality check, they respect nothing or nobody and these are the adults of the future. God help us.

@Alan Wright: I’ve never seen teenagers car-hopping on actual moving vehicles, not even parked, which is shown in videos circulating in social media this morning, and I’ve been going into town at the weekends for over 20 years, so give it a rest with the silly comparisons.

@Bingobango: probably because the pubs n clubs have been open other times maybe?

@David Clements: Of course, on a normal bank holiday there would be nearly zero underage drinking on SW Street and any disorder would be squashed fairly quickly. I don’t know what you’re getting at? These filth need to be reeled back in well in advance of bars and restaurants reopening. I’ve literally never seen anything like it in town and I’m touching 40. Having travelled a fair bit too I don’t think this behaviour would be tolerated anywhere and that’s rich and poor countries.

@Bingobango: ah look I agree. I just don’t think it’s the end of civilisation as some would have us believe.

@Alan Wright: except the 14 isn’t the total amount of arrests in Dublin City Centre for the weekend. Its just this one particular issue.

@Dave O’Keeffe: and only on that particular day. 19 for the same resins the day before

That’s absolutely shocking footage… Girls as well as boys… Shame on each and every one of them… The apes in the zoo wouldn’t act like this

@Gigi: the taxi man should have tun over these animals and then reversed back for good measure. This is not normal behaviour for a bank holiday in Dublin. S(um like this have come into the centre to kick-off trouble. Let the gardai at them with batons.

@: There you go …Excuses already made. Some young people acted like thugs so the Guards are entitled to act like thugs as well and go and intimidate and harrass innocent people. Sorry but that’s not good enough. Imagine you are in a pub. There’s some trouble outside in the best garden that you’re not aware of. The owner decides to close the pub early. Now instead of making some sort of an announcement to inform people that he’ll will shut the premises and that they should leave he all of sudden appears at your table, grabs your pint and smashes it on the floor, pushes you in the back and shouts at you that you’ll get badly hurt if you don’t leave immediately. Would you be happy with that?

@mar: that’s a bit extreme now don’t you think. Remember this: all actions have a reaction. So the troubles makers causing trouble are only making a rod for their own backs in fairness.

@mar: what are you smokin? Antisocial behaviour will warrant intervention from the gardai. That’s their job, they intervene in these situations. They try to disperse first, if the situation escalates they also have to. Thugs attack a taxi and gardai arrest said thugs. Well done to the gardai

@mar: What appalling behaviour – they were doing their job clearing the street because of anti social behaviour. They are damned if they do nothing and damned if they do their job. There needs to be a get tough policy or this will escalate out of control. There is always a element who set out to cause trouble.

@johns TN: Their job is to arrest trouble makers and not to intimidate, harrass and assault innocent people. Antisocial, thuggish behaviour is just not acceptable. Especially not from the Guards!

@Orla Cosgrave: What appalling behaviour? In the pub scenario I described above the pub owner is the Guards, the pub is Dame Street and the beer garden an area in town where there might have been trouble.

@mar: yes it is. I’m all for the guards cracking heads of anyone causing trouble. If you’re in the area where trouble is occurring and not causing that trouble yourself then get out of that area or expect to be collateral damage. It’s quite simple really. The guards don’t have time to be asking every Tom, Dick and Harry their life story when animals are dancing on taxis and attacking people. Get out of there, simple as.

@mar: police are not your mammy. You knowingly go to an area with congestion issues and wonder why they don’t hold your hand.

@mar: here’s an idea. if you are not one of these troublemakers, then leave the area and leave the gardai do their job. You seem to have a set on the gardai. Knock the chip off your shoulder and get on with life

@mar: The gangs were not in a pub but a public thoroughfare and because of anti social behaviour and the thugs out looking for a fight the Gardai were perfectly entitled to use force to disperse the crowds.

@mar: giving the reports of trouble in that “pub” and the huge potential for further trouble as it was attracting patrons who’s sole purpose was to cause trouble then maybe the wise thing to do was to not go there in the first place. A bit of cop on goes a long way.

@johns TN: Here is another idea: Before clearing a street where there is absolutely no trouble (I know there was probably trouble in an adjacent area) make an announcement and let people know that they should leave. Don’t just sneak in from an alley in full RoboCop gear, snatch people’s drinks and throw them onto the street, push, beat and intimidate them. Well you weren’t there but sure you still know better than me what happened.

@mar: sneaking in in the high vis is it? It’s no their fault you were too drunk from your bag of cans to see them. You’ve already admitted to being part of the antisocial behaviour yourself on a deleted thread from Saturday.

@Dave O’Keeffe: Do yourself a favour and have a look at the photo in this article. Are the Guard’s wearing hi Vis? No?! Do you feel a bit like a f00l now? Good! Can you also explain to me why you feel the need to make stuff up about me like that I was incredibly drunk and admitted to have taken part in anti social behaviour. Have you no shame?

@mar: were you or were you not drinking on the streets? One photo is what your basing this in? I’ve seen countless videos and images of gardai in town in hi-vis over the weekend. I assumed you didn’t see the gardai approaching as you had been talking about your alcohol consumption. Are you now denting that alcohol causes people to be less aware of their surroundings?

@Dave O’Keeffe: *denying. Have you no shame?

@Dave O’Keeffe: Well Dave, you’ve seen photos and videos while I was there. The Guards were exactly like in the photo plus shields and battons. A group of them walking in line came from Temple Bar onto Dame Street. People that were close to that corner obviously didn’t see them coming and as there was no obvious trouble in this particular area surely nobody expected the street to be cleared by force all of a sudden. Would it not have been a lot more professional, effective and civilized to make an announcement and ask people to please leave immediately?

@mar: ah, I see you’ve forgotten the fact that you were committing an offense at the time that you were moved on. You were there but you’re not a neutral observer as you’ve already made clear. The fact that you and your friends and no doubt many others were actively engaged in antisocial behaviour at the time seems to be something you’re unable to admit today even though you were almost boastful about it the other day. Wheb you saw them coming why didn’t you move on? You were knowingly committing an offense.

@Dave O’Keeffe: Yeah, let’s blame the victim. Ooh so you were consuming alcohol on the street. Really good citizens like myself would deem that to be anti social behaviour. Well then you clearly deserved to be intimidated,
harrassed and beaten.
Ooh but she admitted that she was wearing a provocative mini skirt that night. What did she except!?

@frank_66: places were closed because of antisocial behaviour on previous occasions.

@Mandy Seiler: Gorey ( baile átha Cliath beag) has already seen an elevation in cases in a school there so I’d say it’ll get a lot worse after this weekend and the next bank holiday.

@Mandy Seiler: cheers for that Jeff…

@Mandy Seiler: There’s about 70 people in hospital here with coronavirus from a population of about 5m, what exactly is your worry about? I think a lot of people are going to have a problem going back to normal. Going on holidays, packed trains/buses on morning commutes, going to packed nightclubs etc are not wrong or evil or dangerous behaviour and people need to prepare themselves that this is what we are going back to. You can wear your mask but as soon as the government say you don’t have to (probably a few months after every other country) the majority of the population will stop wearing there’s. So I’d suggest you prepare yourselve to go back to normal or avoid all such places for the rest of your life.

@Edward Reid: it’s on two different computers

@Misty Eyed Mutton: indeed… and you seem to fall very nicely into that category…

@john s: I think you need to lay off the gargle john. No one is locking you up. You’re free to leave your home at any time and go anywhere you want. No one is out to get you.

@Misty Eyed Mutton: what are you talking about due to all the vulnerable and elderly being vaccinated for weeks now the covid deaths have stopped. Hence my comment. Yet the cmo comes out last week trying to scare people about wexford Street yet they are the people who are not effected.

@Declan Doherty: that is true now but has not been the case for most of the last 18 months. And the way the cmo is talking these restrictions will comeback hopefully the government will have the balls to tell him no.

@Declan Doherty: I can’t see it but I’d almost guess John S rambling is that akin to a paranoid mess, something he’d regularly attribute to a cannabis smoker. Give up the whiskey John, it does nothing for you. G’lad.

@john s: That would be because people have been getting sick and dying for the last 18 months. Now we have a vaccine, people are starting to get back to some sense of normality. There’s no conspiracy and no one is out to get you. The discourse is at Trumpian levels in here this morning..

@Declan Doherty: no conspiracy, the facts are the country is opening up because covid is only a minor issue with all the vulnerable vaccinated, yet only lat week the cmo is tweeting his anger and Paul Reid came out during the week in a similar way, painting a picture of fear, threats of lickdown in limerick. None of what I have siad is conspiracy just facts.

@JustBEERbarry: another solid contribution from our pro drug mesaih

@john s: John, all the elderly and vulnerable are not vaccinated. My own mother is extremely vulnerable but because she’s in the 60-69 ages bracket, has only received her first AstraZeneca shot and won’t get her second until mid to late August. There are many in the same situation.

@john s: is this thing allowed out unsupervised?

@FrustratedASDMum: fair enough but so you know the stats on astra show 76% effectiveness off the 1st shot. Also the country have been opening up for weeks now which covid numbers remaining static and deaths disappearing.

@Fergus Lynch: what have I siad that is wrong? Or you disagree with. Let me know ;-)