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THERE HAS BEEN a rise in the number of late night assaults in recent years – in line with more people going out socialising as the night-time economy improves.
According to the Garda Analysis Service, 83% of assaults are carried out by men and the majority of offenders are aged between 18 and 39 against men of a similar age.
The assaults typically take place in and around public places (street, roads, pubs and hotels) between 8pm and 5am at the weekend.
Gardaí are appealing to young men to think of the consequences for themselves and others of being involved in assaults. One 26-year-old man who was the victim of an assault said:
Before the assault I was a happy-go-lucky guy, but since then I would describe my life as hell. Along with the terrible injuries that kept me in hospital for a long time, I have suffered from depression and paranoia and I still feel angry a lot of the time.
The Garda Analysis Service illustrates a link between Ireland’s night time economy showing signs of recovery following the recession and the level of assaults.
In the Dublin Metropolitan Region, the number of assaults causing harm rose from 1,396 in 2012 to 1,707 in 2015, while minor assaults increased from 3,100 to 3,337 in the same period.
In 2016, assaults nationally have shown a decline with minor assaults down 2% and assaults causing harm down 4%.
Anti-crime strategy
An Garda Síochána has implemented a multi-strand anti-crime strategy to further reduce the number of assaults.
As part of this, assault hotspots have been identified and there has been a high visibility policing presence in these areas at key times.
Gardaí are also working with licensed premises, the business community and local councils to address issues around anti-social behaviour.
And a public awareness campaign Use Your Brain Not Your Fists targeted at men aged between 18 and 39 goes live from today.
It gives information about the consequences of assaulting another person – losing your job, ability to travel and even going to jail.
It also reminds people of the potentially devastating physical and mental impact on assault victims. One 29-year-old victim of assault said:
Since the incident I think about the vulnerability of myself, my girlfriend and my family when out socialising or going about daily life. In the weeks that followed the incident I experienced disturbed sleep and anxiety.
Another 25-year-old man described how, “Towards my friends I seem more easily scared, more anxious and more irritable. That is getting obvious regarding sports: I almost never got booked or red carded before, and it happens to me more often now.”
Garda Bureau of Community Engagement Sergeant Kelvin Courtney said, ”The vast majority of assaults that occur are needless and avoidable.
“Be streetwise when you’re out and about. Planning is key to having a good night out. Arrange transport to and from events in advance. Let someone know where you are going and when you’ll be back. Avoid walking alone and in dark places. Be wary of your surroundings and mind your property.”
“Never attempt to reason with drunk or aggressive people. Walk away and look for help.
Sergeant Courtney urged assault victims to report the crime, which, according to the CSO may be under-reported by approximately 40%.
Some victims of assaults, particularly men, are embarrassed to say they have been assaulted. I would encourage anybody, and in particular younger men, to report all assaults to An Garda Síochána.
“Anyone who has been assaulted will be treated with sensitivity by An Garda Síochána and it will be fully investigated.”
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It’s pure laziness. If you can carry the stuff to the beach etc. you can carry it home. Good weather always showcases the bad habits of many.
Let there be no mistake Ireland is a filt hy country. Every roadside, footpath, walkway, beach, street, mountain spot, stream, canal, river etc. etc. etc. is full of litter. It’s embarrassingly bad.
@Thomas Meaney: dirty auld town its a dirty auld town, springs to mind
@Thomas Meaney: every? Come on man, less of the lazy exaggeration please.
@james rowan: written about the city of Salford in the UK but yeah could well apply to Dublin. Embarrassing the state of the place .
@Thomas Meaney: Embarrassingly exaggerated.
@Tommy Roche: your ig norance of the truth could be some of the problem…
@peter white: we built this City… we built this City on Crack and Dole.
A mayor of a village in France installed cameras and dumped back the rubbish at the door of the people who did that, YouTube it, named and shamed… Funny to watch their reactions.. no shame on them
@Dominic Leleu: The difference between the Napeonic Code and British System of Law (which is what we use here).
It’s been getting a LOT worse after the pandemic. Used to be most visible along the roads leading to the town I live in. Now it’s every couple of meters within the town. People who can’t take any responsibility and initiative just drop an item whenever it ceases to be of use to them. Two teens walking by my home a week ago. I could tell by their checked-out expressions they were going to dump their fast food packaging. They threw it into the garden of a neighbours home. It’s some achievement to leave someone else to deal with your everyday acts. We need to fast track an army of Irish mammies to walk behind these people and clip them around the ear every time they do something s-t-o-o-p-i-d.
@Numinous20111: Gas idea – Sponsor a wooden spoon!
Some Irish have zero public pride in where they live
@Peter Byrne: Not just Irish. Same happens in many countries unfortunately. And they’re always locals, to the shame if the majority of the other locals who have some pride in their place
There is a road near me where some complete and total cre tins continually dump bags of rubbish, presumably by lobbing them out the window of a car.
While I do believe in the public’s responsibility in all of this, first and foremost, a massive contribution to the littering problem was when waste collection was privatised. There was a time when our taxes paid for waste collection and people have no reason to dump their waste in public because it was guaranteed to be collected. On top of that, there were more public bins available, and they were more frequently tended to. That’s not to say there weren’t litter issues, just not as much. It is time we ditch the EU-driven mantra of privatising all utilities and services. Some people can’t afford the cost of bin and some just don’t want to pay. That drives littering, and I’m not condoning it; it’s just a fact of life There are no excuses littering but if tax money were spent on civil services instead of over inflated civil servants wages and ridiculously overpriced infrastructure, looking at you children’s hospital, we might actually have a nice little society to live in. The hLPT was supposed to be used to maintain local areas and develop amenities, yet I still pay a service charge for getting my grass cut every year, half the lights in the estate aren’t working, and a proposed playground was never built for our kids. It seems my taxes are wasted on the unemployed, migrants, government wages, and plenty of money donated to the likes of BAM and other government-funded private contracting firms.
Anyway, rant over. FFS people, put your rubbish in bins or bag it and bring it home; we’re supposed to be more evolved than the animals we once were.
@Mike Carson: Well said, except for the unemployed bit.
We are told we are at full employment.
The reality of our economic system is that unemployment is deemed a necessity. Those that manage the economy want a certain amount of unemployment at all times, because unless there was always a pool of unemployed for employers to draw from wages would increase as employers try to outdo each other to get the employees they need.
Therefore the unemployed are merely a casualty of our system.
As for the rest, the cost of government – direct as in obscene salaries for the decision making levels, and indirect for the cost of their incompetence – is appalling.
@Mike Carson: very valid points and very well put. It’s not a rant it’s the truth…
@Mike Carson: you were doing well until you showed the chip on your shoulder. Throwing rubbish has more to do with disrespect then money
Ireland ought to go the no-nonsense route that Singapore took with hefty fines that are actually enforced.
@Kieran Menon: The Irish authorities can’t even enforce basic law as it is. How would that work. I would suggest people call out others for that behavior, but the types who litter are more than likely the types that would get aggressive, and it is not worth the hassle. I remember years ago, a guard came over to me and a group of friends who were having pizzas on the prom in Galway and genuinely thanked us for putting the rubbish in bins when we were done. I got the impression that he half expected us to leave it behind. It was kind of depressing, looking back on it, to think that a mundane, simplistic act was seen as a wondrous achievement worth acknowledging. People who litter lack respect and pride for the country and others, and are usually from a certain background too. I remember getting a clip on the ear if I dropped a sweet wrapper on the ground; that’s what’s lacking today. A world gone soft on antisocial behaviour and crime in general.
@Kieran Menon: Yea, right, think judge No… and the nonsensical sentences he comes up with & you’ll soon figure out why the rules are no longer enforced with any enthusiasm.
It starts in the home, since my kids were small they were taught to bin rubbish, there is a communal green in front of my house and when the local kids are out playing some leave they’re rubbish on the ground…
Ireland is a filthy country. It’s absolutely disgusting & there is rubbish everywhere you go. There is no pleasure walking anywhere if you’re looking at dumped bags of refuse, cans, nappies etc. You can see the couldn’t care less attitude after kids matches in the local parks. Water & juice bottles and wrappers all left lying about while the parents bundle their litterbugs back into their SUVs without giving a toss about the filth they leave behind. When I was a child my parents ensured all litter went into a bag & then a bin or it was brought home. It was instilled that you pick up anything you dropped or used. Dublin is so dirty it’s shameful but unfortunately the trend for littering is everywhere now. And fly tipping that’s another level of disgusting. We are a filthy dirty nation.
@Heather Knowles: completely agree… I’m in Dublin too and it’s shocking (well not even) to see people just throw their McDonalds leftovers or whatever on the ground literally right beside a bin… like WTF?!
I lived in Melbourne. There was a bin every 150 yards. When I moved back I complained to a sitting TD about the 2 bins on my 6km walk to work and the Melbourne equivalent.
Her response…. “The Irish are a dirty nation. They should put it in their pockets”.
That quote sticks with me. She became a minister.
@Notty Tee: we can’t have bins here becoz some people put household waste into these bins to avoid bin charges…
Honestly, Ireland was tidier when we had more public bins.
It’s disgusting, and this trend has gotten so much worse in the last 20 years. Every roadside across the country seems to be littered with people chucking rubbish out of their car. I regularly see plastic bags just left on the side of country roads for the next car to split open and scatter the contents about. It can only get worse unless there is some accountability. I’ve tried to use the See It Say It app many times and I’m pretty sure Cork Co Council ignore the reports. Seems like there is one or two people working there dealing with all of the incoming reports across the whole county. Why is there no public information, or no government anti litter campaigns? It’s something politicians don’t seem to care about either. We should take a leaf out of Japan’s book. Even though everything is wrapped in plastic there, there is no litter anywhere. No bins either. If you can bring it with you, you can bring it home with you.
Mayo is clean.
See also spitting and gobbing onto the path. Absolutely disgusting!
@SerotoninWars: and pee ( or even worse) in every corner of the streets.
@SerotoninWars: Absolutely. Joggers especially guilty of this, running along and spitting away! The amount of men I see spitting when I’m out is gross.
It’s not all of Ireland though. I live in Dublin and you can’t go 6 feet without seeing litter on the ground or dog crap. But I was in Cork for a couple of days a couple of weeks ago and I never saw any litter in the city centre. You expect to see small towns with tidy towns groups being litter free but Cork as a city is really showing up Dublin
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/first-hint-summer-sees-cork-29038051
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: as a Dub, I completely agree Man… even the people get nicer the further South you go.
Don’t get me started on dog waste… as a former guardian and lover, I cannot understand how people can leave their bags on the street or on trees??
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