One of the country's leading churchmen has described the spate of violent crime as close to a national emergency and has called on the Government to devise a new strategy to deal with the problem.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said yesterday that in the wake of the extraordinary levels of violence experienced over the weekend, there was an obligation on the Government to call a summit of community leaders to forge a new national consensus to address the roots of violence.
His comments followed three violent deaths in less than 48 hours.
The latest death occurred in Finglas, Dublin, when two men approached a house on Ratoath Drive just after 9.30am yesterday and a number of shots were fired when the occupant opened the door. The gunman escaped in a grey Opel Vectra, driven by an accomplice, which crashed near the scene. The two men fled on foot.
In Nenagh, Co Tipperary, State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy carried out a postmortem yesterday on the body of a man who died following a stabbing incident early yesterday.Gardaí said the victim, a foreign national believed to be in his 30s, died after a fight broke out at a house party between 1.30 and 1.45am. A second man, understood to be in his 50s, was stabbed once and was being treated last night at Nenagh General Hospital.
In Drogheda, Co Louth, gardaí were carrying out house to house inquiries last night as part of their investigation into the fatal stabbing of a Romanian man in the town on Friday night.
Dr Martin told the congregation at the annual Cemetery Mass in Donabate, Co Dublin, yesterday that the levels of violence and killings were reaching levels which were truly close to an emergency for our society.
"I appeal to the Government to convoke a summit of a wide range of leaders in society, not just those involved in the important work of law enforcement but of all those in society who are in a position to forge a new national consensus to address the roots of this violence. We must take a stand as a society. Too many lives have been wasted. Too many families shattered."
He said that the Good Samaritan of yesterday's Gospel was the antithesis of those who felt that they could impose themselves, their ideas and their power by violence.
"As we reflect here today on lives well-lived, we cannot as a society but express our horror at the revolting new culture of violence which now in Ireland is almost daily claiming lives in stabbings and murders, as we have witnessed again this weekend.
"This is a new culture of meaningless violence which only creates a climate of vengeance and fear and retaliation. It is a culture which breaks down and destroys neighbourliness. That is not the direction which life in modern Ireland should be taking," he said.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe called for a national plan to tackle serious crime. The three killings at the weekend showed it was time for the new Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, to set out his plans to tackle serious crime, he said. "It is weekends like this which really hammer home how huge a problem violent crime is with the gangland-style shooting in Finglas, the third homicide in two days."
A spokeswoman for Mr Lenihan said last night he had been fully briefed by the Garda Commissioner on the operations in place to try prevent gangland killings.
"No one should underestimate the difficulties facing the Garda Síochána in trying to protect people who offer them absolutely no co-operation and, indeed, try to evade their attention so they can continue to carry out their criminal enterprises," she said.