St Patrick’s Day trouble was ‘nothing major – just the usual’

Two people have been arrested over an assault in Tallaght, Co Dublin, in which two men were hospitalised on St Patrick’s Day.

Gardaí said the men who were arrested have since been released and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A seperate incident in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, where a garda and some members of the public were caught up in a scuffle was described by a Garda spokesman as a “minor public order incident”.

A firearm was seized after a shot was fired at a car in the Paddocks, Westbury Co Clare at around 10pm. The incident followed an earlier disturbance in the area in which a number of people were involved in a fracas. Nobody was injured and a legally-held shotgun has been seized as part of the investigation.

The Garda said overall there was “nothing out of the ordinary” about Tuesday’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations. The spokesman said it was “nothing above a bank holiday weekend during the summer”.

The clean-up operation got underway in Dublin City and across the country on Wednesday morning following the festivities.

About 500,000 people lined the streets of the capital on Tuesday afternoon to watch the St Patrick’s Day parade with about 2 million people enjoying events nationwide.

Temple Bar and other areas of the capital were later thronged with revellers as the drinking and partying continued into the night.

Although a number of assaults were reported, the Garda press office said they were the sort of incidents that “could happen any night”.

Dublin Fire Brigade said the night was “very busy” but a spokesman there also said there was “nothing major – just the usual”.

The fire brigade attended about 10 assaults in the city and received about 300 callouts.

Last night it tweeted: “We’re dealing with numerous calls in city-falls, assaults. Both our ambulancess and the National Ambulance Service exceptionally busy.”