Co Dublin fatal stabbing: ‘You don’t expect it, but it does happen – why not here?’

Mothers pushing buggies and school children with backpacks hurried past a Garda cordon closing off the scene of a fatal stabbing in south Co Dublin on a brisk Tuesday morning.

A man (31) was stabbed following an altercation in Louglinstown between two small groups of men just after midnight.

The fight occurred near the entrance to a small cul de sac of houses on the path along a leafy tree-lined road. Gardaí believe the men involved knew each other and have arrested two men.

It is understood the altercation occurred when two men walking along Loughlinstown Drive encountered two other men at Cherry Court. It appears the latter two men may have stopped to lie in wait at a junction on the road for the other two walking up toward them before a fight occurred.

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After the stabbing two men fled on foot. Emergency services arrived shortly afterward, but despite the paramedics’s efforts, the injured man died at the scene.

A blue forensic tent preserved the body of the man that had remained at the scene overnight. The paths on both sides of the road were cordoned off by gardaí, and, ahead of a forensic investigation, a large plastic sheet covered the ground where the fight is believed to have taken place.

Loughlinstown Drive is a long road that passes through several small residential areas.

A steady stream of cars passed the crime scene with many motorists en route to work, or on the school run early on Tuesday. Several parents were walking past the stretch of Garda tape to drop young children to a nearby preschool.

One mother walking her four-year-old son to the local preschool described the killing as a “shock to the system”. The woman, who lived nearby, said it was “a shock to happen on your doorstep”.

Her young son had walked by the crime scene unfazed by the line of Garda cars and officers standing watch, she said. “He was just talking away to the guards, it didn’t affect him.”

The killing occurred outside Cherry Court, a small cul de sac with around a dozen homes all painted white or beige with long driveways.

One resident leaving for work said there was “never usually any trouble around, so I mean that is a shock to be honest with you.

“You don’t expect it, but it does happen you know – I guess why not here? But I guess it is a shock for this area definitely,” he said.

An older man living nearby stopped by the scene to have a cigarette while out for a walk.

“It’s surprising, I just heard it on the radio this morning . . . there wouldn’t be a sinner out on that road most nights,” he said.