'Diminished' Garda presence in Dublin on Patrick's Day criticised

A diminished Garda presence in Dublin's city centre at night - when there was a greater prospect of violence - was the problem…

A diminished Garda presence in Dublin's city centre at night - when there was a greater prospect of violence - was the problem behind the many violent incidents reported after the St Patrick's Day parade, a Dublin Chamber of Commerce director has said. Christine Newman reports.

As callers to radio phone-in programmes continued yesterday to describe a hostile atmosphere and many violent incidents in the city after the parade, Mr Declan Martin said gardaí seemed to be available in numbers for "harmless" events like matches at Croke Park, "whereas in the city centre at night when there is a greater prospect of violence, police presence seems to diminish greatly".

Asked on RTÉ's Liveline how many gardaí were on duty on the day in Dublin, Insp Ray McHugh said he could not answer, for operational reasons.

"You had 500,000 people or thereabouts attending the parade. An hour or two or three hours later you would have the vast majority of that 500,000 people gone, gone back to the suburbs or wherever they came from," the inspector said. He said between 70 and 80 arrests were made in the city centre on the day.

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"We had a commensurate number of gardaí on duty to deal with the half a million and a commensurate number on duty to deal with the smaller crowd that remained thereafter." The Garda press office later said Insp McHugh was "unable" to return a call from The Irish Times.