The injuring of Westlife singer Kian Egan in a scuffle on a Sligo street is an indicator of increasing levels of late-night violence after discos, criminologists and gardai said yesterday.
The singer's face was slightly injured in the incident late on Sunday night outside a fast-food restaurant on Grattan Street which was closed at the time.
Criminologists said the number of assaults at takeaways after discos was increasing, but Garda statistics were not detailed enough to show this.
Dr Ian O'Donnell, research fellow at the Institute of Criminology, UCD, said the reduction in general crime levels was masking an increase in assaults and other violent crimes.
He said the booming economy had reduced the number of some crimes, such as theft, but violent offences had not been similarly affected. These were a very low percentage of overall crime but this was no consolation to victims.
"Between 1995 and 1999, Garda statistics show that crime fell by 21 per cent," he said. "But on a closer look, group 1 offences against the person such as murder and rape are creeping up." The connection between alcohol and violent crime has continued to increase also, Dr O'Donnell said.
Dr Paul O'Mahony, criminologist and psychologist, said many people did not bother to report such incidents. He said there was definitely an increase in these late-night attacks but this was not obvious in official Garda figures.
Dr O'Mahony said famous people were easy targets. "There are a lot of people with chips on their shoulders and they resent success," he said.
There have been several calls for restrictions on the trading hours of fast-food outlets to reduce such assaults. In the past, Garda Commissioner Mr Pat Byrne called for a limiting of the opening hours of fast-food outlets so there would be no natural gathering place after discos closed.
On several occasions in Sligo, Judge Oliver McGuinness has called for a licensing system so takeaways would be forced to close early if they attracted public order problems. In the case involving the Westlife singer, the takeaway was closed when the incident happened at about 3.45 a.m.
Last summer a Mayo councillor, Mr Ray Collins, warned that someone would be killed in Ballina if something was not done to control fighting outside takeaways at night. He called for a curfew on fast-food outlets.
A senior garda in Galway, who did not want to be named, said a small group of thugs were to blame. He described the typical scenario as: "You have someone with a few drinks, coming out of a fast-food place with a bag of chips and someone dips into them or elbows him so he drops them, just to antagonise. Then the fight starts."
He said the assaults did not happen with regularity. "They tend to go in waves, then people are arrested and convicted and they level off again. It's a small number of thugs, preying on innocent people.
"Drink is a huge factor, and we are talking about large amounts of drink."
Better education of young people on the effects of alcohol, and more parental responsibility could assist in solving the problem, he said. "Parents have no idea what their children are up to."
While the focus was on Sligo now, it was no worse or no better than other towns when it came to late-night brawls, according to Insp Gerry Connolly of Sligo Garda station.
"We have had our problems outside fast-food restaurants for a short time after discos and pubs close, but that's reflected in every town around the country."
Extra Garda patrols around this time cut down on the likelihood of such attacks. The weather also plays a role, he said; a wet night reduces the likelihood of people gathering outside takeaways.
Insp Michael Jackson of the Juvenile Liaison Office said gardai were conscious of the problems surrounding assaults after discos. A youth policy advisory group was trying to tackle this by educating young people on the problems of alcohol, he said.
As well as highlighting the effect of their drinking on other people, they were also showing how involvement in a violent incident could have lifelong implications.
A licensing system for fast-food outlets was worth looking at, he said, but it should be remembered that the problem lay with the people involved and not the venue. Such a system could just result in fights being moved elsewhere, he said.