Una Mullally: Getting tough on Dublin ‘thuggery’ won’t solve the city’s fundamental problem

Another week in Dublin city, another violent incident that makes headlines. The awful thing about an American tourist being assaulted in the capital last Wednesday is that this stuff is not surprising. Brawls and sketchiness are part of city centre life. Dublin city centre is small. Within it, all human life unfolds. Some parts of the capital are lively and buzzing; others need a serious hand. Because it is small, any given atmosphere can take over. That can be, for example, the explosion of love and fun at Dublin Pride, or that can be, another example, the hostility and violence the anti-migrant protests conjured.

We have to differentiate between a reaction, a response, and a strategy. Right now, government is all reaction. They say they’ll get “tough” on “thuggery”. That the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, would respond to yet another vicious assault by mentioning “piloting Local Community Safety Partnerships” is deflating. That pilot was launched two years ago, and there is still no published safety plan in place for the north inner city.

[ US tourist has ‘life-changing injuries’ after Dublin city centre attack involving three youths ]

As for a response, what are we going to do about the policing crisis in Dublin city centre? Any garda will tell you that they do not have the personnel to adequately police the city. Think about that for a minute: the capital is not, and apparently cannot be, adequately policed. This is accepted. Government will talk about allocating “extra resources”, but the truth is, An Garda Síochána is experiencing a recruitment, retention, resignation, and retirement crisis. The figures are well documented.

As for a strategy, who is actually in charge? A recent decision by Dublin City Council in Dublin 1 speaks volumes. Last week, the Dublin Inquirer reported that the council was taking steps to close off Harbour Court because of how unsafe it is. This laneway is about 400 metres from Pearse Street Garda station, and about 500 metres from Store Street Garda station. How can it be that surrendering a street instead of working to make it safe is the approach?

Yet another plan seeks to turn the fortunes of Dublin’s north inner city

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Plan for north inner city Dublin not just about ‘putting Garda boots on the ground’, McEntee says

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‘Community safety wardens’ to be deployed on Dublin streets under McEntee plan

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Man hospitalised following assault in Dublin city centre

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Dublin is not uniquely violent. But what has changed in recent years is, in my opinion, a broader potential for random violence. It’s in the air. I’ve written about this many times during the course of, and emerging from, the pandemic. The city centre was allowed fall into disarray. That decline has proven hard to reverse. An atmosphere may seem like an intangible thing, just a feeling, but people who are familiar with their surroundings, and can tell the difference between what a place felt like a few years ago and what it feels like now, are not wrong to sense an edginess.

There are no such things as ‘no-go areas’ in Dublin city centre. That kind of hyperbole is unhelpful. What we have is dysfunction, a lack of leadership, and failures across development, design, street life, housing, policing and mental health and addiction services. Government has largely ignored Dublin. Gardaí are swamped. Addiction services are swamped. Homelessness services are swamped.

People have to campaign for the council to progress basic things such as public seating and street cleaning. Earlier this year, it was reported that offices in Dublin are only 10 per cent full on Monday and Fridays, and about half full on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This lack of footfall has a huge impact on vibrancy and ambience. All of this has to be addressed with a strategy to revitalise the city led by city communities, central Government, the Garda, businesses and the council. I’m not saying the context is directly to blame for people acting violently, but it is the context within which violence is occurring, and we cannot continue to ignore the context. For now, politicians will talk about “law and order”. This kind of stuff makes for great grandstanding and content for radio phone-in shows, but it’s just more hyperbole.

Dublin needs leadership. It needs a plan. There is a vacuum within which the city is both thriving and collapsing, vibrant and dangerous, pleasant and awful. All of this demonstrates a lack of cohesion of place and planning.

Narratives can be convenient, and often lack subtlety. The broad brushstrokes of the city being a “kip” are not true. But it’s hard not to see two recent, unprovoked, brutal attacks – both the Ukrainian actor who was viciously assaulted beside the Abbey Theatre, and the horrific attack on the American tourist close to Store Street Garda station – in a context where a sense of safety has depleted.

[ Violent attacks: ‘There’s an edge in Dublin city . . . and no consequences when you step over that edge’ ]

I was recently writing a city guide for a group of people visiting Dublin this autumn for a conference on European affairs. In it, I had to insert a paragraph about safety in the city due to the high level of drug-related crime, and the number of potentially dangerous areas at night. This is not something I would have even considered highlighting five years ago. I wasn’t making it up for the laugh.

We all know the areas that need help. We all know the things that can be done across policing, upkeep, design and resourcing. It can be very difficult to fix something when you can’t figure out what’s wrong. What’s unfathomable is that the causes and solutions are obvious, yet those tasked with taking charge – Government, Garda and the council – are apparently utterly incapable of taking the initiative to effectively plan and act in a way that even begins to progress a positive trajectory for the Irish capital.

Tell us what you think about violence in Dublin city centre.