Sir, – My walk on Friday night the length of O’Connell Street en route to the Gate Theatre was punctuated with disturbing sights. On O’Connell Bridge three sets of beggars sat, plastic cups stretched out to passers-by. At Abbey Street, a paddy wagon was parked – a drugged/drunken young woman was being handcuffed while her loud-mouthed male companion was endeavouring to stand up from his sprawling position. Further on, two emaciated young men were exchanging something – drugs?
I took the central path on my return walk some hours later. Apart from the odd roar and yell from plastic-bag toting revellers it was uneventful until I got to my bus stop. Three drug- or drunk-fuelled men were sprawled on steps close to my stop. As I waited an altercation started within the group. They squared up to one another and I feared one of them was going to fall out on to the road. There was incoherent cursing and shouting – one man wove towards me only to swerve over to check the contents of beer cans at the edge of the footpath.
Once on the bus I was relieved but nervous and saddened by it all. I thought of The Enemy of the People, the play I had just seen and how the main protagonist had stood up for his rights , and I wondered haven't I, as a citizen of Dublin, got rights too? The right to walk the streets without fear and trepidation? Yes. But unfortunately the only thing I could come up with was my resolve never to walk in the city centre at night alone in future. – Yours, etc,
NORA SCOTT,
Whitehall Road,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.