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Embarrassed to be Irish

Its not often that I’ll come out and say something like this but at this morning I really am embarrassed to be Irish. Last night was Halloween and for whatever reason some people saw this as a reason to go mental and start burning everything from cars to buildings, and attacking emergency services that showed up to try and help.

Some examples from the local news websites…

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/15-knife-attacks-on-night-of-chaos-1516756.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1101/breaking4.html?via=mr

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gdV7lOhgqzMWdYdNHzk-diMaZPrg

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1101/halloween.html

All over Dublin and the surrounding area’s, vandalism was rampant and violence against other people seemed to be at the top of peoples list of priorities. The major Dublin hospitals are this morning trying to deal with stab, burn, and otherwise beaten victims of last nights Halloween “celebrations”. Last night the Fire Services were called out to 800 incidents! A number of incidents were deliberate attempts to draw out the emergency services so they could be attacked. One area, O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin, a number of empty blocks of flats were set alight to draw the emergency services. As soon as the Fire Service arrived, bottles and other missiles were launched at the Fire service vehicles that arrived.

Other incidents involved a number of Gardai being savagely attacked on the streets of the city centre. Numerous Gardai had to be hospitalised with fractures and lacerations. In one attack a female Garda was hit so hard as to fracture her eye socket. In another, 2 Gardai on foot patrol in the city centre were attacked by a large group of youths and had to be hospitalized. 10 arrests were made at that incident. Nothing would be better than to make an example of this scum. Lock them up and make their families pay for the medical bills. Make their families pay for the damage caused to the surrounding areas.

Same goes for the area’s were youths caused damage to businesses and buildings in their own area’s. Make the families pay for the clean-up. Why should law abiding tax payers have to pay for the inability of parents to control their children. And I know what certain groups will say – “disadvantaged backgrounds” and “underfunded area’s”… Hold on a second. I come from one of the poorest area’s in Dublin and in my day I wasn’t out throwing missiles and abuse at the emergency services.

A strong statement needs to be made – that civil disruption will not be tolerated, that attacks on people who work to protect and help us will not go unpunished. However, I dont believe any political party in Ireland has the stomach to do what needs to be done. Sure, there will be token gestures… and next year will be the same all over again.

Tags: Deliberate Attempts, Devaney, Disadvantaged Backgrounds, Dublin Hospitals, Emergency Services, Eye Socket, Fire Service, Fire Services, Foot Patrol, Gardai, Google, Halloween Celebrations, Hospitalised, Knife Attacks, Lacerations, Large Group, Medical Bills, Missles, News Websites, Service Vehicles, Streets Of The City, Tax Payers, Vandalism