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Thursday, May 08, 2008
100 arrests as gardaí crackdown on thugs
BY MARY MURPHY
A ZERO tolerance approach by gardaí, which involved a complete clampdown on unruly behaviour, resulted in over 100 people being arrested for public order offences in Kerry’s three main towns at the weekend.
It was a weekend of major disorder in the county with arrests for fighting, drink driving, possession of drugs and other offences reaching the three-figure mark.
There were 64 arrests reported in Killarney, 32 in Tralee and seven in Listowel. Worst hit was Killarney which played host to the Rally of the Lakes and a major rave at the INEC which attracted thousands of revellers to the town.
Garda reinforcements, including members of the dog unit, were drafted in to help to keep the peace on the streets where thousands of people partied hard until the early hours.
There were a total of 64 arrests in Killarney between 2pm on Friday and 6am on Monday morning with 36 taken to the garda station for public order offences. There were also 12 people arrested on suspicion of drink driving and 13 people were held for alleged drugs offences. Gardaí confirmed that a total of 71 cars were impounded in the town at the weekend as thousands of so-called boy racers descended on the area.
“They were mainly young boy racers. Most of them were able to get the cars back on payment of a fee,” Sergeant Ray Walshe told The Kingdom. But despite the high number of arrests, gardaí said the rally weekend appeared to be quieter than normal and many town centre guesthouses had the vacancy signs out throughout the weekend. A garda helicopter was also due in Killarney on Saturday and Sunday night but it was unable to travel because of technical difficulties.
Killarney Town Council also went to great lengths to minimise the impact of any anti-social behaviour, particularly in residential areas, with a number of housing estates blocked off to prevent boy racers disturbing local residents. However a number of serious incidents were reported, including a car being set alight in St Mary’s Cathedral car park, windows being smashed in a pub and a number of late night disturbances in residential areas caused by groups of reckless drivers.
“There was racing going on between the cars and it was happening all over the place, in any car park or stretch of road that they could find,” Sgt Walshe remarked. “We responded to numerous calls and it would have been at incidents like this that a lot of the cars would have been impounded,” he said.
Killarney Vintners’ spokesman, Paudie O’Callaghan, remarked: “The weekend went very peacefully and the numbers were manageable.”
“There was definitely a huge amount of gardaí around and everything seemed to be kept in hand so you have to compliment them for that. The rally weekend in Killarney must now be the biggest garda operation in the country in the whole year,” Mr O’Callaghan added.
It was a busy weekend too in Tralee with a total of 32 arrests over the weekend, with 15 for public order, eight on suspicion of drink driving and six in connection with drug searches.
There were seven arrests reported in Listowel, including five for public order and two for drink driving.
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