COUNCILLORS in Newcastle West are confident that violent and lawless scenes of anti-social behaviour witnessed in the county town last Halloween will not be repeated.
The Limerick Post this week spoke to Cathaoirleach of Newcastle West District, Cllr Tom Ruddle, who revealed that councillors have been assured by Gardaí that a “better plan” will be in place this year.
Newcastle West made national headlines last Halloween after shocking videos emerged of gangs of young people throwing fireworks, wheelie bins, and other missiles at cars.
The frightening scenes, appeared across social media at the time, showed out of control youths tipping over a vehicle in scenes likened to a ‘war zone’.
Calls came from local representatives at last month’s Joint Policing Committee meeting for a greater police presence in the county’s largest town this Halloween. Following promises from Gardaí, Cllr Ruddle is “hopeful” that there will be no repeat of the criminal behaviour that shocked the people of Newcastle West one year ago.
”I am just hoping there will be a plan in place,” Cllr Ruddle admits.
“We never saw anything like the destructive and anti-social behaviour witnessed last year before. The one thing is, it’s young people that are causing this. They are from the age of 18 down to 10 or 11. It’s hard to know how you solve that. What do you do?”
The answer to a large degree, the Fine Gael man believes, lies with the parents of these youths.
“The guards met us recently and assured us a plan would be in place. It was the one thing we wanted to talk with them about at the Joint Policing Committee meeting in September so we could give them fair warning. We don’t want a repeat of this again,” he said.
“They have assured us that if something like that happened again, there would be a backup plan. But saying that, the parents have a role to play.
”We’ve had one incident already of a firecracker being thrown at a passenger on a bus two weeks ago. A bus of German tourists came here and a firework was let off and I think it hit a man.
“The parents have a responsibility. At the end of the day, the buck stops with them. I hope the parents will take heed. They should know where their children are and what they are doing on these dark nights,” he concluded.
