‘I don’t blame the police at all. Those young thugs can pop up anywhere’: Talbot St traders concerned Garda presence will slip

Billy Corr, a manager in Gerry Keane’s wallpaper shop on Talbot Street, Dublin, remembers the day a loyalist bomb blew in the windows of the city centre store during the Dublin-Monaghan bombings nearly 50 years ago. “I’ve seen everything,” he says. “My view on Talbot Street is that it is not as bad as people make out.”

The north inner city centre street became the focal point of a debate around safety and crime in Dublin last summer following a number of high-profile assaults. In response the Government announced €10 million in extra funding for the Garda to increase patrols and visibility in Dublin city, which has now been exhausted. Several people working in shops on Talbot Street said it would be disappointing if the additional resources for policing in the area were not continued.

Corr, who has worked in Gerry Keane’s store so long that some locals call him Gerry, says the area had been “neglected” for years. “I don’t blame the police at all, you can’t be on every corner. Those young thugs can pop up anywhere. I can see the guys making a phone call outside and 10 minutes later that package arrives for the drugs on the scooter and then they zip off.”

He says in the week after the Dublin riots late last year footfall into the shop was down by about 60 per cent as people stayed away from the city centre. Problems such as open drug dealing and assaults were not confined to the north inner city, with Temple Bar and other areas experiencing similar issues. “It’s everywhere, it’s not just Talbot Street.”

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At one point extra gardaí could regularly be seen patrolling up and down the street. “That made a difference, but you’re not going to be able to keep that overtime up,” he says.

Marie Quinn, who works as a pharmacist in Pharmacy O’Regan on Talbot Street, says some of the media coverage about crime in the area last year had been overblown. “In a pharmacy you always get a little bit of shoplifting and that happens everywhere, regardless of where you are.”

There had been a noticeable increase in the number of gardaí on the streets, which as a result felt “a little bit quieter in general”, she says. “It would be a good idea to keep it going if they can.” She says the city centre needs more investment in general, not just extra funding for the Garda.

Michael O’Driscoll, who owns a convenience store on the street, says he had seen a marked improvement due to the increased Garda patrols. “I feel much safer, things have definitely improved in terms of antisocial behaviour.”

O’Driscoll, who has been based on Talbot Street for 25 years, says he has been physically attacked and regularly deals with shoplifting and anti-social behaviour. “We need to have clean streets, with people not hanging out of the corners drug dealing.”

The shop owner says there was a change in the city centre after the Covid-19 pandemic. “People were allowed to wander the streets because of Covid and they got used to that, and they didn’t like being told when everything came back to normal that you have to start behaving yourself again.”

He says it is crucial that increased Garda resources for the area are provided for a “long period” rather than a number of months. “I can feel a handle on it …that is my only hope that we will not let this slip.”

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