RESIDENTS of Summerhill in north Dublin yesterday evicted a man his family from his flat in the Mountain View Court complex. The 32-year-old man left after a hostile group of about 40 residents gathered outside the complex and jeered at him to get out.

When the man returned to the flats at around midday, word, quickly spread around the area. A group of residents followed him to the first floor balcony and prevented him from entering his flat.

A local garda arrived, followed by officers from the north central divisional drug unit. The crowd of onlookers standing below the flats grew and became more vociferous.

About an hour after they had arrived, the man, his heavily pregnant wife and their nine-month-old baby left on foot towards the city centre. They were escorted as far as Gardiner Street by a garda and Mr Joe Dowling, a volunteer with the Inner City Organisations Network (ICON).

The man carried on his shoulder a black bin bag full of clothes, and his wife pushed a pram. "They gave everyone else a second chance. They never even gave us one chance," he said.

The crowd had little sympathy for the retreating figures. Another man was evicted from the flats on Thursday night, they said. "People are fed up with it, they are standing up for themselves now," said one man.

While activists in the area have been standing up to the problems of drug abuse for a year through an inter-agency drugs project, the use of people power over the past few days is a new departure.

The setting fire to the car of an alleged drug dealer on Wednesday night was a spontaneous manifestation of this wave of "people power", which has been strongly backed by anti-drugs groups in other areas of Dublin.

The immediate anger which was directed towards the Garda's handling of Wednesday night's incident - during which gardai and anti-drugs activists clashed - has been quickly redirected towards the drug dealers.

"A corner has been turned, but only just turned," says Father Edmund Grace of St Francis Xavier Church, Gardiner Street, who is on the steering committee of the Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign.

"People have reached a point where they have nothing left to lose and they decide that it's gone far enough. Anger has got the better of people's fear, and I think that's a good thing."

There was plenty of anger at Thursday night's meeting in Rutland Street School and the subsequent anti-drugs march. But the meeting, organised by ICON, was not a knee-jerk reaction to the previous night's disturbances. It was planned weeks in advance to discuss ways for the residents to work with Dublin Corporation on the allocation of flats and the eviction of drug dealers.

Had it not been for the violence of last Wednesday night, about 50 to 100 people probably would have been at the meeting. As it was, a crowd of around 400 crammed into the school hall.

There were drug dealers among the audience at last Thursday night's meeting, their presence sending out a message that they are untouchable. Young people, who see that it's more difficult to be arrested as a drug dealer than a street trader have increasingly begun dealing to support their own habits. These small-time dealers cause intense resentment among local people.

This frustration has also been fuelled by the increasingly open drug dealing on the streets. They see people arrested for drug dealing being released on bail and returning to their flats to start dealing again within days or even hours. Locals say that 20 young people have died from drug overdoses in the Summerhill area in the past year.

Community activists and gardai say the drugs problem in the Summerhill area has worsened in the past two to three years. A heroin deal which two years ago cost more than £40 can now be bought for £20, and locals say that both dealers and buyers are travelling from all over Dublin to the north inner city area.

Support for the work of the 14-member north central divisional drug unit in the area is strong.

The detective sergeant in charge of the unit, John O'Driscoll, says that community co-operation has allowed the unit to target known figures.

Locals are critical, however, that the unit's work is not being reinforced by uniformed gardai. ICON secretary Ms Liz Riches has called for more uniformed gardai to be present to "disturb" the dealers in the area.

"People feel that the law isn't on their side," says Father Grace. "There is a small number of gardai working against enormous odds. People are aware of that problem but they feel that the law isn't with them. They feel there are all sorts of ways in which the drug dealers can get away with it."

Everyone acknowledges that the problem in the Summerhill area is not just a policing one. The waiting time for treatment at the City Clinic on Amiens Street is two years.

Ms Riches says that "radical intervention" is needed to treat the growing numbers of young drug users. The three committees which form the inter-agency drugs project set up last year include representatives from the Eastern Health Board, Dublin Corporation, the Garda and probation and welfare services.

The committee members realise that the input of residents is vital to their success. Next month, ICON will employ two tenants' organisers who will assist in the setting up of tenants' associations in the north inner city.

Following yesterday's eviction, the Summerhill residents said they planned to set up local committees in each flat complex to work with the Corporation to monitor their areas.

But gardai and local community activists realise that the current hardening attitude of residents towards the dealers in the Summerhill area could lead to sustained vigilante activity which, so far, has been largely contained. The drug unit will maintain a strong presence in the area over coming weeks in an effort to deter such actions.

"At the moment we are keeping a close eye on it and certainly taking seriously the level of frustration in the community," said a local garda source.