HALLOWEEN NIGHT was relatively quiet, with no major incidents requiring criminal investigation reported in Dublin or elsewhere, gardaí said yesterday.
One of a small number of serious incidents happened in west Dublin, where a Garda patrol car was rammed by stolen vehicles on Blackditch Road, Ballyfermot.
The car carrying two gardaí was hit by a 4X4 going in the opposite direction. In a similar incident in Croftwood in Ballyfermot, another Garda car was rammed.
One Garda source said two gardaí were taken to hospital but were not badly injured.
“While any incident like that is serious, unfortunately it is not confined to a weekend like Halloween. It is a bad public order incident that we’d see a lot.”
In Dublin’s north inner, city a small number of riot squad gardaí were called in to deal with youths who were being disorderly on the side streets close to Connolly rail station.
Another Garda source said there were no major incidents outside the capital aside from public order issues normally associated with Halloween.
There were about 1,000 call-outs for ambulance and fire brigade services in the greater Dublin area on Halloween night, as crews had to deal with incidents involving bonfires and fireworks as well as their regular workload.
Ambulance crews were called to deal with a number of burns, a spokesman said. Among these was an incident involving a man (23), whose hands were injured when he fell into a bonfire in Kilbarrack.
A spokesman for Dublin City Council said he expected the post-Halloween clean-up to cost the council about €750,000. This represents a drop of 20 to 25 per cent on previous years, which he attributed to the removal of some 1,000 tonnes of material before Halloween night.
Police in Derry are investigating reports that a 17-year-old girl was raped as she made her way home from a fancy dress parade.