Sir, – On Townsend Street in Dublin last week at 7.30 am, mid-way between Pearse Street Garda station and the “Man Up” campaign awning hanging from Liberty Hall, I witnessed a violent assault on a drug-addled young woman by a man in a similar condition.
After the screaming and threats, I helped her back to her feet. Both were clutching the small white bottles of methadone that anyone familiar with the early-morning Dublin city centre will have spotted discarded, traded or being consumed on the Georgian streets we’re so proud to promote to tourists.
In the coming months I will be changing work address, after working in Dublin 1 and 2 since 2005.
Frankly I am relieved; the city has become more dangerous, dirty and cluttered in the past decade.
A mood of casual menace broods over parts of the city centre. The State and city authorities responsible for the myriad policy deficits affecting the city should be ashamed of the disgraceful state of the capital’s streets.
The city often feels like it has no potent public authority or government. – Yours, etc,
DAVID McMAHON,
Dublin 7.