Madam, - A report by the National Crime Council of Ireland last year suggested that O'Connell Street was the most dangerous thoroughfare in Ireland.
The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, was reported to have rejected this and said he often walked down Dublin's main street and didn't feel threatened. I would like to introduce the Minister to the city that I increasingly see, having worked and socialised in the city centre for about 15 years.
On St Patrick's Day at 7.15 p.m. I was standing outside the front gates of Trinity when one of the young men (probably no more than 18 years old) standing beside me thumped another man in the face. There ensued a violent fight in which both men beat each other up while rolling around the middle of the road at College Green. About eight of their friends stood around and laughed.
Both men got up after some minutes: one had blood all over his face and clothes while the other walked by me with his fists in the air shouting "I love a good fight".
A short time later two gardaí walked up to the man with the bloody face. He told them he fell.
I talked to the gardaí and told them what I had seen. They said they saw scenes like that most evenings.
They then left, as another fight had started further down the road. Minutes later I saw a few people being taken away in a Garda van.
On the DART later the same evening I overheard the conversation of four men and a woman who were sitting next to me. They were laughing and calling one of the men "slapper". With great joy he began to tell them about the person he had fought with that night, and how he had "nutted" him and kicked him.
I don't know how Michael McDowell walks down a Dublin city-centre street and doesn't feel threatened. Perhaps he needs to spend more time out on the streets. - Yours, etc.,
JENNIFER BYRNE, Raheny, Dublin 5.