This article is from page 12 of the 2006-07-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
THE people of Lahinch have been left in a constant state of fear with some even considering taking the law in their hands following last weekends rioting now in the town.
People in the town suffered almost 5 hours of torment on Saturday July 1, when a large group of drunken youths went on a rampage through the towns streets.
“The fear is very real,” said Donogh O’Loghlin, Chairperson of the Community Council. “There was a 90-year-old woman who had to ring the guards three times and she was scared, I can tell you. They were spinning the wheels of their cars up around her house and there were three houses beside her which all had their windows broken.
“There are not that many people left living in Lahinch. The people who can get out are going out.”
One possible solution, according to the community council is the enforcement of the long promised by-laws for anti-social behavior in Lahinch.
“We received a message from Ger Dollard apologising for the delay in getting the by-laws in,” said Mr O’Loghlin.
“The message I got said that they are sitting on the Minister’s desk just waiting to be signed into law.
“They are putting in every law you can think of about dogs and horses, but they are holding up the one law that we have been campaigning for 4 years.”
In a statement to The Clare People , the community council said that they would be organising a public meeting in the next couple of weeks to decide how best to tackle the problem. They also said that the council rejected the calls from some locals to put civilian protection in place saying that the gardaí were the best people to tackle the problem.
“People blame the gardaí but I don’t blame them,” continued Mr O’Loghlin. “You are talking about 1,100 people coming out of the three club venues, not to mention about 1,000 people from the pubs.
It’s not possible for four guards to deal with that. It’s not possible to police to have that volume of people in the village.”
The statement went on to make four specific demands; that the anti social by-laws be enforced; that the local gardaí be supplied with better equipment and more man power; that the granting of late licences to night clubs must be better controlled; and that the ‘irresponsible letting’ of local holiday homes for stag nights and party’s be put to an end.