Breach of the peace

IT SOUNDS more like a war-zone than a seaside village in scenic Co Clare, but vandalism, anti-social behaviour and street drunkenness have escalated to such an extent that locals in Lahinch have sent out an SOS to the authorities.

The petition, which has been sent by the local community council to Clare County Council, the gardaí, several local politicians, Ministers of Justice and the Environment and the President of Ireland Mary McAleese, reads: “Our windows are broken on a regular basis and our doors kicked in; people urinate, defecate, vomit and have sex on our property; our cars are deliberately and casually vandalised almost every night during the summer and large groups of drunk people roam the streets, lanes and promenade until the early hours, shouting, terrorising and intimidating anyone who tries to reason with them.

“There are regular assaults; littering and drinking in public is widespread and the level of noise and air of barely suppressed violence is more in keeping with Temple Bar than with a small seaside resort.”

Mary Comber, secretary of the Lahinch Community Council, said the problem had escalated to such an extent that a public meeting was held and a petition was drawn up.

“The problem is that we have become the disco centre of west Clare. This is really where people come. They come by bus and can often be there until five in the morning. They drink and are out of control,” she said.

Fianna Fáil Mayor of Clare County Council, Flan Garvey, said that Lahinch had deteriorated from a quiet seaside resort, to a place where “local people and visitors are being intimidated and frightened.”

“Lahinch has the name of being a party town among young people, but too many are overstepping the mark,” he said, adding that the village could be a “scary place to be between 2am and 4am on a weekend.”

“There has to be a crackdown on this attitude that you can go to Lahinch and go mad and scare people and fire barrels through windows and kick in doors. It has to be stopped.”

Ms Comber said that off-season, Lahinch was a beautiful place, popular with golfers and surfers, but that at some times, particularly in the summer, it was “pretty unbearable.”

She defended the community council’s decision to highlight the problem saying: “All we are doing is reflecting the views of the locals. We’re not giving Lahinch a bad name, we’re just trying to publicise the problems.”

In the petition, which was sent out last week, the community council says it is “appalled at the escalating level of violence and antisocial behaviour in Lahinch, particularly on summer weekends but not exclusively so. We attribute this to the excessive consumption of alcohol, whether bought in the village or brought in, and to the culture of binge drinking.”

It claims some of these problems result from illegal camping and overnight parking in the council car park on the Miltown Road.

“Hundreds of young people camp there on long weekends and cause havoc, playing their car stereos at top volume until 5am,” says the petition, which claims that more trouble is caused by the “indiscriminate renting” of holiday homes to large groups of young people.

Ms Comber said there were three disco venues in the town of Lahinch, officially sanctioned to cater for almost 1,100 people — several hundred more than the figure a few months ago.

Adrian Kelly, the chief fire officer for Clare County Council, confirmed that there were now three disco venues in Lahinch and said the numbers had increased to 1,085 from 655, but pointed out that this was primarily due to the re-opening of one venue which had been closed, and to the fact that another venue had been able to increase its clientele numbers after installing a new exit door.

Superintendent Eamon Dolan, of Ennistymon gardaí, said the situation was not out of control and that complaints by local residents were being addressed by gardaí.

“The vast majority of people who come to Lahinch behave themselves, but you have a tiny minority of people who come in and misbehave. They do get drunk,” he said.

Supt Dolan said additional gardaí were put in place to supplement local gardaí at weekends, and on some Saturday nights a team of up to 12 gardaí were on patrol in Lahinch.

“We get complaints and the complaints are acted upon,” he said, adding that a lot of cases which came before Ennistymon District Court last week were initiated in Lahinch.

“My feedback is that Lahinch was better policed this summer than in previous summers,” he said, adding that a public order van had been patrolling the west Clare seaside resorts over the past six weeks on a full time basis. An additional policeman would be based in Lahinch in the near future, he said, which would bring the total number of gardaí based in the village to one sergeant and two gardaí.

The petition calls for, among other things, a moratorium on new holiday homes in Lahinch “until we can manage the hundreds we already have,” assurances that the new bye-laws against drinking in public will be rigorously enforced, a more visible garda presence in Lahinch at all times and a greatly increased force on bank holiday weekends. It also wants a review of the entire judicial process by which late-night drinking licenses and planning permissions are granted.