Anger over attack on Spanish students

LOCAL youths, backed up by adults, who attacked a group of about 50 young Spanish students with stones in Skerries, Co Dublin in broad daylight must be brought to book, Fine Gael’s Dr James Reilly urged yesterday.

While none of the students, who are in their early teens, was seriously injured, two were too upset and frightened to continue their holiday in Ireland and have returned to Spain.

A number of people living in Skerries contacted RTÉ’s Liveline yesterday to express their disgust at the attack but were too afraid to identify themselves.

Dr Reilly said he was very worried about the damage done to the seaside town’s reputation for being welcoming and friendly and has called for a full garda investigation of the attack.

Dr Reilly said there had been an “unruly element” in the town for some time.

“There have been numerous complaints made to me and to the gardaí relating to large groups of youths gathering to drink alcohol in public places, not just in Skerries but throughout north Dublin,” he said.

Dr Reilly believed more youth facilities and more gardaí in the area would make a difference.

“There is always at the core one or two individuals who will, no matter what is available to them, engage in this sort of activity but they bring along with them many others who, out of boredom, join in.”

A woman called Jane said she was involved with the group of students who were attacked last Wednesday at around 2pm as they waited for a bus outside the town’s community centre.

“The thugs were waiting for them with stones. I begged and pleaded with them to stop,” said Jane, one of the adults escorting the group at the time.

“What frightened me is that these Irish thugs rang for back-up and adults arrived to fight with my Spanish children,” she said.

Some of the children sustained cuts and bruises and two were too upset to continue their holiday.

Jane is also furious that the attackers also took away the right of the Spanish group to move freely in the town. “I am ashamed that it has happened,” she said.

“We have got their spirits up again because we spent a lot of time with these children and the Irish families who are looking after them are fantastic,” she said.

Another woman called Mary, who was out for a walk with her young children, said she was absolutely appalled by the incident.

She saw a group of people, including men in their 20s, beating and kicking the Spanish children, who did not know what to do and were crying out for help.

Mary said people with children stood and stared. While people rang the gardaí, they were unable to intervene themselves. “It was like a war in the middle of the road,” she recalled.

Mary said the incident lasted about 15 minutes. “It was not the Spanish who were being rough, it was the Irish,” she insisted.

But Luan, 14, who also claimed to have witnessed the incident, insisted it was the Spanish who started the fight. He said an older Spanish student in his 20s had hit his friend’s head off a wall.

“He (the friend) rang his brother and his brother came up in a van with a few friends,” said Luan, who said there were about 15 people from Skerries involved.

“They had no stones. That’s lies. There were no weapons at all in it,” he said.