Campaign targets knife-carrying youths

A SERIES of roadshows are to be held across the country as part of a Garda awareness campaign targeting the carrying of knives by young people.

Gardaí have also set up a dedicated website for young people, as well as links with social networking sites, including Bebo, Facebook and Twitter.

“This is one element of An Garda Síochána’s ongoing awareness-raising activity directed at preventing crime and reducing the kind of antisocial behaviour which affects communities,” said Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy at the campaign launch.

“It will be rolled out throughout the country and includes a series of workshops with school children, meetings led by community gardaí and a number of online elements.”

He said 12 roadshows will be held in different parts of the country. The first took place in Ballyfermot, south west Dublin, last month, which was attended by local youths.

At the launch, they played a clip from the Ballyfermot event, at which Dublin GAA star Jason Sherlock and Graham Barrett, formerly of Arsenal and now of Falkirk in the Scottish Premier League, spoke to young people.

The events will target areas considered to have a knife crime problem, including Dublin’s inner city, Blanchardstown in west Dublin, Cork’s northside, Limerick city and Carlow.

The commissioner said the campaign, How Big Do You Feel?, was built around the work which community gardaí were already doing with young people in schools. He said that while Ireland was not plagued by the same sustained high level of knife deaths as in other countries, including Britain, there had been a series of high profile incidents here.

He said gardaí had noticed a rise in knife carrying in the contexts of crime such as assault.

“With that in mind we want to intervene early with young people and bring home to them the dangers of deciding to carry a knife, not least of which is the risk that it will be used on themselves,” said the commissioner.

The campaign has set up two websites. The first, howbigdoyoufeel.ie, is aimed at young people. It has a number of video clips, advice and links, including to mental health groups, as well as social networking sties, such as Bebo and Facebook. The second site, knifefacts.ie, is aimed at an older audience.