‘So many young people seem intent on using violence’
Last year, it was the deaths of two young Polish men, who had the misfortune of having a minor altercation with a gang of teenagers outside a chip shop in the working class suburb of Drimnagh in south Dublin. It had been a truly horrific attack, in which a screwdriver had been used. The Polish men suffered severe head injuries. The attack took place at tea-time, in broad daylight.
This year, the scene is a settled middle-class enclave, Cuala Grove in Bray, Co Wicklow.
Details of the case have been well aired this week. People continue to struggle to make sense of it.
We will never know what went through Shane Clancy’s head when he drove Sebastian Creane home last Sunday morning. Or what pushed him to drive to a 24-hour supermarket and buy a block of knives. Or how he came to act on his urges and drive a knife into Sebastian’s chest, stab the victim’s brother Dylan Creane six times and drive a knife into the back of his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Hannigan. We will never know the answer because Shane Clancy then decided to take his own life.
From what we can gather, it appears he was unable to deal with the break-up of his relationship with Ms Hannigan and the fact that she was going out with Sebastian Creane.
At a funeral Mass, Fr John McDonagh said Mr Clancy was “overtaken by a cruel darkness”. He pointed to Mr Clancy’s generous nature and the work he had done for charity. He was a student of theology in Trinity which suggests an interest in morality and right conduct.
The details of this case seem to defy sociological factors typically cited as causes of crime and violence. This was not a case of severe disadvantage, of a dysfunctional background or of substance abuse.
While there have been reports that Mr Clancy had suffered at some stage from depression, it is not clear if that was a factor.
“You look at the case in Bray, which seems to be a fit of depression or anger, that is impossible to prevent. All the education in the world would not stop that,” said long-time youth worker Eddie D’Arcy, who runs the Ronanstown /Clondalkin Youth Service in west Dublin.
Indeed, knife homicides are a rarity in Co Wicklow. Garda figures provided to the Irish Examiner show Mr Creane was the first victim of a knife homicide in the county in the last six years.
The slaughter on Cuala Road was preceded by a series of nasty knife attacks in different parts of Mayo.
The attacks left one man – 24-year-old Francis Heneghan – dead, an undercover garda, 32-year-old Daryl Mullen, seriously injured and four other men injured.
But again, there was no history of serious knife crime in Mayo. Similar to Wicklow, Mr Heneghan was the first victim of a knife homicide in Mayo in the last six years.
Getting a grasp of the scale of knife crime in Ireland is not easy. Statistics can often be read in different ways. But CSO figures provided to the Irish Examiner suggest a large (50%) increase in serious assaults involving knives between 2003 and 2008.
They also show a sharp rise in knife homicides between 2003 and 2007 (eight to 34), but a sharp drop in 2008 (12). Separate Garda figures indicate there have been 10 knife deaths so far this year.
They further show that knife-related crimes rose from 1,129 in 2004 to 1,530 last year (up 35%). Some 1,030 offences have been recorded to date this year.
Possession of knife offences jumped from 75 in 2004 to 308 in 2008. Gardaí say this reflects greater enforcement, rather than necessarily a rise in knife carrying.
Joan Dean of AdVIC, an advocate group for families of homicide victims, said: “There’s an underlying problem of violence in our young people. So many young people seem intent on using violence and the assault statistics back that up. There’s no regard for human life.”
Ms Dean said the present concern over knives was not the main issue: “The weapon is almost irrelevant, although the accessibility of knives is important. The real worry is the cause of the violence.”
She said there needed to be greater deterrence in terms of sentencing. She called for a Violent Offenders Register, similar to the Sex Offenders Register.
Mr D’Arcy said he didn’t think there had been “any particular upsurge” in a capacity for violence among young people.
“Most young people who carry knives feel some way threatened, from other people carrying knives or they are in conflict with a group or individual. They’re thinking ‘if they are, I’m going to be’. It’s not that ‘I’m going to stab someone’, although that is there with some. But the fear is if we continue to slide, we’ll end up like Manchester.”
He agrees that young people have to realise there are serious consequences to carrying knives. “The only thing that will stop them is if there is a severe penalty if they are caught carrying one. There needs to be real consequences, they need to be remanded in custody for a month, that’s an immediate consequence that registers with young people.”
He said awareness campaigns need to be built into the core curriculum of youth projects and Garda diversion programmes and need to be sustained over time.
Last February, the Gardaí launched the How Big Do You Feel Campaign. It’s targeting 12 parts of the country where there is a knife problem and is running an awareness roadshow in schools.
The online component to the campaign was criticised this week by a mental health organisation, Headstrong, for not “speaking to young people”.
But Garda sources believe the face-to-face interaction between trained community gardaí and young people is the most important thing.
Mr D’Arcy believes this is a crucial area and said that they had “worked very hard” to try and foster this relationship.
He said they had an open house in Neilstown. “We engage with the guards on bikes and foot patrol. They come in, play pool and interact with the young people. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s working reasonably well.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
