Knife crime - More will die if action is not taken

IF eleven young people had died of drug overdoses in the past seven months, there would be a public outcry.

Yet, even though 11 fatal stabbings have occurred so far this year, including the latest killing of a 19-year-old in Swords, Co Dublin, despite the near epidemic scale of the problem, the reaction has been muted.

This increase in gratuitous violence, invariably fuelled by alcohol, is extremely worrying. Behind the chilling list of the 11 victims named in today’s report lies a nationwide pattern of violent crime, ranging from Dublin to Kildare, Waterford, Meath, Cork and Tipperary.