Street savagery: What is at the root of violence?

This has been a particularly gruelling week for Joe and Rosie Dolan, from Carrick-on-Shannon in Leitrim, but no more challenging or heart rending than any of the near 30 months that have passed since their son Andrew, a successful and optimistic 20-year-old college student, died after a random, drink-fuelled attack by three strangers on the streets of Mullingar.

Andrew was unknown to his attackers and had no communication with them before they fatally attacked him. He was the very definition of an innocent in absolutely the wrong place at the very worst time.

Earlier this week, after 21 traumatic court appearances, just one of Andrew’s attackers was sent to jail for three-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The two others involved did not receive custodial sentences. The very length of the court process must have added considerably to the Dolans’ anguish and it suggests again that our arcane, far too cumbersome courts system needs a robust spring cleaning.

The sanctions imposed on the three involved — two young men and a woman — seems entirely inadequate and hardly draws the kind of line in the sand that will dissuade others who turn into barbarians because they cannot drink responsibly.

Worse than that, it suggests, as Andrew’s parents lamented, there is “almost a social acceptance” of alcohol-driven street violence. This of course, no matter what the presiding judge imagined, is not the case and it is time our courts reflected the attitude of the majority of citizens to these random, insane, and very often lethal attacks. It is time those who feel free to savagely attack strangers, often tourists, as part of and an after-the-pub-before-the-chips amusement were given an opportunity, a lengthy one, to consider the error of their ways as guests of our penal system.

That of course is the easy and understandable response to this kind of barbarism but it would be far better if we did not have to confront it or its awful consequences. Nevertheless, these attacks, all too commonly focussed on tourists, raise other questions that are not so easily dealt with.

What turns mundane, ordinarily harmless, and probably decent people into the kind of thug whose highest ambition is to attack someone, anyone, to satisfy the dark instincts released by alcohol abuse?

Is a latent, unsatisfied aggression, a souring unhappiness or is it as simple as a complete lack of understanding of the consequences of violence on either the victim or the perpetrator? Is it sexual or maybe social frustration? Is it a feeling of inadequacy, of release from the norms of day-to-day decency?

Could it even be that in moments of madness some people imagine that Hollywood, Reservoir Dogs-style violence reflects some sort of plausible, tolerable behaviour? Might it be the kind of national insecurity that led to the cringe-making welcome for Donald Trump at Shannon on Monday? Might it even be an enflamed disgust with that kind of Irishness, that kind of forelock-tugging, hypocritical behaviour that lubricates so much of our national life?

There are, as there always was, far more questions than answers, or at least ones easily understood or realised, but it is possible to point to some things that might make a contribution towards ending this insanity.

Contact sports, often derided, are an excellent way to teach people how to manage aggression, how to deal with other people’s aggression and understand how very dangerous out-of-control violence can be. They most certainly, when properly managed and with correct precautions in place, have a role to play in developing the kind of character that allows a person to express and enjoy themselves without resorting to violence.

The restraint brought by basic manners, now so often derided as the class-defining mores of another age, are no more than the expression of respect for others through self discipline. It is hard not to think that had those responsible for Andrew Dolan’s death even the slightest grasp of this principle that he would not now be closer towards realising his ambition to be a doctor — and they would not have criminal records.

Could it be that, after decades of celebrating the rights of the individual, that it is time to balance that philosophy with a more assertive demand that individuals have more responsibilities than the realisation of their ambitions or the satisfaction of their desires?

Far too many families, not just those of the victims, have to carry the burden of these attacks, the result of two of our national character weaknesses — alcohol abuse and our pathetic inability to prevent those who ignore the common good from doing so. Surely it is time we confronted those failings in a better way.