Alcohol fuels culture of violence

THE phenomenon of casual violence on the streets of Ireland’s cities and towns reflects an extremely worrying trend.

There is mounting evidence of a direct link between abuse of alcohol and the relentless rise of crimes of violence. So dire is the situation that more than 30 assaults are taking place every day as a result of alcohol-related street attacks.

Now running at an alarmingly high rate, some 240 offences are detected by the gardaí every day. What is truly frightening is that around 30 cases involve violent assault, including an average of five attacks of a highly serious nature.