‘Weed or crack?’ - How it took me just minutes to be offered drugs on Talbot Street
Just metres away from one of Dublin’s busiest streets, drugs are openly for sale.Only a few minutes and a short stroll from our own offices, Crime World was offered drugs, include marijuana, cocaine, and crack, just off Talbot Street.At the end of a pedestrian alleyway, which boasts a coffee shop popular with office workers, several hooded youths on electric scooters with faces and heads covered approached our reporter.“Weed?” They asked, referring to marijuana, and when asked how much, replied: “Fifty.”When we hesitated they then offered cocaine for €80 and crack cocaine for €100.The much-troubled city street that has previously made headlines through its share of anti-social behaviour remains a blackspot despite recent efforts to clean up its image.Asked if he felt safe walking along Talbot Street, Gary Gannon, the Dublin Central TD who has raised issues including drug-dealing and anti-social behaviour in the north inner city, said there was a “chaotic energy” to the street that has always been there.“But that’s not what bothers me about Talbot Street,” he told Crime World.“That street suffers not only from State neglect but also from mismanagement.“On the street itself and just off it, over the last five to ten years, the government and council have created a scenario where they’ve placed lots of vulnerable people with addiction issues and other issues.“There are homeless accommodation hostels in and around the street and Gardiner Street with people who have hugely complicated needs.“And when you put all these people together in the one environment, it creates its own market for drugs.“That means you have those lads on the scooters tapping into a market that was effectively created by the State.“And they regulate that market through violence and intimidation.”Gardai patrol Talbot Street. File photo Earlier this year, Deputy Gannon claimed that council workers were afraid to work in three inner city parks as they were too dangerous to work in.The Social Democrats justice spokesperson highlighted how Mountjoy Square - as well as Diamond Park and Liberty Park – which are all near Talbot Street – were no-go areas for locals at certain times of day.Anti-social behaviour in the three parks had been an issue for years, Gannon said, with problems with anti-social behaviour along the Royal Canal between North Wall and Croke Park.He said in those areas and in flat complexes around the area there was a significant problem with open drug dealing and drug-related intimidation.“There is a lot of violence, open drug dealing that just seems to be tolerated, particularly in the park areas, and it’s having a genuine impact,” he said at the time.Asked about the violence he referred to, Deputy Gannon told Crime World: “One of the things that we don’t talk about when it comes to those lads on the scooters is that fact that they all have bosses above them, who have groomed them into it through money or violence”.Deputy Gannon also took issue with comments made this summer by Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan when said he feels safe walking around the capital city “any time of the day or night”.Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan. Responding to concerns raised following a number of attacks on Indian people in the capital, the minister said: “I think it’s important to point out, however, that when you look at the latest crime statistics, that assaults on the person are down in terms of the first six months of this year from the first six months of last year.“It’s also the case that there are more gardaí on the streets in Dublin,” O’Callaghan said. Asked if increased Garda visibility on Talbot Street, which has been touted in the past as a deterrent, would work, Deputy Gannon said that not only did he not believe it, the gardai also did not think so.“The guards there in Store Street are being asked to do an impossible job,” he said. “You cannot police addiction. You can move the sale of drugs from one corner to another, but if you lock a bunch of young lads up you’ll just see another bunch coming up behind them.”Read moreSecurity guard tells how he took down armed shoplifter on Talbot Street with martial arts skills“When you take over BnBs and commercial interests around the city and convert them into homeless accommodations without providing support, this is what happens.”One of the most notorious incident that occurred on the street was the attack on US tourist Stephen Termini in 2023.Described as “lucky to be alive” after his ordeal, the 57-year-old was subjected to a serious assault by three teenage boys on the night of July 19.Stephen Termini at court in Dublin. Photo: Collins He suffered life-threatening injuries, including a bleed to the brain, skull fractures, and an orbital fracture, and was placed in a coma. The attack made national headlines and raised the issue of law and order and safety in Dublin. Read moreRevealed: Areas of Dublin where crime rate is 1,000pc higher than national averageThe then Justice Minister Helen McEntee was later criticised when she engaged in a high profile “walkabout” near the scene of the attack as she insisted the city was “safe”.During a high-profile visit to Store Street Garda Station located justmetres from where Termini was assaulted, the minister acknowledged that “things are not perfect” in the city centre and there are “issues that need to be resolved”.However, she added: “I do think our city is safe. I have to stress that whether you’re living here, working here or whether you’re a tourist here.“I do think our city is safe but we do, like any other city, have problems that we need to try and address – not least the horrific incident that happened this week.”Central Dublin independent councillor Nial Ring reacted angrily to her comments, saying at the time that it had “angered the public around the area beyond belief”.Speaking at a meeting of the city council’s joint policing committee,Cllr Ring - who represents the area, said the walkabout was like a circus.The former Lord Mayor of Dublin, said: “The relationship in the north inner city between the gardai and the local people is actually at an all-time high because we had the Kinahan-Hutch feud and the gardai did an amazing job.“I don’t think what was any good for that was the Minister for Justice coming down Talbot Street in a circus-like performance flanked by two gardai and then telling us it’s safe.”
