City centre events shouldn't be cancelled despite safety issues - Dublin Town

Ellen O'Donoghue

Events cannot be reconsidered in the capital because of what might happen at them, business group Dublin Town have said.

This comes after Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said that “serious thought” into how future events and celebrations are organised needs to be put into future events in the city, after an alleged stabbing on Monday.

The incident happened on Marlborough Street, in the aftermath of the Olympics homecoming event on O'Connell Street.

However, Dublin’s Lord Mayor James Geoghegan said events can and should still take place.

“We saw those horrific scenes in O’Connell Street in November of last year, what a difference it made to see our main thoroughfare, our main street in Dublin looking as well as it did with thousands and thousands of young people screaming in delight,” he told Newstalk.

“That doesn’t take away from the fact that in our city we have ongoing challenges in relation to crime and anti-social behaviour, and they have to be tackled.

“But that doesn’t mean that we can’t keep encouraging people to come into our city and give people good reasons to come into our city, and the best reason of all to give people to come into our city was to celebrate our Olympic heroes,” he added.

It has also been claimed that ignoring parts of the city for events because there might be some anti-social behaviour would reduce confidence in public perception.

“We do need to have a city that is comfortable and welcoming for all, and I think that’s where we need to focus our attention and I think we can do that,” Dublin Town CEO Richard Guiney told the radio station.

20,000 people turned up on Monday for the homecoming, and Lord Mayor James Geoghegan says that shows how viable it is to hold such events.