In the Liberties, a large group of kids has been hanging about and “messing”, making residents nervous – what’s the solution?

A large group of kids – aged maybe 12–15 years old – have been hanging out in the Pimlico area in the evenings, “messing”, local councillors say.

“People have said to me, you know, 100 – now, that might be an exaggeration, but certainly more than 30,” says local Councillor Sinn Féin Councillor Máire Devine.

They’ve burnt bins, kicked a postbox off someone’s door, damaged parked cars, and thrown fireworks at moving cars, say local residents and councillors.

“Just generally messing,” Devine says. “But also, because you’re in such a large group, it’s quite – it can feel quite intimidating as well.”

Local youth workers went out to talk to a group of kids hanging out in Pimlico recently to see if they’d be interested in doing something more positive, says local Social Democrats Councillor Jen Cummins, a former youth worker herself.

“The young people were really enthusiastic,” said Cummins. “The problem is that the centres they have are too small for the amount of kids that want to come”.

The real problem isn’t these kids messing in this area in recent weeks, said Leanne Lowry, youth work programme manager at locally-based Solas. It’s a long-term lack of investment in the area, she said. “Young people are responding to their environment.”

“Communal space, youth facility space, green space, and pro-social activities are just not really present in the area,” Lowry said. “We would see that as leading to a lot of what’s happening in the area negatively.”

As two examples of the lack of facilities, the nearby Donore Avenue community centre has been closed since a fire in June 2021. And the former Boys Brigade sports pitches at the St Teresa’s Gardens have been closed for years too – and there’s no full-sized sports pitch in the area.

While there’s no prospect of getting the community centre reopened, or a full-sized pitch built, for years – Devine, the Sinn Féin councillor, says An Garda Síochána has plans to add more gardaí to the area.

Says Moriarty, the Labour councillor, “I don’t know if we can solely police our way out of these kinds of problems – we also need positive activities to send the kids too.”

Asked if there was a connection between a lack of community facilities in the area, and anti-social behaviour by kids , aspokesperson for Dublin City Council gave a list of facilities and activities in the area.

“With all this taken into account we feel that there is little connection between anti-social behaviour and a lack of community opportunities in the area,” she said.

Crossing the line

Local residents and business people declined to comment on the record about the group of kids gathering in the Pimlico area, for fear of then being targeted.

Local councillors said they’d been talking to residents, who are annoyed, or even scared.

“From what I understand, there’s some quite young kids, 12 to 15, a group of them that are getting a bit rowdy and messing in the area, maybe getting into even some anti-social behaviour, or criminal behaviour,” Devine said.

“The kids don’t realise the fear that they’re putting into other people because they’re in such a large group,” she said.

Moriarty, the Labour councillor, said that “Where people act in a big group like this it can come across as intimidating – and some of the behaviour has crossed the line.”

Cummins, the Social Democrats councillor said that “It’s kind of seasonal. Behaviour like this in my experience can be more challenging than at other times of the year.”

Gardaí are aware of the situation, but they can’t be around all the time, Devine says. And besides, the kids, bored and hanging out, get some fun from being moved on, she says.

“When you’re young and you have, you know, the long arm of the law rolling after you, you can see it as a bit of craic,” she says.

Young people want to be involved in their community in a positive way, but they need opportunities for that, says Lowry, of Solas.

In the Liberties area there’s little greenspace, and not enough community spaces. But quite a few courtyards and small parks are private, locked away behind gates at student accommodation and apartment complexes.

“The walls are high, the gates are high, there’s beautiful courtyards, we can see them but we can’t use them,” she says. “People feel locked out of their own community.”

Donore Avenue community centre

When the Donore Avenue community centre burnt in 2021, Fearghal Connolly, manager of the Donore Community Drug and Alcohol Team – which ran the Targeted Responses with Youth (TRY) project out of the building – said groups operating out of it hoped to be back in within six months or less.

But three years on, the council hasn’t managed to get it open again. The inside’s been stripped out, and a design team has been at work, but it’s still boarded up.

An April council presentation said the building wouldn’t be complete until the first quarter of 2026. And an August update said the plan was to reopen it that summer.

At a September meeting of the council’s South Central Area Committee, independent Councillor Vincent Jackson queried why France is able to get the Cathedral of Notre-Dame reopened faster than Dublin can get this little community centre reopened.

Executive Manager Bruce Phillips said, “This is a highly complex project unfortunately.”

The cathedral burnt in April 2019. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has been involved in the effort to rebuild this national landmark, and according to Le Monde, the project has benefited from €840 million in donations.

The Paris city government’s website has a page with a timeline showing what milestones the project has hit on its way towards completion. “Five years later, the cathedral is gradually regaining its splendour (including its famous spire!), and will reopen to the public on December 8, 2024.”

(Although, even after reopening, work on the cathedral is due to continue to 2026, according to France’s tourism board.)

Meanwhile, in Dublin, the vastly smaller community centre in Dublin is on track to take about five years from fire to reopening too, according to the council’s timeline.

At the September local area committee meeting, Jackson said that “It doesn’t wash with most people, the explanations we continue to get, that it was complex.”

Said Philips, the council executive manager, “it is receiving the highest priority. And we will continue to put all our efforts in this to get it progressed and implemented, and get communities in there as soon as possible.”

It might have received higher priority if it were in a wealthier, better (politically) connected part of Dublin than the south-west inner-city, said Stephen Rourke, chairman of the Donore Project Consultative Forum.

“Some people in the community have been saying this wouldn’t all have taken as long in a more middle-class, salubrious part of Dublin,” Rourke said last year.

Teen spaces

Maybe not all the kids who are now hanging out and messing in Pimlico might not have gone to programmes at the community centre, even if it were open, says Devine, the Sinn Féin councillor.

“Kids will always mess, but they might not mess in such a large, a large gang, you know, they might be that, you know, some of them would be busy elsewhere,” she said.

But the centre should be part of a multi-agency effort, says Cummins, the Social Democrats councillor.

That should include parents, programmes supporting parents if they need it, youth workers, and gardaí, Cummins said. “When I’m talking to people on the doors, they talk about the lack of gardaí,” she said.

There’s also a role for the council, in providing spaces for people of all ages, including kids this age, to hang out and do positive things, Cummins said.

For example, look at nearby Weaver Park, she says. There’s a playground for little kids, and a skatepark, for those who skate – but why isn’t there an area for teens? she asks

Maybe some grown-up sized swings and a place to hang out nearby, where the benches are now, near the skatepark, she suggests.

“A lot of them love swinging,” Cummins said. “Teenagers want to play too. They hang out in groups because there’s nothing else for them to do.”

And there’s a need for activities a bit later in the evening, Cummins said. “Even when the Donore Avenue centre was open, it was a little bit of a challenge to get in there. A centre like that needs to be open till at least 10pm,” she said.

Asked about whether a lack of opportunities in the area might contribute to anti-social behaviour, a council spokesperon listed local community and sports facilities. These included St. Catherine’s Community Centre; and football pitches at Marrowbone Lane, Oliver Bond, Basin Street, and Pimlico.

Also, “Dublin City Councils community development team in the south west inner city supports, collaborates and engages with over 20 youth organisations based in the immediate locality to your query,” she said. “These range from youth services, after schools services, youth clubs, performance groups, environmental projects and Summer Groups.”

At the moment, “Dublin City Councils community development team are helping to create and support a host of community events and workshops in the run up to Halloween culminating in multiple Halloween community events taking place on Halloween night,” she said.

More guards

Devine said she and party colleague Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD had met with An Garda Síochána, and that there’s a plan for more gardaí for the area.

“We’ve been promised four more community gardaí by the end of the year,” based out of the Kevin Street Garda station, Devine said.

“So that should help,” Devine said. “Of course community policing is part of the solution, but it’s only that part of it.”

The Garda press office has not responded to a query sent Friday asking whether this number and timeline are correct, and whether it was pre-planned or in response to requests from local representatives.

But adding guards to the area isn’t the response that’s needed, said Lowry, the youth work programme manager at Solas.

What’s needed is early intervention, and plenty of options for play and fun, to head-off issues before there’s even a need for gardaí, she said.

“We want to do more,” she said. “Put four more youth workers into the community, not four more police.”

“If you don’t invest in a community, you can’t expect a return,” she said.

The next meeting of the South West Inner City Community Safety Forum is scheduled for Thursday 10 October at 7pm at St Catherine’s National School on Donore Avenue.

Dublin City Council managers and senior Gardaí are scheduled to be there to listen to residents’ concerns.

UPDATE: This article was updated at 3.31pm on 10 October 2024 to include comments from Dublin City Council received after publication.