Life is hell for families on a besieged Tallaght estate where thugs flout the law - and local immigrants are directly in the firing line. VIKTOR POSUDNEVSKY reports
SOUTH Dublin’s mayor has issued a warning plea over a campaign of intimidation in her housing estate, where foreign nationals are increasingly the targets of sickening taunts and violence.
A series of cruel attacks in Sundale, an estate in Tallaght, has seen mainly immigrant families physically harassed, intimidated and racially abused by a group of youths, whose spree of anti-social behaviour has forced one Nigerian family to flee.
Mayor of South Dublin and Sundale resident Marie Corr told Metro Éireann she is “very concerned” about the situation, and has met with Tallaght Garda Station’s superintendent.
“I’m treating it very seriously,” she said last week. “It seems to be an issue surrounding non-national families. There were much fewer complaints from the Irish residents.”
Another resident, however, believes the attacks go beyond immigrants. “They are targeting every single human being,” the source said. “They are terrorising all of the neighbourhood.”
In one of the latest incidents, which occurred on 23 February, the house of a Nigerian resident was robbed and damaged. The man found his front door kicked in, with a huge hole gaping in the middle. Windows were smashed and the house was ransacked.
According to this resident, before gardaí arrived at the scene a group of around a dozen Irish youths appeared, shouting racial abuse and claiming they carried out the robbery. A scuffle broke out between the youths and several Nigerians who had come to sympathise with the family.
The man said his seven-year-old son is now afraid to go outside, and he’s making plans to move his family elsewhere. “Every time the doorbell rings my son and wife are scared,” he said.
It was only the latest in a series of attacks on foreign nationals in Sundale since November. Metro Éireann has learned of:
- an immigrant family that was repeatedly targeted by a gang of minors, who damaged their property;
- an African woman whose windows were broken;
- rotten chickens placed on the doorsteps of houses occupied by immigrants;
- an alleged physical assault on an immigrant; and
- a Nigerian national whose wife was abused and car damaged and. This man moved out of the estate at the beginning of March for fear of further attacks.
Mayor Marie Corr said: “I’m very concerned. It seems the families who are not white are being targeted. There are many eastern Europeans living in the area, but I have not had any complaints from them.”
All non-Irish national residents who spoke to Metro Éireann on condition of anonymity expressed fear that their families could be targeted again if their names are revealed. One speculated that the level of hostility could escalate into a tragedy like the murders of Polish men PaweÅ‚ Kalita and Mariusz Szwajkos in Drimnagh last year.
“It’s very frightening,” the source said. Another believed the youths “could stab you or smash you”.
A local foreign resident commented: “[The youths] wouldn’t have the guts to harass people from Tallaght because they would be challenged. That’s why they pick on people from other parts of the world.”
Mayor Corr believes that she and most residents know the source of the intimidation. “It seems that two houses are causing all the trouble, in an estate of 700 houses,” she said, referring to youths from two families who moved to the estate in recent years.
Gardaí are “very active” in tackling the problems, said the mayor, adding that restoring order was made difficult by the fact that the perpetrators are minors.
Superintendent Eamonn Dolan at Tallaght Garda Station confirmed to Metro Éireann that incidents are “under investigation” and he urged the public to report any similar attacks to the gardaí.
However, some residents have called for more assistance from the force. “All of this is happening because there is no constant presence of gardaí in the estate,” said one local.
