‘This could happen anywhere’: Local concerns linger after garda stabbed on Dublin's Capel Street

TRAVELLING DOWN CAPEL Street this morning, pedestrians would hardly notice anything amiss. Coffee shops were open and charity shops were lifting their shutters for another day of business. 

After the stabbing attack yesterday evening which left a young garda hospitalised, life was back to normal on the pedestrianised street in north Dublin city centre after the garda cordon around the crime scene was lifted overnight.

It was an unusually serious and high-profile incident for Capel Street, where most issues tend to be low-level.

The area usually faces the same issues as any busy city-centre thoroughfare, from petty crime to noise and public disorder.

At Slattery’s pub, a garda community support van parked up just before 10am.

“Here we go again,” a woman sitting on a nearby bench said.

Asked what she meant, the woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said that gardaí are “trying to do something by showing up a lot” on Capel Street.

“It won’t fix the problems, though,” she added.

The stabbing attack occurred during a routine, high-visibility garda patrol on the street. 

The garda was wounded in the tricep area of his right arm, and his stab vest sustained some impact damage.

A man in his 20s was arrested at the scene and is being held at a garda station in Dublin. Pepper spray and batons were used to detain him.

According to Louis Copeland, fourth-generation owner of Capel Street clothing store Louis Copeland and Sons, the stabbing was a one-off incident.

“The last couple of months, there has been a huge presence of gardaí in the street, and I think what happened last night was an isolated case,” Copeland said.

Shortly before speaking to The Journal, Copeland had approached two gardaí patrolling the street to ask about the injured officer and was told that the officer “will be alright”.

“The gardaí are a great presence here, and they work well with the retailers,” Copeland said.

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Asked about the stabbing, he stated that it “could happen anywhere”.

“It doesn’t have to be Capel Street, it could be Timbuktu. There is a greater garda presence on Capel Street in recent months though, and people do feel safer for it,” Copeland said.

Gardaí in Dublin have placed more high visibility garda patrols in Dublin city centre since March, as part of a new strategy designed to give people a greater sense of garda presence in areas where the most people congregate in the city centre.

A number of other business owners on the street told The Journal that they had not even heard about the stabbing, and praised the increased garda presence in recent months.

‘Used as a toilet’

Not everyone agreed that Capel Street feels safer since the increased garda presence, however.

One resident walking his dog said that “drunks, lowlifes and stag parties” regularly left a mess and caused disruptions on the street during the evening and early morning.

He added that there was often open drug dealing on Capel Street, as well as on the nearby Jervis Lane, which another pedestrian said is “used as a toilet”.

“Some of the things that go on here, you wouldn’t see it in the Lebanon,” he said.

Pawel, a business owner on Capel Street, said that the road is “divided” in terms of disorderly behaviour.

“On the south end of the street, there’s much less anti-social behaviour, but once you pass the Luas lines, it’s a bit of an odder crowd,” he said.

Pawel, whose shop was one of many targeted during citywide riots in November 2023, said that the culture of the city “has shifted” in the last two years.

He added that despite the shift, the stabbing was still “very much a surprise”.

“The stabbing was the first time I’ve heard about anything of that magnitude happening here,” he said.

“I have seen a couple of punch-ups, fights and loud arguments, but I’ve never seen it escalate to that before.”

Another business owner in the area, who asked to remain anonymous, said that in the last two years, anti-social and criminal behaviour among young people on the street has increased.

“You see big groups of teenagers, they could be as young as 15, dealing drugs non-stop,” the owner said.

“I’ve no answer to the problem, a lot of people need more help than what the gardaí can give,” they added.

Pawel said the problem is “complex” and difficult to solve, but believes extra gardaí may not be the answer.

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