A Mayo View: Why I am saddened for our capital city

by Barbara Daly

My friend lives in Dublin. She is turning 60 this year and she has lived most of her life in London and Dublin.

She is well-used to city life and has seen her fair share of the underside of it. She has lately found Dublin to be a dangerous place with levels of aggression at an all-time high among people.

One issue which she finds very difficult is the number of cyclists, e-scooters and e-bikes using the footpaths.

She has a slight visual impairment and as a result is more vulnerable to unexpected cyclists and scooters on the path. She cycles and walks almost everywhere herself and has done so all her adult life.

In the last three months while walking and cycling in the city she has endured three separate attacks.

She also narrowly missed being hit by an e-scooter which whizzed past behind her on the footpath in the dark, as she concentrated on trying to cross the road.

The most serious attack, a physical assault, which she reported to the gardaí, occurred in broad daylight in a busy city suburb.

While stopped at a traffic lights on her bike she said to a woman who was cycling on the footpath beside her that she should not cycle on the footpath as it was dangerous for pedestrians.

The woman, in her 60s and well-dressed, dismounted and parked her bike before coming over to my friend and ordering her to get off her bike. Before my friend could react the woman punched her in the head a number of times.

A group of people were standing nearby and none of them reacted. However a woman in a car turned and came back to check on my friend.

The gardaí took the report seriously but they never managed to track down the attacker.

The physical injury had less impact on my friend than the shock of what had occurred.

A month ago my friend was waiting for a bus on the edge of the footpath on O’Connell Street in Dublin when a woman and child came towards her. They had to walk around my friend to get past and this obviously infuriated the woman. She stopped and shouted and swore at my friend for getting in her way.

Last week my friend endured another incident involving a cyclist on a footpath when she was walking. Once again an older woman on a bike.

My friend said to her as she passed that she should not be cycling on the footpath. The woman stopped her bike and returned to confront my friend, hurling abuse at her and shouting that it was her legal right to cycle on the footpath.

You might say my friend needs to stop confronting people and you would be right. She now realises that by trying to do the right thing she is putting her personal safety at risk and she needs to stop.

What does all of this casual aggression and violence say about our capital city and our society in general? When aggression and violence become normal everyday ways of interacting with each other it is extremely worrying.

Are people under greater pressure in their lives than ever before or is mental health a much bigger issue than is acknowledged?

I do not know and nor does my friend. She just feels that the city has become increasingly dangerous and unpleasant, and that everyone, no matter what their age or appearance, have to be regarded as possible aggressors.

I want to bring my children to Dublin as they have never been but right now I am reluctant. I am nervous of what they might witness.

I grew up an hour from Dublin and I have always loved the city.

My siblings and I have all lived there over the years. As a teenager I would have gone with friends to Dublin on the bus to go shopping without any fear for my safety.

It saddens me to think that I am now reluctant to visit Dublin and that our capital city is no longer a place to experience but possibly one to avoid.