Dublin in top 10 unsafe European destinations
City centre lane closed as it is too dangerous
DUBLIN is amongst the most unsafe major nightlife destinations in Europe, a new global study has revealed.
The Irish capital made the top 10 coming in at 9th position in the OLBG research.
Three British cities landed higher than Dublin with Birmingham being the most dangerous and Manchester and London coming in at fifth and eighth place respectively.
Italian city Naples came in second position with French capital Paris taking third spot.
The Greek capital Athens was fourth with Lyon and Brussels coming sixth and seventh. The Italian city of Milan completed the top 10.
It comes as a Dublin city centre lane has been closed off to members of the public because it has become too dangerous.
Harbour Court, located opposite the Abbey
Theatre, has been the location of uncontrollable anti-social behaviour, drug use and illegal dumping, Dublin City Council say.
The laneway is a pedestrian route with access to the quays.
Councillor Nial Ring said the closure decision had to be made, as the area was extremely difficult to police. Mr Ring told Newstalk: “It’s half the length of O’connell Street and gardai haven’t got the resources to patrol O’connell Street so what chance is there that they could in any way patrol a lane?
“Unfortunately, it’s one of these streets where there are three ways in, three ways out. You can go in, do your drug deal, hop on the Luas, do your drug deal, run into the board walk and disappear there.”
In a statement, Dublin City Council said that over the last 10 years, a number of businesses in the area requested that the public right of way to the laneway be “extinguished”.
Green Party Councillor for Dublin North Inner City Janet Horner described the decision to close the lane as “incredibly disappointing” and a “big defeat” for the people.
She said no one was denying that there are significant anti-social behaviour issues there, but shutting the space will not solve the problems.