Court thugs make trader’s life a misery

A TRALEE town centre shop owner is calling for more gardaí to patrol the streets after she was subjected to a day of threats and intimidation at the hands of various young thugs.

The woman – who has asked to remain anonymous for fear she will be targeted again – told The Kerryman she had endured “the day from hell” last Thursday.

From when she opened her shop in the Ashe Street area on Thursday morning until she eventually shut her doors for the evening the woman – who was visibly upset and shaken by the day’s events – said she had been subjected to non stop abuse and intimidation from various gangs of young men who had spent the day loitering around on the steps of the Courthouse.

On three separate occasions during the day the woman – who was alone in her shop – had to ask staff from neighbouring businesses for help in removing the intimidating young men from her premises.

Later – with one gang hanging around on the street corner she said she was too intimidated to even leave her shop.

“At one point I was just going to close up early and go home but I thought why should I have to shut my business and run away because of a few young thugs,” she said.

“We need to see more Gardaí on the streets and especially on duty around the courthouse when it’s sitting. People trying to make an honest living shouldn’t have to work in fear. It’s not good enough,” she said.

Public order problems in and around Ashe Street while the courts are in session have been an issue for years and many traders in the area are growing increasingly frustrated at what they see as a lack of official action to tackle the problem.

Last January Judge James O’Connor lashed out at the state of Tralee courthouse where he said the number of people hanging around, “smoking and yapping on the steps all day” made it the most awkward courthouse in the county.

“Get them off the steps and out of the precincts of the court completely,” he told Gardaí at the time.