Despite the city’s almost heroic intake of champagne last week a number of rather vicious attacks in the city made for quite sobering reading.
Last Sunday a vicious and totally unprovoked attack on Dominick Street left two man badly injured, while a 19-year-old Polish man was reportedly kicked and beaten in the head by two youths. He has not yet made a statement to gardaí.
And with the media spotlight on Galway the attacks were the subject of far more coverage nationwide than would be normal.
Allied with the fact that CSO figures show a significant increase in public order offences in Galway, Galway West’s Chief Supt Tom Curley felt forced to tell The Irish Times that violent assaults in the city are “no worse than anywhere else” in the urban areas of the country.
I would disagree with the Superintendent and say that Galway is safer than most of the other urban areas in the rest of the country.
This is a city where upwards of 15,000 mostly young people take to the streets every weekend but the city’s always feels safe and rather inviting.
Visit Dublin for instance and, even in the city’s well-lit busy streets, at night there is an undeniable air of menace and uncertainty.
I have never once felt ill at ease in Galway, no matter what time of the day or night I’ve been walking its streets. Of course the city has its problems, but we should be careful not to walk down the silly path of convincing ourselves that this city is unsafe. Because it isn’t.
