in ireland now

Starbucks cafe. Dawson Street. 7.30pm. Lots of pretty girls. Burble of conversation. A relaxed carefree night in Dublin. Yet the shock is here too. The whole of Ireland is in shock. You can feel it. Even amid the cacaphony of conversation in an evening cafe. Pure shock. We've had so many stabbings these past few days that people don't know what to think. The regular gangland murders have been continuing. Then there's been a spate of knifings in the rural fastness of Mayo as a fresh feud spills into the public domain. Then there's been the stabbing murder in the Phoenix Park of a Romanian woman who used to beg on O'Connell Street bridge. All this and the police have just released a statement claiming there is no epidemic of knife crime in Ireland. Hilarious, no. And just yesterday we had another and yet more gruesome series of stabbings in the capital. A 22 year old guy with First Ride Syndrome apparently stabbed his ex girlfriend, her new man, the new man's brother and himself. The guy himself and the new man are dead. By the way in relation to this latest blatent evidence of a blatently overtly blatent epidemic of blatent knife crime in blatent bleeding Ireland, I use the phrase "apparently stabbed" because I feel this is one case where a bit of dispassionate left wing restraint and caution is called for. My journalistic experience tells me that it is very difficult to commit suicide by stabbing oneself through the heart. The aversion and self preservation instinct for such an extreme self inflicted knife wound is almost insurmountable. But hey what do I know. My journalistic instinct also tells me that the Irish cops are as usual making a balls of the investigation by failing to interview the two surviving "victims" until, as the police put it, "they are well enough to be interviewed." This will of course give them plenty of time to get their stories straight if perchance they have anything to hide. I wonder did the cops even bother sweeping the place for drugs. The last time Irish police displayed this sort of crass incompetence was a few years ago when a Dublin bus driver murdered five people by driving his bus through them on the pavement. At the time the police said they would allow the driver to receive "counselling" before interviewing him. You couldn't make it up. Someone in the Dublin Bus company did try to facilitate the emergence of the truth by immediately stating categorically to the media that extensive tests had been carried out and there was no fault with the vehicle. But the murderer was able to get paid testimony from an expert witness, ie a liar, who stated in court that he thought there could have been a surge of power in the engine which might somehow have forced the bus onto the pavement and into a crowd of people. The bus driver himself when the police finally got around to interviewing him, simply said he had no memory of what had happened. That's how you get away with five murders in Ireland. Back to the present. Tonight in Starbucks there is, on the surface of it, a relaxed casual atmosphere. But when you take a closer look you can sense the tension. At every table people are leaning towards each other talking in hushed whispers. They're talking about the four most recent stabbings. The sense of shock is palpable. And some of us. Just some of us. Are starting to wonder. How.
Do.
We.
Stop.
This.