THE area made headlines around the world on this weekend seven years ago — but the people of Dublin’s north inner city feel they have weathered the storm.
The assassination of Kinahan cartel thug David Byrne at the Regency Hotel on February 5, 2016, led to a campaign of murder and violence which terrified the people of the close-knit community.
Armed garda patrols and checkpoints everywhere heightened the fear felt by young and old as they waiting for the next brutal gun attack in the gangland feud that took over the area.
Eddie Hutch, Gareth Hutch, Michael Barr and Martin O’Rourke would go on to lose their lives that year as the international drugs gang waged a war in the area.
Now as we reach the seventh anniversary of that feud, which saw the killings reach a whole new level in Ireland, the situation has changed considerably.
Bernie Pierce, who manages the Lourdes Day Care Centre on Sean McDermott Street, which provides food and activities for the elderly, says it has been a difficult few years for the whole area.
She told The Irish Sun: “The community lived in fear. Armed gardai and checkpoints on the streets is not something anybody likes to see, especially elderly people.
“Our bus was regularly stopped by gardai and it was just a part of everyday life for everyone.
“And you had to feel so sorry for the families caught up in it.
“Many of the people directly affected were innocent people. Large funerals became far too common an occurrence and they were far too sad to see.
“Thankfully you don’t see that anymore, or certainly not as much. Gardai certainly patrol the neighbourhoods, but it’s not intimidating like it was years ago.
“We then had Covid to deal with over the last few years and that brought a whole new set of problems. We had to completely shut because we dealt with very vulnerable people.
“We made more meals than we’ve ever made. We’re only now starting to get back, but we still haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic and our numbers are still down. But we’re getting there.”
Bernie said that one positive from the gang war which erupted on their doorstep came in the form of some much needed Government investment in the area.
She explained: “We’ve been here 43 years and for 39 years we didn’t even have a window, we were basically a bunker trying to provide meals and entertain people.
“The Government did invest and we were able to build an extension and open a much larger centre with windows and more space, so if a positive did come from it all that was it. We had our first weekend away to Wexford since 2019 last August and we can now look forward to the summer when he often have a big day out.”
Louise Gillick is the manager of the Saint Louise’s Early Childhood Development Service, which is part of the Daughters of Charity Child and Family Service. She has worked at the facility in North William Street for 33 years.
She told how the pre-school service aims to improve the independence, communication and social skills of the 56 children who come through its doors each week.
Ms Gillick said: “We have children here from all different nationalities who engage in a wide range of activities all aimed at improving the lives of children before they go to school. We see a huge difference in children from when they come in and when they leave.
“We also work closely with parents. When there was a large armed Garda presence in the area in 2016, it wasn’t nice for the kids to see, but thankfully normality did return.”
Despite the positivity that has emerged from Dublin’s north inner city in recent times, local Social Democrats TD Garry Gannon said the scourge of drugs is still a major problem.
He said: “The feud went on for a period but when that all faded away, drugs was a still a big issue for the area and it still is. We need to look at why people take drugs and we really need to tackle those issues.
“There’s people still selling drugs, there’s people still buying drugs and it’s a still an area with a number of socio-economic problems.
“The Government have pumped €38 million in to Dublin’s north inner city over the last five years but there’s no real strategy in place to deal with the issues.
“More could still be done and that’s what we need to sit down and talk about. It’s not right to say the north inner city is now thriving. There are still plenty of problems.”
Four months after the Regency Hotel murder, then Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced the North East Inner City Initiative, a Ministerial Taskforce which involved a multi-million-euro long-term social and economic regeneration of the area.
The measures included an additional €1m package of investment in sports facilities and projects in the area, which was immediately pumped into the local district.
An extra €500,000 was spent on small-scale investments, which focused on cleaning up graffiti and derelict sites and clearing away litter, and local community and youth projects.
The area also got additional funding of €100,000 for supports for drug-related projects in the area and there was investment in arts-related projects.
The Government also announced several new initiatives to support schools and young people in the North East Inner City.
They also reopened Fitzgibbon Street garda station, which had been closed for a number of years.
The investment in the community came on the back of the focus on the community brought about by the murder of David Byrne at the Regency in 2016.
That period of notoriety for Dublin’s inner north city looks now to be finally drawing to a close with the trial of Gerry Hutch for murder — and his co-accused — nearing its end.
