Gardai called to deal with binge drinking in Sean Walsh Park

SEAN Walsh Park was the location of a full-blown drinking session overnight and through to the early hours on Sunday morning, with parkgoers seeing a group drinking and lighting trees on fire next to the playground.

Right at the time when families begin to visit the Tallaght park on a Sunday morning, they were greeted with a group on the roll-over from an overnight session next to the playground.

The group of individuals were gathered around a fire, fueled by broken trees, in deck chairs drinking and listening to music, creating an “intimidating” and “unsafe” environment, according to Cllr Teresa Costello.

It is understood that the group were purposefully trying to intimidate parkgoers.

“I was walking through Sean Walsh Park, living my best life, then I heard music, I started smelling burning and then I seen there was some activity, they were pulling trees out of the ground and setting them on fire, and there was an accumulation of rubbish,” Cllr Costello (FF) tells The Echo.

“There was a full-blown session going on in the park at the back of the playground there.

“It was half eight in the morning and they were still on it, deck chairs out and everything, and it was at a time when people with their kids would be coming into the park.

“I don’t know what they were on but I’ve never seen carry on like it, there’s people going to the toilet in that park and everything.

“I’m not one to scaremonger or anything like that, but this was different and totally out of line, it was genuinely intimidating.

“I think it is particularly dangerous and unsafe to have this type of activity in the park, next to a playground, the houses nearby, and for the council having to clean it up as well.

“It was just totally uncivilised and there’s no place for it. I really feel for people walking through the park, it’s so uncomfortable and it needs to end now.”

In a statement to The Echo on Wednesday afternoon, Gardaí acknowledged that they responded to a public order incident at the time.

“Gardaí responded to reports of an alleged public order incident at a park in Tallaght, Dublin 24 on Sunday, 10th September 2023 at approximately 9.30am,” a spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said.

“No offences were disclosed.”

Asocial behaviour at Sean Walsh Park has become increasingly more common in recent years which as led to residents, many of whom are elderly, avoiding it entirely.

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