Shock as taxi driver (73) robbed and assaulted on busy afternoon
By Aideen O'Flaherty
A TAXI driver who was robbed and assaulted on Fortunestown Road on Saturday afternoon is speaking out about his ordeal as he wants to make the community aware of the difficulties taxi drivers in the area face, adding that taxi drivers “just want to do their work in peace”.
PJ O’Connell (73) picked up a fare from the taxi rank in The Square at around 2pm on Saturday afternoon, and took his passenger on a short journey to Fortunestown Road, at the back of St Mark’s GAA Club.
One of the incidents occurred along Cookstown Road on Saturday afternoon
When they arrived at that location the passenger was standing near the driver’s side window and asked PJ if he had change for a €50 note.
As PJ was counting the change the passenger lunged into the window, grabbed PJ’s arm and took €35, and unsuccessfully attempted to take a mobile phone that was mounted on the windscreen, before running away.
PJ, who has worked as a taxi driver for over 46 years, told The Echo: “I got an awful fright – he caught me unawares, and something like that hasn’t happened to me before in all my years of taxiing.
“I was shocked. He could’ve punched me. He headed straight over a wall and then he was gone.”
PJ then returned to The Square where he alerted the shopping centre’s security team about what had happened, and he reported to the incident to a garda.
He added: “I only work in the taxi three or four days a week – I’m semi-retired – but I will go back to it, even though I will be apprehensive and I’ll be looking over my shoulder.
“As taxi drivers, we’re serving the community of The Square. Most of our work is to do with shoppers, and a lot of the drivers there don’t work anywhere else.
“We know it’s only a small minority that do things like this, but we want to be able to do our work in peace and without any hassle.”
This is just one of a spate of taxi driver robberies that have happened in Tallaght, with the most recent one taking place in Cloonmore on Tuesday night, where the driver was allegedly struck by three male passengers who took a sum of cash and other items.
Early last week, another taxi driver was assaulted in Belgard at about 9am, where one male pushed his head against the driver’s side window, while another pulled his hand behind his back and “nearly broke his arm”, according to another taxi driver.
A Tallaght-based taxi driver, who knows the taxi driver who was assaulted in Belgard and asked to remain anonymous, told The Echo: “The driver got a job through an app to go to Kilclare, where he collected two fellas.
“They stopped at a house in Belgard, and one of the fellas pushed the taxi driver’s head against the side window, while another grabbed his hand behind him and pulled his arm back – they nearly broke his arm.”
The driver added: “Stuff like this makes me nervous, but we all have to go out and make a living.
“We know that these things don’t only happen in Tallaght, but it’s just that these two [incidents] happened to be in Tallaght.”
A garda spokesperson was contacted for comment, but a response was not received in time for print.
