Local anger over bushing in Salthill Park

Residents have complained about a return to ‘bushing’ and antisocial behaviour by teenagers in Salthill during the recent fine spell over Easter.

However, Gardaí are adamant that youths were on the whole well-behaved during the school holidays.

One man – whose elderly parents live in the area and asked for his name not to be published – said the family dreaded when school was out.

“On any sunny day there could be 300 to 400 people under the age of 18 drinking away, it starts at 11am and goes on all night – it’s like Beirut. We’ve a private driveway into our house and have to regularly move them off and would get verbal abuse from them,” he insisted.

“We’d call the guards and are told there’s only three stationed in Salthill, two of them are out on patrol so there’s nothing they can do. The park is a disgrace, if you had kids you wouldn’t dream of bringing them down there. They urinate at the back of houses, leave rubbish. It’s getting worse all the time.”

A spokesperson for Gardaí in Salthill said they had no reports of antisocial behaviour, even when large crowds of sun-worshippers descended on the area last week.

“There was no issue at all in relation to antisocial behaviour in the park. We’d be very, very aware of it as we’re across the road from it,” she said.

“Yes there are groups of people who congregate there, aged 13, 14, 15, 16, all of a sudden you could have 20 there, the next thing there could be 40 and that sometimes causes trouble, but there was nothing of that nature recently.

“People have a right to use the park, some people see young people with cans but they may not be alcoholic at all. We’ve told them to be smart, avoid large groups as this can be intimidating. I was over in the park myself and saw groups sitting down, others playing football, but we have no incidents recorded in the station.”

For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune