A COMMUNITY meeting to respond to anti-social and criminal behaviour in Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin, was abandoned last night because of a bomb scare, according to a resident who was at the meeting.
The entire Dolphin House complex, the largest social housing scheme in the State, was evacuated after a device was found at the entrance to the community hall in the complex and the Army bomb squad was called in.
About 110 residents of Dolphin House attended the meeting after an incident at the weekend in which up to 30 cars had their tyres slashed or paintwork damaged by men wearing balaclavas in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Last night’s meeting, organised by the Dolphin’s Barn Community Development Association, was also attended by Dublin City Council officials and gardaí.
The meeting was under way for just 10 minutes when the community centre had to be evacuated.
One resident, who declined to be named, claimed the bomb scare was part of reprisals by drug dealers because of a strong Garda presence in the complex aimed at stopping drug-dealing in the area.
The resident said there were people outside the complex taking photographs of residents leaving the meeting. “This is pure intimidation and people are terrified.”
There was a “sense of community for the past week because of the strong Garda presence, with gardaí coming into the complex and patrolling the stairwells”, but when the Garda presence was reduced at the weekend the cars were vandalised, according to the resident. The resident added that graffiti had been daubed on the side of a building saying, “gardaí stay in – getting worse” – a reference to further reprisals.
The meeting had been rescheduled for next Monday, but “there is such intimidation and it’s getting worse – I don’t know will people turn out”, said the resident.
