Gardaí were dealing with disturbances caused by crowds of youths last evening as hundreds of revellers arrived at Portmarnock beach.
There were public order issues in the north Dublin suburbs with some 1,500 people on the beach.
Three arrests were made for minor public order offences.
According to eye witnesses, the main flashpoint happened at about 6pm on the beach when two gangs of youths began fighting and throwing bottles. However, witnesses spoke of several little skirmishes across the day.
Alcohol consumption
A local shopowner put the number of revellers at more than 1,000 during the the course of the day and said there was heavy alcohol consumption.
“From 1pm it was hot and heavy, drink, drink, drink,” said Michael Doyle, who had to man the door of his shop to control the crowds.
He said it was a normal occurrence in Portmarnock, citing a riot last year after buses refused to take rowdy teenagers.
The youths had been disturbing the peace of people enjoying the weather, a Garda spokesman said. There were no serious injuries or arrests, he said.
Last night, gardaí maintained a heavy presence in the area and after 7.30pm were supervising large groups of teenagers on to buses. Large crowds of youths were seen walking away from the beach area. At one bus stop at least 10 uniformed, as well as other plain-clothes gardaí in stab-proof vests, stood around a crowd of teenagers awaiting a Dublin Bus into the city centre.
A series of small skirmishes broke out at about 8pm outside a row of shops with one youth restrained by gardaí.
One couple came down to the beach to make sure that their children were okay. “It was frightening for the kids and families on the beach and then you ask yourself where they get all this drink from,” said Dee Smyth.
Her husband, John, who had witnessed a fight on the beach earlier that evening, said gardaí had to call for back-up.
