Heroin dealing in Summerhill has decreased dramatically in the last year, according to gardai. They say this is due to the increased efforts of their officers and other State bodies, as well as residents' activism and increased treatment facilities for addicts.
"Residents in flat complexes are making far fewer complaints about drug dealing and in some areas it seems to have practically stopped," says Sgt John O'Driscoll, head of the North Central Division's drugs unit.
Local TD, Mr Tony Gregory, said dealers "have not been completely driven out, but it is a total transformation from a year ago, when there was open dealing of anything you wanted on the footpaths and traffic islands". But he warned that the dealers could return "overnight if the successes of the past year are not built on by State authorities".
The area's spontaneous anti-drugs street campaign was launched after a night of disturbances last August, when residents attacked the flats of alleged drug dealers and burned a car belonging to one of them. The following evening, an Inner City Organisations' Network (ICON) meeting was held in Rutland Street School. It had been planned weeks in advance and would normally have attracted about 50 people. But 500 people packed into the humid and smoke-filled hall that night, including anti-drugs activists from other parts of the city.
Angry residents spoke of their frustration at the heroin problem, which they said had killed 20 young people in a year, and their dissatisfaction with the Garda response. They complained that old people were afraid of going out in case they were robbed by addicts. The worst flat complex was St Joseph's Mansions, where gardai said heroin was being sold from a third of the occupied flats.
As the crowd reclaimed the streets that summer night, chanting "pushers pushers pushers, out out out", the area witnessed a form of people power not seen since the Concerned Parents' protests of the mid-1980s.
Residents set up committees to work with Dublin Corporation to rid them of pushers and began night patrols. The campaign's slogan was "Pushers Beware, Addicts We Care".
This campaign grew in stridency, with alleged dealers' names read out at public meetings and large crowds outside their homes shouting "scumbags" at them.
These tactics were followed by other communities in the north inner city such as Sheriff Street, East Wall and Ballybough. The public marches were peaceful, but there were also beatings and violent evictions by vigilantes.
Sgt O'Driscoll, who attended the first meeting, said the fall off in dealing in the area is due to the activities of gardai, including those tasked as part of the Garda's anti-drugs initiative, Operation Dochas, launched last October.
He also cited the work of the Criminal Assets Bureau, increased treatment facilities for addicts and the 1996 Criminal Justice Drug Trafficking Act, allowing the detention of people suspected of hiding drugs in their bodies, as is often the case with heroin dealers.
Sgt O'Driscoll also credits people engaged in "lawful activities" in the street campaign. The clean-up of the area has pushed drug dealers towards O'Connell Street where gardai have seized heroin with a street value of £40,000 since April, he says.
Mr Gregory said residents and ICON deserve full credit for the achievements of the street campaign. "A year ago, the general view was that nobody cared and that you couldn't do anything in any case. Now the record is that the community could get organised, did get organised and beat some of the biggest dealers in the area as well as cleaning up open dealing from the streets."
ICON says residents have been concerned in the past few months that drug dealing is beginning to creep back. "At what level, it's difficult to say," says its co-ordinator, Ms Deirdre Toomey.
Ms Toomey says ICON has always supported an "integrated" approach to the drugs problem. She welcomes the recent establishment of the North Inner City Drugs Task Force, which has representatives from community, voluntary and statutory agencies.
Around £50,000 has been secured through the task force for a one-year pilot community policing and estate management forum involving tenants, Dublin Corporation and the Garda to deal with drugs issues within flat complexes in the area. It is to start this year.
Summerhill's street campaigners last met in July and the decision on whether they will continue will be discussed at ICON's annual general meeting next month, according to Ms Toomey. The residents' committee in Mountain View Court says no drugs are now being sold from the complex. It also has secured £1.1 million for refurbishment of the flats and the construction of a children's play area.
Graffiti reading: "Garda stop harassing anti-drug activists" was recently removed from the gable wall of Mountain View Court. It is being replaced by a mural by Shane Cullen as part of a public art project, Inner City Art, organised by the Fire Station Artists' Studio in Buckingham Street.