Widespread public urination, public drug trafficking and an incident where a man “pointed his penis at a woman” and “splashed urine in her direction” were among the incidents that marked the lives of residents near Dublin’s Portobello Plaza Spring made “hellish”, records show.
Documents released to The Irish Times show local residents complaining about rampant anti-social behavior in the square, which eventually led to it being fenced in in May.
The records show that Dublin City Council began receiving complaints in late March and peaked in May just before the council announced it would restrict access.
“Make yourself easier”
At that time, residents told the city council that from Thursday to Sunday, “we see people urinating on the street several times a day,” of arrests, of “people offering us money to use our toilet,” and of fighting “Because” someone assaulted someone else’s partner “.
Portobello Plaza in Dublin during its closure by Dublin City Council due to what it termed unacceptable behavior. File photo: Laura Hutton
“We have to avoid drunk people when we have to go outside, there’s the loud music, the screaming, the screaming, the singing. In addition, as a woman I don’t like to go outside on the weekend after a certain amount of time, ”wrote one resident. “I pay my rent to see people relieve themselves every time I look out the window? It’s disgusting.”
Another local resident, who lives in the area with his wife and toddler, complained of “total inaction” in combating “extremely antisocial behavior” in the area, including urinating in public and “openly selling and using drugs”.
Urine “sprayed”
He told the council his wife encountered a urinating man next to her house during the day, who “turned and pointed his penis at her and sprayed urine in her direction while telling her to ‘shit'”. The same resident wrote that he and his son had seen three “open drug deals” on a 100-meter walk.
Another resident wrote that when she opened her front door, “a girl squatted there, her bum completely exposed” and urine “flowed” onto her own and neighboring doors. Another told the council that a bicycle bunker used by her daughter was being used as a toilet: “Is she expected to wade through urine and human feces to collect it?”
The square was reopened after the temporary closure, the council announced on Tuesday.