Gardai prevented another mass street brawl in the city centre after gaining intelligence that a pre-arranged fight had been organised on social media.

Officers from the Bridewell and Store Street Garda Stations were out in force last Saturday to prevent what happened on St Stephen's Day, when four youths were arrested following a mass public order incident involving more than 200 teenagers in the north inner city.

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A number of young men from the Dublin 15 area were prevented from staying in the Mary Street area after gardai received information that another suspected race-related fight was due to take place in the locality. Gardai have established that a young man living in the Tallaght area is involved in organising the fight and they are closely monitoring his activities.

Monitor

"There were disgraceful scenes in broad daylight on St Stephen's Day and gardai are determined that this will not happen again," a senior source told the Herald.

"Last weekend's operation was intelligence-led and gardai continue to monitor social media in relation to pre-arranged fights."

While there were no arrests last Saturday, gardai have more information about those involved in these fights.

On St Stephen's Day, a number of people were assaulted, while some shopkeepers were forced to pull down shutters. Rival gangs of teenagers, totalling more than 200 youths, were involved in the "mini riot", which was arranged through Facebook.

Two groups of teens, mainly from Blanchardstown and Tallaght, arranged the bust-up, and a number of fights were filmed,

It is understood that many of these are the same youngsters who were targeted in last weekend's operation, which was carried out by uniformed gardai.

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