FIVE teenagers were arrested and a garda was viciously assaulted after a party in a Drogheda pub descended into violence this weekend.

Shocking video footage of the incident shows teens kicking a garda multiple times as he lies on the ground on Friday night.

Trouble broke out after large numbers of teens descended on the pub for what was claimed to be an 18th birthday party.

Things turned violent inside the venue before spilling onto the street outside around 9.30pm.

Gardai were attacked as they arrived on the scene and a video shows one garda receive numerous kicks while on the ground. He received a facial injury during the attack.

Sickeningly the person who circulated the video mocked the garda being attacked.

“I f**king love my young drillers. Good enough for em f**ing pigs. Feckkkkk these guys are dumb. They done skiddy bop on the pigs head””.

Locals said some of the youths involved are believed to have travelled to Drogheda from north county Dublin and had booked the venue for the party.

A garda spokesperson said: “Gardaí attended an incident of Public Order on West St Drogheda. The incident involving a large group of people, occurred on the 9th August 2019 at approximately 9.30pm at a premises and continued onto West St.

“Gardaí arrested five people and detained them at Drogheda Garda station and later released. A Garda member received a minor facial injury during the incident.”

A manager at the premises declined to comment when contacted.

“I wouldn’t be able to comment on it,” she said.

A source said there had been previous trouble in the town involving youths coming from north county Dublin.

“They booked what was supposedly a birthday party in a pub here in Drogheda but there was no party as such it was actually a rave.

“A fight kicked off at that and when security staff managed to get them out the row continued on the street.

“It was going on for maybe ten minutes before the cops got here, the whole area was a no go area until the cops cleared them out of there.”

An eye witness who saw the carnage said, “One poor cop was rushed by a load of them who kind of bowled him over by weight of numbers.

“When he hit the floor they started kicking him around the place, some of them were actually dancing on his head and there was blood everywhere.”

“I’d know most of the local teenagers and these guys were definitely from out of town I didn’t recognise any of them but their accents were definitely from north county Dublin.

“They were scumbags acting like animals hunting in a pack, I doubt any one of them would have been brave enough to take the cop, who was a big bloke, on in a one to one scrap, but they were brave boys when they outnumbered him.”

The town is hosting the Fleadh which kicked off this weekend and locals said Friday’s incident took away from that.

“It actually spoiled a great night as there was a real pre festival buzz about the place and more out socialising than there would be on a normal Friday night.

“It’s not the ideal image for the town with hundreds of thousands of visitors due to start pouring in today.”

Local Independent Cllr Kevin Callan said the incident was concerning.

“We’ve had a couple of these incidents in the town recently. We had one on St Patrick’s Day as well which involved much younger people. It’s not something we’re used to. I don’t understand what is going on with it. The guards seem to have got it under control quite quickly last night but it is concerning from a public order point of view.

Cllr Callan said the timing was particularly bad as Drogheda is currently applying from Purple Flag accreditation which is awarded to towns and cities with vibrant and well managed night-life.

“The town has applied for purple flag accreditation and I think we had the judges in the town for that yesterday so it’s the kind of thing you don’t want to be happening. Then we have the Fleadh as well.”

He said there should be a strong garda presence when they see large groups of people congregating in one place with the potential for trouble.

“It should be a case of stopping it happening. We have a hi-tech CCTV system in the centre and it should have been quite clear early on when people were gathering up that something could happen.”

Online Editors