Woman takes on boy bullies

A Nenagh businesswoman who experienced an attack on her shop by two teenage boys has said women in the town are living in fear of a small group of youngsters who have been waging an onslaught of intimidation that has left the entire business community in the town centre deeply frustrated over the ongoing bullying behaviour of juvenile males that appear out of control.

Edel Hanly, the proprietor of Edel’s Boutique spoke out about how women working and shopping in the town feel terrorised after two boys entered her Kenyon Street store last week, threatening her and smashing one of her antique tables before running off.

“They came in charging like horses, like lunatics,” Ms Hanly told The Guardian of the incident which occurred on Tuesday of last week.

“They literally charged into the shop and started roaring abuse at me,” she said. “I just asked them to leave, but they kept giving me abuse, they were just around 14 or 15.”

When they refused to leave and continued to act in “an extremely threatening manner” Ms Hanly decided she was going to take them on. She got them to the front door of the premises, at which point their aggression increased.

“I got them to the door and they went as if they were going to jump at me, but then one jumped sideways at the last minute and onto my brass and mahogany antique table, smashing it,” she revealed.

“After that one lad ran out the door and the other fell to the ground. When I tried to get a hold of him he kind of hit off me as he was jumping about, and then he kind of fell out the door and ran away.”

Ms Hanly said she rang the gardaí at the local station immediately after the incident and was full of praise for the way they acted. “They came down straight away and they were fantastic.”

The attack is part of an ongoing campaign of what the Chamber of Commerce feels in a protracted and ongoing campaign of intimidation by up to just a half dozen teenage boys, some of whom get around the town on scooters.

Ms Hanly said: “They are quite arrogant and are real bullies. You can be driving down a street in the town and they can just walk out in front of you. Then they kind of smirk and walk off. It’s very intimidating.

“I am tall in stature, and while what happened to me was intimidating, I was prepared to take them on. But if I was a smaller person and somebody not so strong it would have been a very frightening experience.

The attack on Ms Hanly’s store has resulted in a wave of outrage on social media, with many store and business owners in the town voicing deep frustration over ongoing incidents involving the small group of boys.

The incident resulted in a meeting involving Ms Hanly and the President of the Chamber of Commerce Tom McGrath with Superintendent Ollie Baker and Sergeant Declan O’ Carroll on Thursday morning of last week.

Ms Hanly said it proved to be a very fruitful meeting. “Superintendent Baker took everything we said on board. What we need is more gardaí on the streets between 3.30pm and 6.30pm because that’s when these boys seem to be around.”

FEAR

She said members of the public, especially women, were afraid to return to their cars in the pubic car parks because that’s where these groups of youths regularly loiter.

The extent of the fear engendered by the youngsters became graphically apparent to Ms Hanly after several women contacted her after the incident to tell her of their experiences.

“Literally after the attack on my shop I had a queue of ladies on to me telling me of their stories – it was alike an avalanche of tales of woe.”

She said the message she took away from the meeting with gardaí was that shop owners and members of the public needed to immediately report incidents of intimidation or abuse to the local station.

“The message is that there is no point in just speaking about it. The local Superintendent needs to be told. People have to report matters to the station.”

Of the other women she has spoken to who have experience the intimidation, Ms Hanly said: “Everybody is saying the same thing: our reality is that they are threatening us. In the evening going up to my car in Kenyon Street car park I can see them there making comments.

“When you pass them they are spitting and as you walk past you are looking behind and they are following you. It’s not safe.

“Our reality is that we live in fear. People said to me ‘God you’re a brave woman standing up to them’, but I said ‘what’s my alternative; I have no alternative but to take them on.’ We have to stand up to bullies. I’m sick of them, but I am braver and I am taller than them.”

Chamber President Tom McGrath told The Guardian that the incident in Ms Hanly’s shop is part of broader problem in the town. He said the meeting with Superintendent Baker and Sergeant O’ Carroll last Thursday week resulted in “a very constructive conversation” with the two officers.

“We are asking people to report any form of anti-social behaviour in the assurance that any information given will be treated anonymously in the station.”

Mr McGrath said it was just not acceptable for two males enter a shop and behave the way they did to Ms Hanly who was on her own at the time.

He said the offenders were only children and gardaí had limited powers to deal with them. “In the Chamber of Commerce we want to work with the gardaí. But there are issues to be addressed, like women being afraid to go to their cars in the evening after work.

Sergeant Declan O’ Carroll said two young males had been apprehended and arrested in the presence of their parents since the incident. He said the matter had been reported to An Garda Síochana’s National Youth Diversion Bureau whose role was to attempt to steer children away from crime.

He said the force had a policy of doing everything it could to work with children to get them stop offending rather than bring them to court and have criminal convictions imposed at such an early age.

However, he warned: “Still, what we want to stress is that there comes a point that if juveniles continue offending than stronger action might have to be taken.”