THEY are the sounds and smells of a professional car racing track – but they greeted me on a Saturday evening in a Limerick housing estate this winter.
The stench of burning rubber mixed with the laughter and whooping of children could be heard as a stolen car roared up and down O’Malley Park in the south of the city.
Joyriding no longer makes the headlines as it did in the 1980s, but when 30 young children are looking for a Garda chase in front of your eyes, it seems very much in the here and now.
I didn’t fear for my life, but I did for the 10 and 14-year-olds who joined in like they were joining in on a game of football.
As the car circled around myself and film crew, I could see that although Limerick city has changed dramatically – old habits still die hard.
Here, joyriding is still a rite of passage and nine-year-olds graduate from being passengers to drivers. By the age of 18, many grow out of it and unfortunately move into more serious criminality.
Today, though, children are growing up with more hope than ever.
Notorious criminals Wayne, John and Dessie Dundon are all behind bars for gang-related crimes, while rival mob boss Brian Collopy is also serving a lengthy prison sentence.
However, despite the massive garda successes, there are still problems in Limerick.
While the feud between the McCarthy-Dundons and the Keane-Collopys has dominated the headlines from this city over the last decade, the gardai have other battles on their hands – including against prescription pills, youth crime and poverty.
In our journey across Ireland while making ‘Breaking Crime’, we set out to meet young offenders, Gardai, and everybody with a stake in trying to break the cycle of generations lost to the criminal justice system and jail.
The secret to Limerick’s recovery has been the regeneration package and the intensive Gardai interventions into its gang culture.
But this city has also needed the help of ex-offenders and criminals.
The man who helped bring down the mob, businessman Mark Heffernan, who testified against the McCarthy-Dundon gang, believes that using ex-criminals and addicts as mentors is essential.
“In the U.S. and the U.K., ex-offenders are used to keep young people out of crime,” said Heffernan.
“It is a difficult concept for many to accept, but the principal of rehabilitation and mentoring has proved very effective and it has got to be embraced here.”
Ballinacurra Weston resident Deirdre Corbett told me about the difficulties of raising a family in the area.
She explains: “If I had my way I would be gone out of here. You can’t rear children up here.”
Anthony Kelly has had many run ins with the law, but as a father and grandfather who has seen his own son in trouble, his own brother shot and another brother die as a teenager in suspicious circumstances in prison, he knows all about the cycle of crime in Limerick.
“You have to get them young. We had problems growing up and now, through sport, I’m trying to protect the next generation. We have to try and break the cycle,” Kelly told me.
Sadly, for many families across the country, that cycle will never be broken. My journey revealed that Cork is on the threshold of a heroin epidemic.
There are 13-year-olds selling and using heroin in the city today.
The saddest part of my expedition across the country was when good people told me that they were afraid to walk down the street as it was too dangerous.
There has to be a complete intolerance to drug dealing on the street and a retreat from political correctness. When good people refuse to do the right thing, it is a reminder that communities have to rescue themselves. It is up to the Gardai and community leaders to act together and put people in the dock for these heinous crimes.
Donal MacIntyre: Breaking Crime aired last night on TV3
