Irish hooligans 'fuelled by cocaine'

Irish hooligans 'fuelled by cocaine'
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
The Observer

Police study reveals violent football fans use drug to increase aggression.

Abuse of drugs, principally cocaine, is fuelling an unprecedented upsurge in soccer hooliganism in the Irish Republic, according to a new study.

A report to be published this week in the Garda Review, the magazine of the Garda Representative Association, highlights the use of drugs by hooligans who want to get 'fired up' before games.

Inspector Tony Gallagher from Fitzgibbon Street in Dublin, the garda station in charge of security both at Bohemian FC's Dalymount Park and Croke Park, headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association, said of the hooligans: 'We believe they are taking cocaine, which is exaggerating the aggression. They are using drugs to get the psyche right for aggression and violence against rival groups.

'They are totally fixated. They look to see if their intended target is over your shoulder; the coins and bottles start flying - but thankfully no garda has been injured.'

Gallagher also tells the Garda Review that his colleagues 'arrested one hooligan who had a huge amount of controlled substances on his person'.

In the current season there have been serious clashes between rival gangs at the Bohemians-Shamrock Rovers game at Dalymount Park. The garda was so concerned about trouble before, during and after the game that it deployed as many officers around the stadium as it did at the All-Ireland Gaelic football final. There were more than 80,000 spectators at the All-Ireland final compared with just 3,500 at the Bohemians-Shamrock Rovers game.

Another measure of the rise in hooliganism is the policing of the main Jodi Stand in Dalymount Park. Four years ago there were only two gardai on duty to police the crowd in that section of the ground; this season there is now regularly a full line of gardai down one aisle to segregate the away supporters from the home fans.

The Garda Review investigation will also reveal that a group of Bohemians hooligans have linked up with around 15 Wrexham supporters that are known to the British police as troublemakers. Last year the Wrexham hooligans attempted to join a planned riot at the north Dublin derby between Bohemians and Shelbourne.

Last night one of Bohemians' directors, Denis Maher, confirmed it was widespread knowledge in Irish football that cocaine was exacerbating the new hooligan problem. 'It's true to say the rise in trouble by a small minority is made worse by drugs. Cocaine and other drugs are prevalent in Dublin so it's hardly a surprise.

'It's worrying that there has been this increase in violence at certain games, especially in the streets outside stadiums. The gardai are right to be concerned.'

Link!

lol these types of people enjoy violence without cocaine anyway. guarantee if there was no cocaine in the world these wankers would still go out and fight each other. what a useless article.

^^^^The article acknowledges that. They mention the police presence before the addition of cocaine and the article even mentions how the coke exaggerates the aggression, thus confirming these fans are already aggressive.

Saying cocaine doesn't cause or isn't likely to cause aggression in aggressive people who want to get "fired up" is just ignorant. Statements such as this make pro-drug people look just as ignorant as the anti-drug warriors who speak of reefer madness.

^
You're right. I'm sure cocaine does exasperate their aggression. But, alcohol probably plays a much bigger factor.

sylvan Wanderer said:

^^^^The article acknowledges that. They mention the police presence before the addition of cocaine and the article even mentions how the coke exaggerates the aggression, thus confirming these fans are already aggressive.

Saying cocaine doesn't cause or isn't likely to cause aggression in aggressive people who want to get "fired up" is just ignorant. Statements such as this make pro-drug people look just as ignorant as the anti-drug warriors who speak of reefer madness.

Click to expand...

By this standard, oxygen, water, and food will also exaggerate aggression, since a hypoxic, dehydrated, and hypoglycemic hooligan is a less efficient hooligan.

It can also be theorized that people watching two sports teams beat the shit out of each other on the field are more inclined to beat the shit out of each other in the grandstands, particularly when one half of the crowd has strong emotional attachments to one team and the other half is attached to its opponent.

To be fair, perhaps this "study" (and I use the word loosely as I didn't notice any actual "research" being conducted in the article--just a bunch of biased opinions) should be repeated using test subjects who use cocaine at the ballet or operahouse and see if the drug escalates incidences of violence in those venues.

To make the case this article is presenting valid, it would have to be shown that cocaine causes nonaggressive people to become hooligans in all arenas of life.

A more appropriate title for this article might be Irish hooligans 'fuelled by sports'.

i bet now they miss and heroin and want people nodding out instead of fighting while wired on coke

lol...yellodolphin i'm sure that more than a few of these gardai assigned to these club separation riot lines have had the same though cross their minds.

Good god, that's a terrifying thought. I didn't hear about it on "Irish Soccer Hooligan Weekly."

Mustn't coke be ridiculously expensive there? And cut to hell, I'm sure.

^^^^ Hooliganism is becoming an expensive pastime...

It was funny at the beginning of the 90s when all the hooligans took XTC, stopped fighting, began hugging each other...

haribo1 said:

It was funny at the beginning of the 90s when all the hooligans took XTC, stopped fighting, began hugging each other...

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Yeah, that's why the campaigns against MDMA are so vitriolic--you can't have people hugging and getting along with each other because that would be bad for the sports industry...