Published: Wednesday, 30th June, 2010 11:00am

Mullingar 'could become Limerick' says Illingworth

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Mullingar could turn into another Limerick, Town Councillor Ruth Illingworth has warned this week.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner the councillor said that she was "appalled and horrified" at the extreme violence displayed in recent weeks and said that she feared parts of Mullingar were becoming "no-go" areas.

Councillor Illingworth made similar comments in a national Sunday newspaper which also published a damning report on what it called "the drugs plague" of Mullingar.

"I felt that I had to speak out and say something about these incidents during which serious violence was used and then there is the wider aspect of drugs being dealt openly on our streets," said councillor Illingworth.

"I feel that I am treading a fine line between not wanting to put forward a bad image of Mullingar but at the same time there are people in areas of this town who must be thinking 'why are our public representatives not speaking out about this'? What about the people who are striving to get on with their lives and are living in the midst of all of this? In the last couple of years we have seen the extent of the violence rise as people turn to using pipe bombs instead of slash hooks and axes, as if that wasn't bad enough.

"What I fear is that we will get to a point where there is one law for one section of the community and another for everybody else. I have had people come to me because they have been intimidated by these thugs and one man came to me and showed me a €40 parking ticket which he was going to pay. He said to me that he would be pursued through the courts if he did not pay it yet his neighbours were openly dealing drugs and no one was doing anything about it.

"I condemn the idea that there people in this town who feel that the law cannot help them and that there are people who feel that they are above the law. What we will end up with are no-go areas just like Limerick."

Newly appointed county council chair Mick Dollard said that he had no doubt that recent feuding was related to drug dealing but said that a multi-agency approach should be used to tackle the problem.

"I sit in these areas with people at night and so I know well what goes on and how people suffer from intimidation," he said. "I would say that more than the Gardaí should be involved here. What about the Criminal Assets Bureau and Customs and Excise and Westmeath County Council also have powers to evict people who are convicted of drug dealing?

Then the problem we have there is that people who own their own houses are involved in drug dealing and we have no powers there.

"I have no problem saying that some of this violence is drugs related; everybody knows that anyway."

The local Gardaí said that there is a "element" of drugs in local feuding but also commented that the feuding can be sparked by "anything at all". A spokesman also said that any type of criminal behaviour would be dealt with and would not be tolerated.