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Don't Stop The Music

The recent tragic events in the Phoenix Park should not be used to prevent music lovers from attending and enjoying gigs to the max.

Niall Stokes, 29 Aug 2012

It was everyone’s worst nightmare. When the news came through that nine people had been stabbed at the Swedish House Mafia gig in Phoenix Park, it was like a boot to the solar plexus. But that, it turned out, was only the half of it. It emerged sharply, also, that two young men, later named as Lee Scanlon from Clonsilla and Shane Brophy, from Swan, Co. Laois, had been taken to hospital after the gig and died subsequently as a result of drug overdoses.

In the circumstances, the first thoughts of any civilised person have to be with the families and friends of those who died – who have themselves, as a result of the sudden and brutal loss of a loved one, been plunged into tragedy. For them, no matter how unbelievable and heart-wrenching it might be, there is no way that the clock can be turned back: nothing, but nothing, can be done to restore the life of the victim. 

It feels cruel and desperately wrong. Those who are left behind will have to live forever with the grief that attends the premature death of a son, a brother, a boyfriend or an old school buddy. It is a fearsome cross to bear. I know that I speak for everyone in the music community and beyond, when I say that they deserve every ounce of sympathy that we have in our hearts. 

And then there are the victims of the stabbings – on the face of it, nine innocent people, randomly attacked by one or more vicious thugs bent on destructive action. You have to ask, how can someone convince themselves that they are entitled to hide a knife, go to a gig and stab an innocent stranger, for no reason at all? In the wake of the event, one man, 23-year-old Raymond Donnan, has been charged with assault causing harm, possession of a knife, violent disorder and public order offences. Other arrests may follow.

Some small consolation was to be gleaned from the fact that none of the stabbings was fatal, and as the week wore on the bulletins from the hospitals confirmed that the victims were all, separately, on the mend. But that doesn’t change the fact that no-one should have to endure the horrors of an experience like that.



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