Six hours before Swedish House Mafia took to the stage on Saturday night, an undeniable air of menace clung to Phoenix Park.Even that early in the day, before the gates to the concert venue had opened, the prospect of trouble ahead looked certain.
A significant minority of revellers in the area appeared to be completely out of it, with puddles of vomit and discarded spirits bottles telling their own tales. But it was the palpable sense of aggression that emanated from group after group of young men that made the passer-by fear the worst.
Quite frankly, it had been a long time since so many testosterone-fuelled thugs had gathered in the same place, and the combination of excessive alcohol and unremitting sunshine exacerbated an already dangerous scenario.
The headlines that emerged shame a generation of Irish people, not least when one considers that Swedish House Mafia played dates in Spain and Scotland at the weekend and there were no problems in either place.
Saturday's events put paid to the friendly Irish cliche and magnifies the vile, antisocial behaviour of certain young men who have a trigger-happy attitude towards violence.
Their brutal antics can be seen throughout the country when the pubs have closed. They have also been an ominous presence at music events before, at an Oasis concert some years ago and at Oxegen in 2006. They are the sort of men who, if they resided across the Irish Sea, might find an outlet for their thuggery in football hooliganism.
Source: John Meagher, Irish Independent, 11/07/12
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