Bullet time: Two men shot, another wounded
There was pandemonium at Smithfield market square last Sunday when two men were shot and a 17-year-old almost lost his arm after being attacked with a machete. As hundreds of people fled from the monthly horse fair, travellers armed with sticks and whips fought each other, apparently as part of a long-running feud. The fair is held on the first Sunday of every month, apart from August, and is becoming increasingly contentious. In April 2002, a horse bolted onto the nearby quays, crashed into a car and damaged other vehicles. Nobody subsequently claimed ownership for the animal. Dublin city council suspended the fair on health and safety grounds, but in June 2002 the horse traders reconvened in defiance of the suspension.
Fair city: The market dates back to 17th century
Advocates point out there has been a cattle and fair on the Smithfield site since it was laid out as a market in 1665. The modern horse sale started in the early 1970s. Back then, however, Smithfield was a dilapidated corner of Dublin’s north inner city. A decade ago, the area was modernised at considerable expense, and the new apartment dwellers and businesspeople were not enthused by having a monthly horse fair outside their premises. Animal-rights activists are also unhappy with the fair, claiming that many of the horses offered for sale are in poor condition or badly treated. Some change hands for as little as €10, and are sold to young boys from urban areas with no access to grazing land.
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Horse trading: The council is not legally liable
Dublin city council says that under the terms of the Casual Trading Act, it cannot stop a pre-existing market unless it provides an alternative venue in the vicinity. For a while, the council considered relocating the Smithfield fair to somewhere such as the equine centre in Ballyfermot, but now it says it cannot afford to accommodate it elsewhere. The council’s legal status was clarified somewhat last week, however, when a man injured at the fair three years ago failed in a court bid to get compensation. The High Court dismissed a claim by Patrick Loughran, left, that the council was liable for the injuries he sustained. Apart from the public-safety concerns over the fair, city officials say the monthly cleaning bill comes to about €2,000.
Matter of justice: New legislation is required
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The fair is run by the Smithfield Horse Owners’ Association, but the council says “the people who run it have not made themselves known to us”. Fair organisers complain that the council has not provided proper facilities, and that horse traders were in Smithfield before the apartment owners and hoteliers. They vow that the council will never shut the fair, but Dublin officials plan to write to the Department of Justice to ask for legislation extinguishing the need for an alternative location to be offered to the horse traders. Representations were made to the previous government, but were ignored. Gerry Breen, left, the lord mayor of Dublin, says he will write to the new justice minister, Fine Gael colleague Alan Shatter.