A Garda car was rammed during a highly-publicised incident in the area on Monday.
The Cherry Orchard community continues to deal with the fallout of major anti-social behaviour in the area, which went viral on social media this week.
A video showing cars driving erratically and a Garda car being rammed was posted online on Monday evening and has been widely condemned by people in the area and beyond since.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Prime Time programme on Tuesday night, Father Michael Murtagh, parish priest in the area, said that the community was “annoyed” by the events.
“When these things happen, people are quite angry,” he said.
“I think people feel a bit helpless as well, not sure what to do.
“Roughly around after seven last night [Monday], I was here outside the church, and a number of cars began to appear from the side.
“You knew by the tooting of their horn they were up to something.”
Murtagh said that he couldn’t confirm whether or not those that took part in the incident were from the area or not.
“I don’t personally know who’s doing it. The children seem to be very young, quite young, 14, 15, 16 years-of-age, maybe some a little older.
“Where are they from? I don’t know. People tell me they don’t come from this area, they come into the area from other areas.
“I think Garda intervention, community garda, is quite difficult here because there is a difficult relationship between the young people and the Gardaí.
“That’s not blaming anyone, that’s just putting it bluntly.
“They don’t trust the Gardaí, and maybe vice versa.
“There’s a lot of work needed to be done there to build trust and build community and prevent what happened last night.”
Gardaí are appealing to any member of the public who may have witnessed this incident to come forward.
Gardaí are also appealing to anyone who was travelling in the Cherry Orchard area at this time and who may have camera (dash cam) footage to make this available to investigating Gardaí.
Anyone with any information in relation to this incident should contact Ballyfermot Garda Station on 01 666 7200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.
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