Gardaí are investigating an incident of criminal damage involving 20 balaclava-clad youths at Clongriffin Dart station on Tuesday, 8 May.
The incident, which occurred at approximately 9.30pm, involved a group of approximately a dozen vandals who allegedly sprayed paint on to a carriage. According to Irish Rail, who described the event as an “unprecedented graffitti attack”, the group also threatened a number of passengers and caused around €4,000 worth of damage.
Gardaí had been alerted, but the gang had fled by the time they had arrived.
An eye-witness told RTÉ's Liveline on Wednesday morning about the incident, which left a number of passengers shaken in its wake. The woman had been returning from a night out in the city centre when the gang boarded the train.
"We got the DART at 10.15, everything was fine we got to Clongriffin and there was a delay," she said.
"We got a message from the driver to say there was an incident on the back carriage and they were waiting for the guards to come. We were there for ages, we didn't know what was happening.
"We were told they had weapons... knives or batons or something. We were kind of locked in until the guards came. The whole thing lasted about 45 minutes."
The passenger said a group of between eight and 10 boys raced up through the carriage with spray paint and unleashed it in all directions.
"It was a bit scary to be honest, we were a bit shaken by it," she added. "It has made me very wary."
Barry Kenny, Corporate Communications Manager for Irish Rail spoke to JOE about the incident, and how increased security is their first call to action.
"A deliberate and orchestrated graffiti attack took place on an in-service DART last night at Clongriffin Station," Kenny began.
"A group of approximately a dozen vandals completely spray painted a DART carriage at 10.40pm and blocked doors individually, preventing the DART from departing. While thankfully no customers were hurt, some were threatened by the vandals with pieces of wood, which we believe they had with them as part of the effort to vandalise the DART.
"While graffiti attacks are unfortunately an ongoing issue we have to tackle, the scale of this on an in-service DART was unprecedented. In reviewing this with Gardai we will also review security presence to counteract issues of this kind. Pending this review we will immediately put additional security in Clongriffin and elsewhere on the DART line from this evening.
"We urge anyone with information on this mindless attack to contact the Gardai. This incident clearly exposes the lie that graffiti vandals are anything other than criminals, and in this instance aggressive and threatening criminals also."
