Ciarán

They had knife amnesties.

They had knife amnesties where people actually went door to door.

You know, this idea that the guards know full well.

who these people are often and so they would go door to door collecting weapons they had bins outside certain clubs and on certain streets that people could drop knives into they had no knife campaigns these education campaigns as well to try and push back on the culture do you think there's value in doing any of that?

But you know the idea, I suppose what I'm getting at is, I guess somebody doesn't go through their life perfectly content and then wake up one morning saying I'm going to carry a knife into town.

The process starts kind of further back and it's, I don't know, I don't sound like I'm suggesting that teachers solve the problem when I say an education campaign, but you know that there's some sort of intervention, youth diversion, I don't know what it is.

Yeah.

I want to bring in Dr. Shane Broderick, who's on the line as well, and 0874848888, by the way, the WhatsApp number again, because I mentioned some of the lack of data we have here.

But interestingly, the matter, the hospital produced figures, I think it was last year, a huge increase, 68% increase in knife-related injuries they had seen over the previous five years.

And most victims and offenders presented there were young men between...

18 and 34.

And Shane, you're a consultant in the matter, are you?

So tell me a bit more then about what you guys have seen in your line of work.

And what types of injuries then are you dealing with as a result of increased knife crime or prevalence of knife crime?

And is there...

I mean, is there a prevailing view amongst you and your colleagues then as to what's driving it, whether it is, as Jim O'Callaghan has maybe suggested in the past, this kind of this culture, this normalisation of carrying knives amongst young men in particular?

Yeah.

Do you think and I can't remember, sorry, if it was Stephen who mentioned it or Dennis a little bit earlier, just how easy it is to get your hands on a knife that that maybe some of these young fellas as well carrying them for the same reason underestimate.

how deadly the weapon is.

You know the way that if you held a gun, your hands start to shake a little bit because of the adrenaline suddenly in your body because it's so rare for any of us to do it.