Young children, often from broken homes, are being recruited by Limerick’s criminal gangs, according to a major new study.
The gangs are using children as young as eight to intimidate families who resist their control or are suspected of giving information to gardai, sometimes by burning them out of their homes.
The study, carried out by Dr Niamh Hourigan, a sociologist from UCC, found that the children being used by criminals were from “the most marginalised families”. Many of the children are from broken homes.
BR> Writing in The Irish Independent, Dr Hourigan wrote that parents in these families were “either absent or so deeply enmeshed in addiction that they are incapable of parenting”.
As such, these children were “ripe for grooming by these criminal gangs”.
Limerick city has the highest amount of marital breakdown in the country. Almost 20 per cent of all marriages have ended in separation or divorce. This compares with the national average of 13 per cent. Some areas of Limerick, such as Moyross, the extent of marital breakdown is up to 35 per cent, nearly three times the national average.
Moyross also has a high percentage of non-marital families, up to 40 per cent of all families. This compares to a national average of 21 per cent.
The report says criminal families in Limerick have in recent years recruited young boys and teenagers who are not biologically related to support their activities. “These recruits act, not only as agents of intimidation by engaging in campaigns of stone-throwing and window-breaking, but they are also used to transport drugs and guns.”
Dr Hourigan’s forthcoming book, ‘Understanding Limerick: Social Exclusion and Change’, deals with gangs and other problems in the city.
BR> The reports follows on from remarks last year by Limerick Chief Superintendent Willie Keane who said that that many of the children involved in the gangs were coming from “families where there is no great parenting skills or where the skills are not what they should be”.
Chief Superintendent Keane, speaking in April of last year, said these children had “no role models” in these families, and no sense of responsibility was instilled.
“Unfortunately these crime gangs are using young people and some of these young people come from dysfunctional families and families where there is no great parenting skills or where the skills are not what they should be,” the chief superintendent said.
“The gang is the family for want of a better word and I suppose it gives these people a certain status within their own community and that is the problem and the cycle that we have to break,” he continued.
Earlier this year, Brendan Dempsey, the southern regional president of the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP), said that the absence of fathers was causing “huge problems” for many children.
Mr Dempsey said that increasingly, mothers were being left to raise children on their own. Nine out of 10 homes visited by the SVP on one housing estate in Cork, were run by single mothers, he said.
The effects on children were far-reaching, he continued. “There is a great need for children to have both parents, but it is not happening, there is a great want in these children,” said Mr Dempsey.
