Degeneration of a Generation
Violence, alcohol and responsibility in Derry
By Christina Sherlock

We are all said to exercise free will and are expected to take responsibility for our own words and actions. When it comes to youth, alcohol abuse and violence can we universally apply this maxim? Over the past few years Derry City has witnessed an increase in alcohol fuelled violent physical attacks, vandalism, robberies and sexual assaults. There has also been a noticeable increase in underage drinking with boys and girls from 13 upwards passing their nights away drinking vodka or alcopops at street corners, under bridges and at other secluded spots. The presence and activities of these underage drinkers has resulted in many people feeling unsafe walking the city centre streets after close of business.

Failing to tackle the problem successfully Derry politicians, businessmen and youth and community projects have preferred to apply the same flawed clichés and failed solutions. To fully understand the problem we need to look at four key areas: reasons, reactions, responsibility and possible resolutions.

A binge culture exists among young drinkers, wherein a good night out amounts to consuming copious amounts before getting into a fight or passing out and bragging about it the next day. This binge drinking is encouraged by pub owners and the drinks industry with cheap prices, alcoholic soft drinks and drinks promotions. For underage drinkers the problem lies in alienation and boredom and the complete lack of enjoyable social outlets for teenagers. Despite Derry’s huge social and cultural potential, it remains a city where standing outside drinking is seen as the only thing to do on a Friday night. The provision of youth clubs and leisure centres is not enough. Where these venues do exist, they are rejected by most young people as dull and unamusing. For others, there is simply a culture of not giving a damn, and this manifests itself in the more violent incidences of youth crime. All of this is a result of a political culture wherein young people are afforded neither respect nor compassion. Instead, they are viewed by the local business elite as potential consumers of their drink and as paying units at the doors of their nightclubs.

In March 2000 Derry pub owners announced that they were planning to introduce a scheme banning known troublemakers from their premises and to introduce an identity card scheme to combat underage drinking. At the same time the City Council also drafted security measures including CCTV, late night bus services and a wider range of facilities for younger people. The latest attempt to curb the problem comes from the SDLP, who argue that Waterloo Place should become a traffic thoroughfare again to encourage the presence of more people at night. There has also been a proposal to recruit a Community Safety Officer: a grand sounding title but one that means the problem will be talked to death and someone will get well paid for the job of talking. There has also been an ineffective response from the police and from self-appointed paramilitary “community justice” merchants that has helped the problem to spiral out of control by focusing on brutality and censure.

The real concern is that those who have the potential to solve the problem of binge and under-age drinking are actually ensuring its longevity. Pub and off-licence owners provide access to alcohol for teens and binge drinkers despite their own protestations to the contrary. One only need stand in line at one of the many city centre pubs and clubs to spot the groups of young teenagers out for a night's drinking. Where is the ID system? Where is the responsibility?
The paramilitaries encourage binge drinking by organising the sale of smuggled cheap, dangerous alcohol being sold door to door, often by young people who are paid in kind. Then they attack young people for what they term “anti-social behaviour”.

Young adults need a place to socialise with each other that does not centre on alcohol. A café or drop in centre providing food and activities from pool tables, dart boards and computer games or big screen television - all the attractions of a pub but for young people. Or how about artistic and dramatic clubs? What about an interactive media centre or an Internet café where young people can pass the time productively? What is needed are facilities where young people would have a sense of ownership and pride that would curb vandalism. And this means the provision of facilities that are not controlled by party political cliques.

Where is the peace dividend for young people? Why haven't the millions of pounds that were poured into deprived areas made a real difference? Short-term projects are fine in theory but there are no places to go once a child hits the 12-year old mark. What is the alternative? Instead the money has been poured into a community bureaucracy that has meant jobs for a select few and the same boredom and potential for abuse for young people.

What we have is a willed lack of responsibility and pointing the finger of blame at someone else's direction, which is usually in the direction of our children. This collective complicity only ensures that thanks to the greed and profit-frenzy of Derry’s current business cliques, the current generation of young people will become the disillusioned, alienated and problematic adult generation of tomorrow, one that will have no social conscience, no hope and nothing to offer our society. And their lack of hope is all thanks to those who not bother to help them today.

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