Big Jim rises above havoc on city streets

Easy to feel safe with garda escort

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ISN'T it great that 6ft 5in Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan - who goes everywhere with at least two guards - feels safe walking around Dublin?

Of course, if Big Jim didn't have a driver and escort, he might feel differently about walking the streets of the capital, Cork or Limerick.

But then again, we'll never know because the people who actually run our cities don't spend a lot of time walking around them.

The politicians and (more importantly) the senior civil servants and the people who make the decisions impacting your life tend to live in lovely suburbs or countryside altogether.

Good luck to them but you get the sense a lot of them don't really get just how bad antisocial behaviour can be on our streets.

Take Cork city - a wonderful place and I'm fortunate to live right in the city centre, a stone's throw from the famous English Market.