22 Mar 2008
I thought I was safe because there were so many people around...
Nobody came to Eugene Magee's defence the night he was savagely
beaten by two strangers at the top of Grafton Street. It was the early
hours of a busy bank holiday Saturday and there were dozens of people
about, but, fearful for their safety, they chose to look away.
A taxi driver of 25 years, Eugene was waiting to collect two clients at the
Molly Malone statue when their tempers flared. Two big guys who lost their
cool when they heard the word no.
"They came up to the window looking for a lift," he recalls.
"I told them I was booked so they started pulling at my window. I got out
thinking I was safe because there were so many people around. They
punched me in the face, and kicked me in the head and about the body. I
was left lying unconscious on the ground."
Eugene suffered a haematoma in his leg as a result of the attack, and was
unable to work for six months.
On his first weekend back on the road, he picked up a fare in Darndale on
the northside of Dublin.
"It was a guy and a girl and they were only in the car a few minutes, when
I sensed they were going to cause trouble. They wanted me to pick
something up around the back of a building and I said I wouldn't leave the
main road.
"The guy started texting someone from the back of the car and I started
to feel nervous. I dropped them off and thanked God they were gone. Just
as I was about to pull away, a gun was pushed against my head."
When Eugene thinks back to the moment he almost lost his life, he chokes
with tears.
"They started screaming at me, I want your f-ing money. In a split
second, I slammed my foot down on the accelerator and the guy with the
gun was thrown back onto the street. I was lucky to escape with my life."
Eugene was back on the roads only a matter of weeks when he became
the victim of a third random attack, this time outside the house of
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, St Lukes in Drumcondra.
It was New Year's Eve, just after 2.30am, when he stopped for two men
and a woman. As they were about to drive away, one of the men struck
the woman across the face.
"I jammed on the brakes," says Eugene, "and warned him that was not
acceptable. So he turned around to her and said, "well, here's one for the
other side," and gave her another punch across the head."
The girl jumped out of the car, and as Eugene was about to go and help
her, the man hit him over the back of the head, leaving him concussed.
More than one year on, Eugene is still on sick leave today and has been
left deeply traumatised by the senseless attacks.
"Three attacks in six months. It's hard to believe. I've been working the
streets of Dublin for 25 years and I've never seen anything like this. It is
like a war zone out there at three in the morning. I feel so sad that this
has happened to my city."
Not one of the perpetrators of the attacks has been brought to justice.
Source: Irish Independent
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