ON DUBLIN'S Henry street yesterday afternoon men, women and children were buying and selling fireworks. Every few steps shoppers were solicited by hawkers standing five-deep across the street. "Banger or rockets, love," they called, as up to 50 of them plied their illegal wares on the busy street.
On offer for pyrotechnic displays this Hallowe'en were sky bombs, vampire rockets, cosmic bangers, ten shots, cat bangers, air bombs and much more. Wrapped in brightly coloured paper, a number had instructions written in foreign languages. They were mostly selling from £3 to £5.
According to the Garda there have been a number of prosecutions in relation to casual trading for selling fireworks and a number of cases are pending. However, there was little sign of any official intervention yesterday, two days before Hallowe'en.
The sale, importation and use of fireworks in the Republic is illegal. A special Garda unit operates in Dublin at this time of year in an attempt to seize fireworks before they hit the streets. Since the fireworks "season" began, there has been a number of seizures and so far up to £30,000 worth of goods has been confiscated.
They are brought in mainly from Northern Ireland and England, but some of the more dangerous types, which would not meet British safety standards, may come from north Africa.
Dublin appears to be the centre for the sale of fireworks in the State. Gardai in other areas say they are not generally a problem. According to a Garda spokesman in Cork, there are few cases of them being sold.
In Galway there was a clampdown last year, a Garda spokesman said, and there was little evidence of any sales in the city over the past few weeks.
Gardai have warned that fireworks and bangers - both manufactured and homemade - are dangerous. "Every year Hallowe'en fun ends in terrible tragedy for a number of children with fingers burned or eyes lost or injured, some of them maimed for life. It should be remembered that fireworks contain explosives and the contents can be highly dangerous," said a Garda spokesman.
He said that apart from injury risk they can cause great annoyance to old and sick people. For that reason we ask young people to moderate their approach to houses where old people reside and avoid making excessive noise.
The loud noise made by fireworks could also be very frightening to animals.
In Northern Ireland, for the first time in 20 years, fireworks can be bought legally by anyone over 16 years. They had been banned as a result of the worsening security situation. Fireworks such as rockets and Roman candles are back on open sale, but bangers remain illegal. It is an offence to use fireworks between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. All fireworks must carry the BS7114 marking.
A spokesman for the RUC said yesterday there had been a number of seizures of fireworks from people who were selling or storing them without a licence. Last week up to 30 tonnes were seized in Glengormley on the oustskirts of Belfast. As well as being held without a licence, a number of the fireworks did not conform to safety standards.
In the Republic fireworks are regulated by the Explosives Act 1875, which prohibits the importation of fireworks without a licence issued by the Minister for Justice. The policy of the Department is to grant importation Licences only for approved, organised public firework displays. Section 30 of the Act prohibits the "hawking, selling or exposing for sale of fireworks upon any highway, street, thoroughfare or public place."