LIMERICK’S reputation as “Stab City” may be justified. A new medical study appears to support the perception that the city has a higher rate of stabbings than others.

Doctors at the city’s regional hospital analysed records of patients attending the casualty department during the course of 2001 and concluded that there were almost two stabbings a week. The incidence of stabbings in Limerick was nine times the rate of those recorded in a similar study in Cardiff.

However, the authors could not compare Limerick with other Irish cities, as similar data did not exist for places such as Dublin or Cork.

A total of 101 stabbings were recorded at the hospital’s accident and emergency department during the year.

According to the study, which was presented at a surgical scientific meeting in Limerick earlier this month, this is the equivalent of 128 stabbings per 100,000 people. That was more than nine times the incidence in Cardiff, which had 14 stabbings per 100,000 population.

The Limerick findings were compared to the city in south Wales as it is the only similar audit of stabbing victims in a hospital that has been carried out.

Cardiff is a much bigger city than Limerick, with a population of more than 300,000. It has a reputation for hooliganism and violent attacks in its centre. Even so, the Welsh city had fewer stabbings (92) over the 18 months which the study covered.

“A hundred in the year, that’s pretty significant,” said Dr Gareth Quin, consultant in emergency medicine at the Regional hospital in Limerick. “There is a lot of low-level stabbing going on that wouldn’t necessarily get into the news.”

Quin said the hospital decided to conduct the study because there was an impression both in the media and among medics that there were a lot of stabbings in Limerick.

The Limerick research found that the vast majority of victims (91%) were assaulted outside the home.

“This would reflect the type of criminal activity going on,” said Quin. The remainder had been stabbed as a result of domestic violence. Of the nine domestic violence stabbings, women were responsible for six. The average age of those who had been stabbed was 26 and 88% were men. The most common weapons used were knives, followed by broken glass bottles, screwdrivers and scissors.

Most stabbings occurred at night at the weekend and were associated with alcohol intake. The majority of patients (68%) presented at casualty at weekends between the hours of 10pm and 8am. Almost two-thirds had been drinking.

Jamshed Shabbir, one of the authors of the study, said that more stabbings were recorded on Fridays and Saturdays than on any other day of the week. “We were a little bit surprised to see the figures were that bit higher than Cardiff,” he said.

Most of those people had been stabbed in the arms or legs (39%), while 36% had injuries to their head or neck, 16% to the chest, 15% were abdominal wounds and 5% had been stabbed in the back.

While most of the injuries were minor, 26 of the 101 patients required surgery for their wounds and three died.

“The incidence of stab wounds presenting to our institution is quite high,” concluded the study. “They result in a considerable amount of morbidity and surgical activity.”

In Cardiff a far higher proportion of stabbings recorded were a result of domestic violence (45%), 32% took place in the street, 8% in a pub and a small percentage at school or work.

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