This is not the first time the playground has been vandalised, with an arson attack causing €300,000 of damage last Halloween
Diamond Park was damaged by a fire on Saturday
A playground in a city centre park has been severely damaged after it was set alight on Saturday afternoon.
Firefighters from Dublin Fire Brigade raced to battle the blaze at Diamond Park on Sean McDermott Street at 3:30pm yesterday. Pictures from the aftermath show climbing frames and other facilities in the playground badly burned.
This is not the first time the north inner city playground has been vandalised, with an arson attack causing €300,000 of damage last Halloween. Local Councillor Daniel Ennis said he was “sickened” by the latest attack and called on the Minister for Justice to do more to keep the area safe.
Cllr Ennis said in a video posted on Facebook: “Diamond Park has been vandalised again and I’m absolutely disgusted. I’m angry and I’m sickened by all of it if I’m being honest. Look, the Minister for Justice talks about high visibility policing in the city centre and how successful it that’s been. This park is a stone’s throw from O’Connell Street and the people around here and the people that live here certainly don’t feel that and they don’t see it.
Facilities at Diamond Park have been badly damaged by a fire once again
“When Jim O’Callaghan talks about areas that aren’t safe, it’s here he’s talking about – Dublin 1. Our city centre, in and around the north inner city and communities right across Dublin Central, and this is one of those. This is not only a policing issue. What’s happening here is not normal. But this government keep treating it as though it is normal. This park now has been destroyed on multiple occasions and each time, nothing. No action, no accountability and no change.
“We’re screaming for safe places for our kids to play and we’re watching the very few that we have around our city being torn apart and this again has happened so many times with Diamond Park. This park sits on Gardiner Street and, as we know, over 10% of the country’s homeless accommodation is on this road.
“This community carries a burden that no other community in the country carries and it’s being failed by the state time after time, generation after generation, and nothing’s changing here.”
Social Democrats Councillor Daniel Ennis
The Dublin Central bye-election candidate reiterated his previous call for an emergency working group to be set up to tackle vandalism in the area. He continued: “You can’t police your way out of these problems that’s rooted in neglect and poverty. Neglect by the state. So I, once again, am calling for an emergency working to be set up. The guards, Dublin City Council public reps and the people who live here. This community has had the answers for years and nobody has been listening. So that’s why we need to change this from the community up, from the ground up, because we cannot keep accepting this for our young people and for our communities.”
A Garda spokesman confirmed an investigation has been launched into yesterday’s fire. He told Dublin Live: “Gardaí received a report of a fire at Diamond Park, Sean McDermott Street, Dublin 1, at 3:30pm on 16th May 2026. The fire was extinguished by Dublin Fire Brigade. Investigations ongoing.”
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