The Mayor of Galway, Councillor Niall McNeilus, was punched in the face when he came to the aid of a young girl who was being mugged on Friday night. However, it wasn’t the punch to the face that hit home for McNeilus.
The Mayor intervened as the girl was being tugged at by a man who appeared to be intoxicated and claimed to have a knife on the Wolfe Tone Bridge in the city centre at about 8.30 in the evening.
Since the attack, the Mayor has expressed his shock that before he had arrived, no passer byer had stopped to help the girl but rather to video the incident on their smartphones.
“But what shocked me is nobody else came to the young woman’s assistance and nobody else intervened when I was assaulted. Instead several people, including some men, took out their phones and started filming.
"I couldn’t believe it. That young woman could be anyone’s daughter, sister, partner or whatever and not only did nobody come to her assistance but they started filming it on their phones. I was astonished, I would have hoped for more civic spirit and that somebody in difficulty would be assisted,” said Mayor McNeilus.
