Number of stabbing victims treated in Irish hospitals rises to 15-year high

The number of people treated for serious wounds in hospitals across the Republic after being stabbed has surged and is now at a 15-year high. Some 215 people were treated as inpatients in Irish hospitals for “knife assault” injuries in 2025, up from 170 the previous year and the highest level since 2011.Most of the stabbings take place in people’s homes rather than during street attacks or in other public places.However, recent high-profile incidents, some of which have proven fatal, have renewed concerns about knife crime. Perhaps the most high-profile case was that of Qayyum Balogun (21), who was last month chased through the streets in Dublin’s city centre before being fatally stabbed on Clarendon Street.READ MOREJust days earlier, on May 27th-28th, Masoumeh Jafri Manojan (31), an Iranian national, died from a knife attack in Clifden, Co Galway, near the International Protection Accommodation Service centre where she lived. Her former partner, Ali Sohrabi (35), of no fixed abode, was charged with her murder, but has since taken his own life while on remand in Castlerea Prison.Information obtained by The Irish Times reveals the number of victims of serious stabbings treated as inpatients increased by 26 per cent last year, the biggest annual increase for at least two decades.The true number of stabbing victims treated in hospitals after knife attacks is likely much higher because the records do not include those treated for less serious stab injuries.The data, secured from HSE records, captures only those cases where wounds were deemed serious enough to admit the injured person for inpatient treatment. It does not include those treated for their wounds in emergency departments and then discharged without an overnight stay required.In reply to queries, Garda Headquarters said it was “always concerned about any incident, including assaults, involving knives”. High-visibility policing was being further increased across the country to “prevent and detect public-order issues, including possession of knives”.It added in a major piece of research, which studied crime trends from 2015 to 2024, and published 12 months ago, concluded “most assaults causing harm with a knife occur in residential locations, not on street or open spaces”.That research, Garda Headquarters added, also found knives were a factor in “less than 7 per cent” of assault-causing-harm cases in the decade under review, to the end of 2024.Furthermore, the findings would be updated next month to take 2025 into account, the period for which The Irish Times has secured hospital admission and discharge data.The 21 years of HSE data – from 2005 to 2025 – sets out how many people were admitted as inpatients for treatment for “assault by knife” injuries before being discharged.It shows the Celtic Tiger era witnessed a very large number of stabbing victims requiring inpatient treatment, peaking at 269 cases in 2006, followed by 238 cases in each of the next two years and 252 in 2009.However, numbers then declined, dropping below 200 cases per year from 2012 and falling as low as 157 cases in 2020, though increasing sharply last year.Garda sources said it would take some time, at least another year, before it could be determined if the sudden increase in stabbing cases being recorded in health data was a once-off or a more pronounced trend over time.