The point is that nobody alerted the driver because to do so is to draw attention to yourself and hence become a target. Also, why bother if all the driver can do is ring the guards. You may as well cut out the middleman.
The problem is that for several years now there have been some trains with no Irish Rail staff presence aside from the driver. On these trains, routine anti-social behaviour such as smoking, playing music, etc goes entirely unpunished and so escalates. It is this development of a threatening atmosphere that any staff presence on the train prevents. This is what has escalated into these two incidents.
Obviously a transport police is the ideal solution, but there is little point in having it as a Garda division as they staff will just get reassigned to more important and glamourous duties. But having any kind of presence is better than none - where this be private security or even just not having the expectation of NEVER seeing a ticket collector an a given service.
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