ENNIS in Co Clare was the worst location in Ireland for criminal activity in 2009 outside of Ireland's major cities, according to statistics on prosecutions obtained by the Sunday Tribune.

The Co Clare town saw nearly 12,000 criminal cases brought before its district court, although this represented just 2.6% of the nearly half-a-million cases heard around the country last year.

The majority of criminal activity – at least that which ended up before the courts – related to the Dublin metropolitan region, where a total of 198,804 cases, or 43% of the 459,659 total, were processed.

Every type of crime, from public order offences to murder, appears at some stage before the district court before being dealt with or moved to a higher jurisdiction.

The number of cases that appear before district judges can be a good indicator of the level of criminal behaviour investigated by gardaí.

After the Dublin region, Cork had the highest number of cases. The city itself accounted for 37,355, although when added to county towns such as Mallow, Clonakilty, Youghal and Fermoy, Cork tallied 53,601 criminal hearings, or 11.6% of the total.

Cork was followed by Limerick, which had 36,091 hearings (7.8%), and Galway, with 13,385 (2.9%).

The safest part of the country, at least when measured by the number of criminal allegations brought before a judge, was Doire an Fheich in Co Galway, which recorded just 1,262 criminal charges, working out at around 24 a week or 0.27% of the national total.

In 2009, there were 3,113 applications for barring orders taken against people to prevent further incidents of domestic violence. Dublin saw most of these cases, with 1,040, or one-third of the total requests put to judges. The next-busiest districts were Limerick (460), Cork (288) and Galway (134).

There were also nearly 25,000 family law hearings before the courts. Special exemption orders where licensed premises request an extension to serving hours were also in demand in 2009, with the country's courts processing a total of 61,276 applications.