The city of Dublin was under heavy police surveillance on Friday evening, the day after far-right riots that broke out after a knife attack and brought “shame on Ireland” in what the prime minister said were some rare incidents.
• Also read: IN PICTURES | Violence in Dublin: 34 arrests
• Also read: Incidents in Dublin following a knife attack in which five people were injured
A handful of people were arrested in the Irish capital’s city center early in the evening, noted an AFP journalist, who was told by police that they did not expect any “serious incidents.”
“The center of Dublin is open as normal,” she tried to reassure on X (ex-Twitter) in the early afternoon, with an “enhanced law enforcement plan” and the use of two water cannons as a precautionary measure.
AFP
For several hours on Thursday evening, nearly 500 rioters burned vehicles, looted and destroyed stores and clashed with police in a central Dublin neighborhood that is home to many immigrants.
This violence erupted after a man armed with a knife attacked several people near a school in Dublin in the early afternoon, leaving four injured, a teacher and three children.
AFP
A five-year-old girl was in “critical condition” on Friday. According to police, the teacher is in “serious condition.”
The attacker, who was also injured, was overpowered and arrested on site, thanks in particular to the intervention of a Brazilian delivery man and a 17-year-old Frenchman. According to the Irish Times newspaper, it is a man who has been naturalized and has lived in Ireland for 20 years.
The police blamed the extreme right for this “extraordinary explosion of violence” and referred to rumors circulating on social networks about the origin of the attacker against a background of increasing anti-immigrant sentiment.
Unreleased scenes
The rioters “claim to be defending Irish nationals” but “they are shaming Dublin, shaming Ireland,” criticized Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, adding that the damage to public infrastructure would cost “tens of millions of dollars.”
Irish police, who spoke of “scenes unseen for decades,” said they had arrested 34 people. According to Irish media, a curfew has been imposed on some of them.
AFP
After initially declaring that they were “convinced that there was no terrorist connection,” the police were more cautious about the motives of the fifty-year-old attacker.
On Friday evening, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said officers had “a defined line of inquiry,” without specifying its nature, and that no one else was currently being sought.
AFP
She also announced that a bill on video surveillance, which would specifically allow police officers to use pedestrian cameras, would be subject to accelerated review.
Facing what she described as “catastrophic operational failures”, the leader of the main opposition Sinn Féin party, Mary Lou McDonald, called on Friday for the resignation of the justice minister and the head of the Irish police, but Helen McEntee refused.
Rumors on the networks
In the hours after Thursday’s attack, several anti-immigrant accounts circulated (“Ireland belongs to the Irish”).
“As soon as the news of the attack became known, the right-wing extremists organized themselves” on social networks and “well-known personalities called for people to gather in the city center – especially on Telegram and Twitter,” emphasized Aoife Gallagher. the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London.
AFP
Stimulated by the real estate crisis, an anti-immigrant discourse has developed in Ireland in recent years. In recent months there have been several demonstrations against accommodation projects for asylum seekers.
According to official figures, asylum applications in Ireland increased more than fivefold in 2022 compared to 2021.
“The majority of Irish people welcome immigrants (…) but in the last two or three years a far-right movement has emerged that uses social media to spread disinformation and fear of them,” he said. “AFP Anne Holohan, Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin.
The anti-racism association INAR castigated “the manipulators and opportunists” who are “exploiting this difficult time” to “sow chaos.”