Uniformed gardaí are maintaining a low-key presence in the vicinity of the old Crown Paints factory in Coolock in Dublin on Tuesday morning, following hours of serious civil unrest in the area on Monday.
Large concrete barriers, about 3m high, were in place to block access to the site, where the Department of Integration plans to house roughly 550 asylum seekers.
The area was relatively calm on Tuesday morning, although a handful of protestors carrying Tricolours had gathered in front of the concrete bollards by 11am.
The Irish Times witnessed one man verbally abuse two uniformed gardaí at the junction between the Malahide Road and Greencastle Road. “Get a real job,” he said.
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One security guard, working at the adjacent industrial park on the Malahide Road, said the morning had been relatively quiet. “But we’ll see,” he said.
Concerns are mounting within An Garda Síochána about a growing, complex and volatile security threat in north Dublin after clashes between gardaí and protesters opposed to international protection applicants being housed in a disused former paint factory.
Protesters remained at the site of the Crown Paints industrial unit, Malahide Road, Coolock, on Monday night after violent clashes earlier in the day resulted in a security man hospitalised, a number of gardaí injured, arson attacks on a Garda car and a digger, and 15 arrests being made.
The Garda operation, which continued on Monday night in a tense stand-off with protesters and far-right agitators at the site, at its height involved up to 200 members of the force, more than 40 Garda vehicles and the Garda helicopter monitoring from above.
The violent scenes included fireworks being aimed at lines of Public Order Unit gardaí. Also thrown at gardaí were glass bottles, so-called “fast gas” canisters, rocks, stones and kerbing taken from businesses within the Malahide Road Retail Centre.
Large wheelie bins were also taken from the industrial units – after the businesses hastily closed around lunchtime – and set alight by youths on the northbound carriageway of Malahide Road. Debris littered large sections of the road after the violent scenes were subdued by about 4.30pm.
Taoiseach Simon Harris condemned the violence in Coolock on Monday night as “sheer thuggery”. It was not community engagement and should be called out, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland on Tuesday morning.
Mr Harris said workers on the site and gardaí should not have been put in danger. “I’ve had it up to here with this ‘whataboutery’. We will continue to communicate better with communities, good, decent people across the country who want to talk about legitimate issues. There’s such a role for that. Every community has a right to be engaged with. “All we saw last night was such a distance away from my question about community engagement. It was sheer thuggery. It should be called out as such, and I want to really thank the gardaí for the very swift action they took in a very difficult circumstance that amounted to many arrests.
“I ... was particularly pleased to see the benefit of the body cams, because I’ve no doubt that would have been very, very helpful in gathering important evidence in relation to a scene that will not be tolerated in this country.”
Meanwhile, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has defended the garda response to protests in Coolock on Monday. Gardaí responded “quickly and in force”, she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland. “It is unacceptable that gardaí would be targeted in the way that they were. I want to commend them for the way in which they responded.”
Ms McEntee said misinformation and disinformation remained “an absolute focus” and priority for the Government so they could provide clarity for communities. “Minister Gorman and his department is engaging directly with communities. That engagement will continue, but again, it is not legitimate for any individual to use communications as a reason for this type of violent criminal behaviour.”
She said this type of behaviour was criminal and would not be tolerated, this was not legitimate protest.
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