A man has said he feared for his life when he was beaten over the head during an altercation at a Dublin city centre property, which was being used as a squat, last weekend.
A group of men forcefully removed several people from the Ormond Quay property last Saturday afternoon, according to those present. These included asylum seekers who had been living inside for weeks, they said.
Housing activists began squatting in the vacant building during the summer and “invited” homeless asylum seekers to stay there, according to one activist involved.
A Jordanian asylum seeker said he was removed from the house by men armed with sticks. He said he was beaten during the incident and later taken to the Mater hospital, where he received 18 stitches to his head. The 30-year-old spoke to The Irish Times with the assistance of an Arabic interpreter and requested anonymity.
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The man said that while he was being beaten, he kept thinking how he “didn’t want to die” in the country that he had sought refuge in. He said he felt the assault was not just an attempt to scare him, but to “finish” him.
One other man was hospitalised following the attack, during which a fire extinguisher was allegedly used as a weapon, witnesses said.
There have been no arrests following the incident. A Garda spokesman said gardaí at Store Street were continuing to investigate the matter.
The violence on Saturday afternoon followed a separate incident at the building on Friday night, when a group gained entry and attempted to remove those residing inside, according to people who were present at the time. It is understood that those staying inside the building resisted the attempts.
The disturbance on Friday triggered a major Garda operation, with the Armed Support Unit and Public Order Unit attending at the scene. Videos of the two incidents were shared widely on social media, including by far-right accounts on X.
Other asylum seekers who had been staying in the building say they now fear for their safety – in part because of the widespread dissemination of footage from the disturbances.
One asylum seeker, a 41-year-old man originally from the Gaza Strip, said he has been afraid to go outside since the incidents, saying he believed there was a racial element to them.
The man, who also requested anonymity, was inside the building at the time of Friday’s incident and attended again when disturbances broke out on Saturday. He alleged that one of the men who entered the Ormond Quay premises on Friday threatened to kill those inside.
He said that the brazen nature of Saturday’s incident – which took place in the afternoon while a pro-Palestinian demonstration was taking place elsewhere in the city centre – shocked him and others.
“Police [were] everywhere. And the people everywhere ... without mask, without anything, came and [they] wanted to kill the people [inside the building],” he said.
He expressed frustration at the response of gardaí to the incidents, saying nobody from the force had been in contact.
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