Over eight hours spent on Parnell Square and Parnell Street on Tuesday, this reporter did not see a Garda.
The young girl who was stabbed outside Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square East on Thursday of last week, November 23rd, and the adult creche worker who came to her assistance, remain in hospital. The two other children who were also injured have been discharged from hospital.
Violence erupted in Dublin in the aftermath of the attack.
Parnell Street is 1km long, and is bisected by Upper O’Connell Street, which was the focal area of last week’s riots. The eastern part of the street is notably more run down and derelict than its western part. The western section includes Tesco, Penney’s, Lidl, Chapters Bookshop and a couple of antique shops. There are several phone repair shops on both parts of the street, and also a number of ethnic restaurants specialising in Korean, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Japanese and Chinese food.
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Chinese-born Li Fei Mou was buying shellfish in Rongs Asian Market. “I came here 23 years ago,” she said. “Things have changed in 23 years. Irish people are not so nice any more.”
Pia McInerney was passing Pho Kim, a Vietnamese restaurant. “I was not surprised by the riots. There’s not enough police presence on the streets. People don’t take the police seriously.”
When asked whether she thought anti-immigrant feeling may have contributed to the riots, she said no. “That reason was only an excuse to kick off by certain people.”
Marius Marosan, who had been shopping in Foley’s Chemist, came to Ireland from Romania 15 years ago. “I was shocked by the riots. I couldn’t believe it. I think some hooligans took advantage of the situation to create havoc.”
Marosan spoke of his own experience of being an immigrant. “The general feeling was that Irish people are welcoming. Or that they used to be welcoming.”
Has that perception changed over the 15 years he has been here, within his own community of fellow Romanians?
“If you are a recent immigrant, yes, it is different now.”
At 147 Deli, manager Barbara Bongiovanni is taking a break from serving coffees at the shop’s front hatch. She came to Ireland from Argentina five years ago. “It’s the first time I saw Irish people act like that. I never imagined buses or trams would be set on fire. After what happened on Thursday, we didn’t feel safe here. I didn’t feel safe. On Friday, we heard that there might be another protest, so we closed early. I have a Brazilian friend who was afraid to come into the city centre at all that day, which is ironic when it was a Brazilian man who stepped in to help when those people were being attacked outside the school.”
Bongiovanni said she had experienced harassment in the past while walking on the street. “‘Go back to your country’, or shouting, ‘Why don’t you speak English?’ when I am taking Spanish to a friend: that kind of thing. It’s always young teenage men. Even if there are young women with them, the women don’t usually say anything. I have always been kind of worried about these teenagers on the street.”
Bongiovanni refers to the recent election of Javier Milei, the new far-right president of her home country of Argentina. “I think the riots here came out of some kind if ideology that is going around the world. Young people are supporting the far right. I don’t know why, but it’s not just in Ireland that it is happening.”
Tara Ferguson, the manager of the Black Hat tattoo parlour, is standing outside on a smoking break. “I think what happened last week is disgraceful. I was caught up in it myself while trying to get home. It became the city versus the guards. I was quite emotional about it all. By the end of the evening, I think most of the people there who were creating the chaos were being opportunistic. They have a very loud voice on TikTok.”
Ferguson employs 10 tattoo artists. “Only one of them is Irish. The others are Spanish, Brazilian, from Chile, Ukrainian. They were all surprised in that they didn’t think riots could happen here. And they were sad. We closed on the Friday because we didn’t want any of our artists coming into the city and maybe not feeling safe.”
“I’ve no use for journalists,” jeered a young man passing Tesco, when asked whether he had anything to say about the recent riots.
“F***ing scumbag journalists!” his male companion shouted back.
A man coming out of Chapters who wished to be identified only by his first name, Seamus, said he was visiting by train from Wexford to do some Christmas shopping.
“I’m not at all surprised by the riots. There is an invasion of immigrants going on all over the country. People are protesting in Rosslare against a proposal to turn an empty hotel into another centre for asylum seekers instead of a nursing home for local people. The hotels in Rosslare are full of immigrants, and there is nowhere for tourists to stay... I think it is absolutely terrible.”
In the Pet Palace pet shop, staff member Dylan Rowan said he had seen ambulances “flying by” on Thursday evening last week. “I do not in any way agree with what happened, and I think it is disgraceful, but I am not surprised. It has been coming for a while; that mentality has been rising.”
What does he mean by “that mentality”?
“A kind of nationalism. People getting annoyed at Ukrainians emigrating here after the war. People getting annoyed at being called racist. I see a lot of young men – it is always young men – on TikTok and Instagram trying to act very tough. They are saying Irish people are not getting what they should get by right. There is a lot of online hate and a lot of anger, and I think that anger comes from a place of hate. These people complain about the homelessness problem in Ireland and how awful it is, but I don’t think they care about actual homeless people. They are just angry that immigrants have been housed instead of Irish people.”
All but one of the male taxi drivers standing chatting outside Penney’s while waiting for fares scattered when they heard the word “journalist”. The one who stayed, and who gave only his first name as Mark, said he “saw tension in the street every day. For the last year, the only thing my customers from all walks of life have been talking about is complaining about all the immigrants coming into the country...
“And now in the last few days, all anyone can talk about are the stabbings. It’s nearly Christmas and people should be talking about happy things, like kids looking forward to Santa, but it’s all riots and knives. It’s very depressing.”
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