A 43-year-old grandmother yesterday became the first person to be convicted in connection with a riot during the Dunsink Lane road-barrier protests last year.
Adeline Casey, with addresses in Dunsink Lane, Finglas, Dublin, and Commons Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, England, denied failing to obey a Garda direction to leave the scene. She was convicted and fined €100.
Dublin District Court heard how burning tyres were rolled down at gardaí and petrol bombs and other missiles were thrown. The trouble broke out over the erection of a concrete barricade at Dunsink Lane in Finglas. It had been installed by the city council to tackle illegal dumping along the lane .
However, it also meant that the large number of Travellers who live in legal and illegal accommodation along the lane could only walk through two gaps in the barrier to get to their local shops and schools, or else drive an extra five-miles via Blanchardstown.
On October 10th the riot squad was called in and was confronted by a mob who pelted them with stones and petrol bombs.
As shield-bearing gardaí took up position in front of the barrier, Casey, a separated mother of three and a grandmother, demanded to be let through. She was refused and turned away, but as the line of riot police moved up the road, she again tried to get through.
She said she wanted to go to a shop in Finglas to buy credit for her mobile phone as she wanted to ring her daughter, who was pregnant in England and about to go into labour.
Judge Bryan Smyth accepted the Garda evidence and to some extent that of Casey. "There was a riot going on and while she had concerns for her daughter, given all the circumstances she should have done what she was asked to do."