The right-wing historian, David Irving, was forced to cancel a lecture at University College Cork last night after gardai advised college security that they feared for people's safety when a group of protesters rushed a Garda cordon.
An estimated 600 protesters gathered outside the university's science building, where Dr Irving was due to deliver a lecture entitled "Myths of the Second World War" to the Philosophical Society.
When a group managed to rush through a Garda cordon placed at an entrance corridor, scuffles broke out. Gardai reinforcements were drafted in to push protesters back into the foyer of the building.
"I've no doubt but that if they had got into the lecture theatre, we would have had a riot on our hands," said one senior garda, who confirmed that one man was arrested for public order offences.
Gardai advised college security that they feared for people's safety if the lecture went ahead and college security chiefs then instructed the organisers of the Philosophical debate to cancel it. Among the many protesters were members of the Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Movement, Anti-Nazi League, Workers Party and Sinn Fein. Many carried placards proclaiming, "No Free Speech for Nazis".
However, the society's auditor, Mr Stephen Vaughan, afterwards expressed disappointment that protesters had forced the cancellation of the lecture and claimed their actions had endangered lives.
But Mr Richard Boyd Barrett, of the Anti-Nazi League, welcomed the cancellation of the lecture.