Sir, – That a vicious attack would take place in broad daylight on the streets of Dublin is unfortunately nothing new. The nature of the attack that took place on November 23rd, however, is. It is a heinous crime and I have no doubt it will be dealt with accordingly in our criminal justice system.
One can understand the heightened sense of fear and revulsion that follows such an event but the hooliganism that unfolded on Thursday evening must be wholeheartedly denounced.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris says the city must not be “given over to thugs and arsonists” yet this is exactly what happened. The eyewitness reports by citizens and tourists make for unsettling reading.
The latent threat of violence seen in many recent events only gave licence to those who sought to create chaos on the streets of Dublin. The Government has a responsibility to ensure that our capital is not shut down by a few hundred people whose cause is only to wreak havoc. The remainder of society has a duty to call these thugs out and say: not here and never again. – Yours, etc,
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JOE MAY,
Dundalk,
Co Louth.
Sir, – Is it not a little disingenuous for Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to say, regarding the unrest, that “nobody could have anticipated what happened”?
Anticipation is what we expect from those charged with protecting the public from just these horrific events. – Yours, etc,
PETER DECLAN O’HALLORAN,
Belturbet,
Co Cavan.
Sir, – Can we now expect the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee to do a daytime walkabout in Parnell Square surrounded by high-ranking gardaí?
We need more and better-paid gardaí to create a safe and stable society. – Yours, etc,
OLAF SORENSEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
Sir, – The riotous events in Dublin city centre on Thursday evening, while shocking, were not surprising. After a year of right-wing organisation, anti-immigration protests since last winter, anti-social youth activity in Dublin since the summer, and abusive protesters disrupting the start of the parliamentary term in the autumn, there was a clear build-up towards the conflagration on O’Connell Street on the evening of November 23rd. While the crowd violence began as a right-wing mobilisation in reaction to the horrific knife attacks on three children and their carer on Parnell Square earlier that afternoon, the riotous activities escalated into attacks on private property, public infrastructure, and the police by that evening.
This violence must be understood as the expression of popular rage in response to the austerity measures and neoliberal policies that have done nothing to alleviate or overcome the housing crisis, healthcare crisis, cost-of-living crisis, inflation, and the erasure of State and social services over the past two decades, or the warped economic situation that has deprived the youth of a future in Ireland: leaving educated, middle-class youth with no option but to emigrate and lower- and working-class youth with absolutely nothing: no present and no future. This violence must not be understood as an expression of innate xenophobic tendencies among the Irish population.
Respectable political parties and people of influence must take this as a warning. Radical action on housing, health, the cost of living, and public and social provision must happen immediately and effectively in order to prevent malicious, far-right actors from diverting this rage and disaffection, especially among the youth, toward anti-immigration action and violence and the rise of a reactionary political movement in the Republic of Ireland – an outcome that will only lead to chaos, violence, and will not solve anything.
We must, and can, do better – far better. – Yours, etc,
EOGHAN C HUSSEY,
Department of History,
European University
Institute,
Florence,
Italy.
Sir, – The reality is that there are groups of disaffected youths, already engaged in petty crime around the city, who are waiting for the opportunity to cause chaos and steal, and they are not followers of any political creed. It is high time that this element in our society was dealt with either within the criminal justice system or by way of community and social interventions. The immediate priority is for the instigators of these events, who harvest this bounty of disorder, to be identified by the authorities and prevented from doing so ever again. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN McDONALD,
Terenure,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – Do we not have tear gas and water cannon to disperse rioters?
Are we not a modern European city such as Paris, Berlin and Madrid ?
How would these modern cities deal with a riot? – Yours, etc,
JAMES MILLIKEN,
Fairview,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – The time for virtue-signalling polemics is long past. We need to take a hard and sober look at the twin drivers of social unrest, not just for the Dublin riots, but across the Western world.
Uncontrolled immigration is a disaster. It quickly exceeds the capacity of a society to assimilate new arrivals and integrate them into the economy and culture. Absent effective integration, it sets up a clash of cultures that serves nobody’s interests.
The other driver is income inequality. Everywhere – but nowhere more than in Ireland’s two-tier economy – digital trends and globalisation have created ever-rising inequalities between elites and workers, rich and poor. Mass migration only exacerbates the trend. We all know where the refugees are housed, and it is not in Dalkey or Glenageary.
If the stabbings took place on the viewing terraces of south Dublin’s cricket clubs, the establishment’s reaction would be quite different. – Yours, etc,
GRAHAM STULL,
Bioul,
Belgium.
A chara, – A serious and overdue debate about Ireland’s immigration policy should not be stymied because a minority of thugs have used the issue as an excuse for a riot. Adopting a broader “basket of deplorables” approach, without bringing the issue into the light for candid discussion, will only add numbers to the ranks of the disaffected. – Is mise,
ADAM HOBSON,
Sudbury,
Suffolk,
England.
Sir, – Anyone paying even the slightest of attention to Dublin city over the last three years could have anticipated this incident, and yet the Garda Commissioner feigns surprise?
The Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice have failed utterly in the most basic duty given to them. Both should resign immediately and make way for those who will take the threats to Dublin and its people from far-right thugs seriously. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS HENEGHAN,
East Wall,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – The Garda Commissioner has stated that nobody could have anticipated the riots in Dublin on Thursday night. The facts suggest that the Commissioner is wrong. Throughout 2023 there have been multiple examples of actions promoted by sinister hard-right individuals and organisations which are intended to build hate and resentment against the New Irish. In addition to the uncontrolled encouragement of hate through social media, there have been multiple actions including obstruction of traffic at rush hour, direct attacks on those seeking international protection, attacks on politicians outside of the Dáil, and attacks on those who advocate on behalf of the New Irish.
In all of these instances, the policing response has been muted. In this context what occurred yesterday cannot be a surprise and is the consequence of so-called “intelligence-led” policing. A new robust approach is required. – Yours, etc,
PAUL DUGGAN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – Anyone who is regularly in Dublin city will recognise much of the behaviour and be familiar with many of those involved in the disorder and violence in Dublin city on Thursday night. They witness it daily on the streets, in shops, and on public transport on an individual level. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – On a morning when every front page shows the destruction of Dublin, may I thank sincerely the people who intervened to save the children and who intervened to protect the alleged attacker.
Thanks also to the gardaí and emergency services for their response at the time and later in the evening, and to the politicians and public figures who promptly and bluntly condemned the criminal actions on Thursday.
These are the people who represent my Ireland.
The destructive, violent criminal, thuggish, racist hooligans who spewed hate and misinformation, while destroying the main street of our capital city, bringing disgrace and shame on us all, do not represent me or my Ireland. – Yours, etc,
SARAH NESTOR,
Dundalk,
Co Louth.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole’s pious article perfectly sums up the head in the sand attitude of Middle Ireland to this burgeoning issue of anti-social and far-right behaviour in Dublin (“These pitiful thugs are not us. They do not act for us, speak for us or burn buses for us”, Opinion & Analysis, November 24th).
These people are us; that’s the problem.
What we are going to do about it is a more pressing question, as this has been allowed fester for years. – Is mise,
COLM DOYLE,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – To all the gardaí and ambulance drivers and fire brigade workers in Dublin, I wish to offer thanks and admiration. – Yours, etc,
MÁIRE NÍ BHRÓITHE,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – I’m permanently in awe at the level of incompetence rife at the highest levels of governance in this country. The Minister for Justice can walk the streets to assure us all that the streets are safe to walk in daylight with a Garda escort, to the utter derision of the general public who know differently. The Garda Commissioner has lost the support and confidence of his own force because they can see what’s happening on the ground and how they are ill-equipped to deal with the challenge. The Government is in denial and struggles to attract enough trainee gardaí to replace senior police retiring in their droves.
The Garda Commissioner in the last few years has run a misguided and statistically unsupported policy of appeasement by conceding the streets to far-right conspiracy theorists and agitators in the delusional belief that they will not take advantage and by his weakness has empowered them to brazenly threaten our society.
How appropriate that it was a hard-working Brazilian man who put his life at risk to help save the children while our brave Irish citizens ran amuck burning and looting our streets.
We need a response from the Government, the Garda Commissioner and Irish people at large to face down this thuggish insurrection.
And let’s park this mistaken notion of “Irish exceptionalism” where this cannot happen in our wonderful country. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS FINN,
Ballinasloe,
Co Galway.