Politicians see questioning Garda competence as less important than exposing those behind Saturday's mayhem, writes Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent
For some time on Saturday, the Garda Síochána seemed unprepared, with the uniformed officers on O'Connell Street in danger of being outnumbered as the missiles began to fly. Rioters were pushed down O'Connell Street and along the south quays, only to cross bridges upriver back to the north side again.
The target of their vicious, and in some cases alcohol-fuelled, hatred, the "Love Ulster" marchers, were then bussed across town to Leinster House, a decision which led to a rampage of thugs across to Nassau Street, where they burned cars, smashed shops and looted without impediment before the Garda imposed control on this second front.
The presence of neatly piled ammunition in the form of heavy building blocks along Dublin's main street also seems extraordinary in circumstances where a march that could attract hooligan opponents was to take place.
The Garda authorities will examine all of these questions now, and a report will be provided to the Minister for Justice. Questions will be asked, reviews will take place, lessons will be learned.
But the key political question is, whodunit? The second one is how to prevent them doing it again.
Opposition political response yesterday was restrained in its questioning of the Garda and the Minister for Justice, and concentrated heavily on denouncing those responsible for the violence.
Although Labour's justice spokesman Joe Costello initially suggested the Minister for Justice should resign, his party leader Pat Rabbitte said yesterday he did not agree with this, and concentrated on suggesting dissident republicans were responsible for planning the riot. Fine Gael's Jim O'Keeffe also urged that the Garda inquiry into what happened should concentrate on finding out who was responsible.
On this question the evidence so far is not definitive. The best assessment yesterday was that there was a core mob that came prepared.
Many have asserted that these were dissident republicans, and eyewitnesses report seeing some members of fringe republican groups among the rioters. It is conceivable that at least some were not particularly supportive of these groups, but were the rioting enthusiasts who attach themselves to other demonstrations such as anti-globalisation protests.
Their number was swelled by young people who happened to be on the scene and who joined in.
Eyewitnesses and gardaí dismiss reports that there was any substantial element that had been "bussed in" from Northern Ireland.
There was a Republican Sinn Féin counter-demonstration at the Garden of Remembrance, and some of the people who went to that were also seen later in the O'Connell Street mob.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party had a presence as the rioting was taking place.
Some people wore Celtic or Shamrock Rovers shirts and at one stage sang "olé, olé, olé", suggesting this element may not have been entirely politically motivated.
Others had golf balls, snooker balls and other missiles to throw.Whether these had been brought into town or simply looted from shops is not known. Gardaí said that petrol bombs were thrown, although this does not appear to have happened on a large scale. Rioters had so many bottles to fling, it was said widely yesterday that bins full of these had been stored in side streets in advance. However eye-witnesses report seeing rioters finding and using wheelie bins full of bottles at the back of pubs and hotels after a busy Friday night.
Some people wore hoods and scarves to conceal their faces from the many CCTV cameras around the city streets. Some, as the Taoiseach said, seemed to have experience of pulling up paving stones and hurling them. Some of the hangers-on who joined in were local inner-city youths. Others spilled out of pubs.
In other words, there seems to have been some organisation and planning. But there was also a straightforward hooligan element that joined in the rioting. There was also an opportunistic element that took advantage of the mayhem to indulge in looting.
One expects gardaí to be alert to such events and to plan to avert them. But it was not just the Garda Síochána that was caught unawares. Media and politicians, while aware in advance of the possibility of tension and confrontation, failed to anticipate the scale of the violence.
The concern in Government circles is not only about the physical damage done to the city centre, but the international damage that may have been done to the country's image. One of the positive effects of the peace process has been the transformation of the image of Ireland over the last decade. No longer does one meet many foreigners abroad who primarily see Ireland as a violent and dangerous place. It is seen as a safe place to live, to work and to invest.
One senior Government figure noted on Saturday that images of burning cars and thuggery in Dublin city centre were prominent on every Sky and BBC World News bulletin. While Dubliners may see those involved as an unrepresentative group for whom the vast bulk of the population feels nothing but disgust, the narrative as interpreted abroad is that the age-old unionist/nationalist conflict lives on through violence in the capital city.
Any repeat of Saturday's events will be seen as very bad for business, and considerable political thought will go into how to prevent this from happening again.
Government sources yesterday played down suggestions that the events could have any effect on the currently stalled talks designed to bring about the restoration of the political institutions in Northern Ireland. References to the violence will undoubtedly appear in some DUP rhetoric from time to time.
However, the reaction of DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who travelled to Dublin with the Love Ulster marchers, was notable. While condemning the violence, he drew attention both to the lengths to which gardaí went to keep the visitors safe, and the spontaneous welcome and civility shown by people on the streets before the violence erupted.
The Government insists that the military parade down O'Connell Street this Easter to mark the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising will go ahead as planned. The matter is to be discussed at Cabinet soon, perhaps tomorrow.
Insisting the parade will go ahead, a Government spokeswoman said yesterday: "We can't let these people influence what we had planned to do."