“This is Ireland, this is our country, get them out, get them f***ing out,” roared a woman through a loudhailer.
She was encouraging rioters to take on gardaí outside the Citywest accommodation centre for international protection applicants (IPAS) in Saggart, Co Dublin, on Tuesday night.
For almost two hours, lines of gardaí came under sustained attack from a mob. Many in the crowd were armed with fireworks, glass bottles, traffic cones and masonry obtained from demolishing a wall in the nearby Melbury Oaks housing estate.
Some householders rushed out of their properties to remonstrate with the rioters. But on seeing the sheer numbers of masked young men, many in a frenzy breaking down a wall with their bare hands, they immediately thought better of it and retreated.
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A horse-drawn sulky was charged into lines of gardaí, the animal clearly distressed. Some protesters seized upon a passing truck, taking tools from the back to use as weapons: shovels, rakes and a pitch fork.
“This was a mob intent on violence against gardaí,” said Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly. “This was obviously not a peaceful protest. The actions this evening can only be described as thuggery.”
He “utterly condemned” the attacks on gardaí “who did their jobs professionally and with great courage to keep people safe”. Kelly, in the job only a couple of months, promised the process of identifying those who committed crimes was already under way so they could be brought to justice.
Wheelie bins were set alight, the contents of industrial skips were taken from nearby businesses – mostly glass bottles – and hurled at lines of the Public Order Unit, or riot-squad, gardaí. The Garda helicopter shone its search light on the protest below as pepper spray wafted through the air.
The sight of one of the Garda’s new Public Order Unit vans set alight suggested a loss of control. It was an eerie reminder of the worst of the Dublin city centre riots in November 2023.
[ ‘Hold your ground’: Six arrested as Garda van burned at Citywest HotelOpens in new window ]
In reality, after about 90 minutes of madness, well-drilled lines of gardaí made their move against the crowds and quickly asserted their dominance. Once the gardaí properly mobilised, it took them less than 30 minutes to split the protest group and quell the disturbance. This was very different from the events of Dublin city almost two years ago, notwithstanding the Garda van engulfed in flames, to the delight of the cheering crowd.
A better-trained group of gardaí, with new state-of-the-art equipment designed for urban public order clashes, overwhelmed the protest group, in a way gardaí could not in Dublin city, even though they were vastly outnumbered in Citywest. As the gardaí ran at the crowds, some of those present shouted to each other to “hold your line”, but to no avail amid the stampede to get away.
Gardaí used larger and more powerful pepper sprays, some as big as fire extinguishers, to target the rioters. Every time a large volume of spray was discharged, it wafted through the air, lingering and forcing a retreat in the crowd for a prolonged period.
The crowd, which included teenagers and very young children, roared at the police, calling them “Black and Tans who get paid peanuts”. Many chants were xenophobic and racist. As glass bottles rained down , they loudly chanted “get them out, get them out” while others screamed “get the b*****ds”.
There was no doubting this was a large-scale violent incident, the likes of which we are still unused to in the Republic, despite the ugly excesses of recent years. Almost 300 gardaí were deployed, including 125 uniformed members and 150 in public order kit. There were six arrests, though more are likely. Just one garda required medical treatment, for a foot injury.
Some of those present used lasers in a bid to blind the pilot of the Garda helicopter and crew of the water cannon, making its first appearance on the streets of the Republic.
The Garda Dog Unit was deployed and the angrily barking dogs struck palpable fear into some in the crowd. Gardaí were drafted in from across the Eastern region to support their Dublin-based colleagues once the scale of the event began to become clear.
A “protest” had been advertised throughout the day on social media and on messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. The Garda said the publicity had been generated by “disparate groups ... who stir up hatred and violence and encourage and entice others to get involved”.
When The Irish Times approached the site in the early evening, the whiff of cordite was in the air – soon mixed with cannabis, fireworks and, later, the smell of the burning Garda van.
Earlier in the day an African man (26) had appeared before Blanchardstown District Court charged with the sexual assault on Monday of a 10-year-old Irish girl, who was in Tusla care. That alleged attack took place on grounds adjacent to the Citywest IPAS centre. It prompted the protest, which quickly descended into violence.
Senior Garda officers were expecting trouble. Throughout Tuesday they could see the growing online support for congregating at Citywest. An alert went out for public order-trained gardaí to make themselves available, with their kit, for deployment to the site.
And though Garda resources – especially the availability of Public Order Unit members – initially looked stretched, that did not last for long. At first, the crowd was allowed to walk up the driveway of the Citywest complex and face lines of riot squad gardaí behind crowd control barriers, though they were never breached.
However, from about 7.30pm, some at the front of the crowd made efforts to break through the barriers. Then fireworks were shot at the gardaí, who responded by advancing towards the crowd in a line, pushing them back. Once the pepper sprays were deployed, all of those present fled back down the driveway and out on to Garter Lane. It was by now packed with hundreds of people, maybe more than 1,000 at its peak.
The riot squad then fanned out across the entrance of the IPAS centre and were pounded again and again by rioters with missiles and fireworks, the squad using their shields to protect themselves.
When industrial-sized wheelie bins were pushed down the hill from Saggart to the gates of the IPAS centre, their contents – glass bottles – were tipped on to the road. There was a rush among the crowd for the bottles, which were then hurled at gardaí, in scenes akin to rioting during the height of the Troubles in the North.
However, just after 9pm a large number of Public Order Unit gardaí on foot appeared on Garter Lane, from the direction of Saggart, advancing towards the crowd. Behind them were their horse-mounted colleagues, the Garda water cannon and a huge convoy of vehicles, including vans packed with fresh public order unit personnel. This was the big move to bring the violence to an end.
Just before 9.30pm, that group of gardaí ran at the crowd, deploying pepper spray and forcing the rioters about 200 metres away from the IPAS centre gates and towards a crossroads. There, the crowd dispersed in various directions. Now split, the strength of their numbers was dismantled in a few moments.
From that point, the Public Order Unit gardaí stood silently in the road. They were behind their riot shields, pepper spray at the ready, until only a small number of diehard stragglers remained by about 10pm.
