Gardaí attended the site of an encampment on Friday after receiving reports of tents being thrown into Dublin’s Grand Canal.
Around 20 tents housing homeless people and asylum seekers were reportedly attacked on the Parnell Road in Crumlin, with tents and possessions thrown into the water.
One of the men in a tent there said six men, one wearing a balaclava, approached the encampment at about 11am on Friday.
Love’Son was one of the men who pitched their tents there “late in the night after we were moved on from where we were sleeping” and slept overnight at the encampment.
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“They told me to get out from the tent and they threw it into the canal,” Love’Son said. He said one of the men told him he was going to “smash his head” with a discarded chair. “They threatened my life,” he said.
Most of the people staying in the encampment quickly fled the scene.
Love’Son arrived in Ireland from Spain in search for work on July 31st. On arriving to Ireland he slept rough in Tolka Valley Park and said he was beaten up by two men there who threw his possessions into the Royal Canal.
Two local women who witnessed the events at the Grand Canal called gardaí. The women were shouted at by two passing men who said: “Why are you giving them tents? We should look after our own.” Gardaí moved the men along.
Love’Son said he is unsure if he’ll remain in Ireland, “I don’t know, I’m an EU citizen, I can go to an EU city, but I don’t have money.” He believed “most of the Irish people are good” and “it’s only a few people who are ignorant of the world at large”.
The Garda Press Office said on Friday evening it had not received any reports of assaults arising from the alleged incident.
It is understood gardaí attended the site of the encampment on Friday after receiving reports of tents being thrown into the Grand Canal. It is further understood there was no one present at the encampment site when gardaí responded.
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