Carnage in capital leave anxious aftermath

A MAYO student who narrowly avoided being caught up violent unrest in Dublin has said she would be uneasy about venturing in the capital in future.

Saoirse Gallagher from Castlebar was in the O’Connell Street area at 5pm shortly before rioting and looting erupted. The violence broke out in the aftermath of a stabbing incident outside a school in nearby Parnell Square.

Ms Gallagher, who is studying in Maynooth University, told The Mayo News that one of her friends was forced to barricade himself inside the basement of a bar he was working in, to protect himself from the ensuing riot.

Ms Gallagher (22) was walking to Heuston Station to get the train home to Mayo when she came upon the crowds, who had assembled after various social-media accounts called for an assembly at The Spire in O’Connell Street.

She said she felt ‘very anxious’ at the sight of the crowds before she walked to train station and travelled home to Mayo.

Ms Gallagher took the bus east from Mayo to Maynooth last  weekend in order to avoid the train journey via Dublin – which requires passengers to go to Heuston and cross the city to Connolly Station.

‘Strange views’

MS Gallagher described some of the rhetoric levelled against immigrants online in the aftermath of the stabbing and riots as ‘really shocking’.

“It was so shocking to see that happening in a place that was a second home,” she said. “So many people I know from up there, people that I lived with and socialised with, and seeing so many people with strange views against so many of our population.”

_{Saoirse Gallagher (pictured) was travelling through O'Connell Street as rioting began to erupt in Dublin}

A number of gardaí were injured during the flare-up while rioters burned a Luas trams, a number of Dublin Bus vehicles and looted various nearby shops.

Forty-three people were arrested and approximately 60 gardaí were injured during the riots, which made headlines around the world.

A five-year-old girl and an adult woman who were stabbed in the attack which sparked the riots are currently in a critical condition in hospital. The alleged assailant is also being treated in hospital for his injuries. 

An enhanced policing presence was maintained in Dublin city throughout the weekend, with some gardaí drafted in from as far away as Sligo.

When contacted by The Mayo News, a garda spokesman could not confirm if gardaí from Mayo were called to police the capital city over the weekend. The practice is not uncommon, with Gardaí from the county policing games in Croke Park earlier this summer.

Regulations

SEPERATELY, Westport-based county councillor Christy Hyland has accused politicians of ‘talking out of both sides of their mouths’ regarding the police response the Dublin riots.

Addressing the issue at yesterday’s meeting of Mayo County Council, Cllr Hyland said that politicians complaining about the Garda response to the riots would have criticised gardaí for using excessive force on the rioters.

“If they were given the instruction to baton charge last Thursday night and people got hurt, the members in Dáil Éireann would be asking for GSOC to get in on Friday morning and have the guards charged,” the former garda told The Mayo News.

“These people in Dáil Éireann can’t have it both ways. We either have law an order society or we don’t,” said Cllr Hyland, who added that the Gardaí dealt with the situation ‘as well as they could with the regulations they have to comply with’.