Police arrest 34 after 'huge destruction by mob' in Dublin as vehicles torched

24 November 2023 , 08:14

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A bus on fire on O'Connell Street in Dublin city centre after violent scenes unfolded (Image: PA Wire)

Thirty-four people have been arrested following huge destruction by a riotous mob in Dublin on Thursday, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said.

Shocking violence erupted in Dublin last night following a day filled with tragedy, which saw five people including three young children wounded during a stabbing close to a school.

At around 1.30pm on Thursday, a person knifed a woman and the three young children aged between five and six outside the Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire primary school in the city centre.

One girl aged 5 is receiving emergency medical treatment for serious injuries. A boy aged 5 and a girl aged 6 who received less serious injuries were also rushed to hospital, and the boy has since been discharged.

An Garda Siochana at the scene in Dublin city centre (PA)

A woman in her 30s is being treated for serious injuries in the Mater Hospital. Police have since detained a man in his 50s, who also needed treatment for injuries.

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Recalling the attack itself, witness Siobhan Kearney said she saw what appeared to be a man attacking children. She recalls watching the scenes, which were "absolutely bedlam".

Ms Kearney told RTE she watched people disarm a man who she said had a knife.

"I looked across the road and I see the man and the stabbing motion with a load of children so I flew across the road," she said.

"The man was after stabbing two children as far as I could make out, and we got the children up to the left with the women that were there, and the teachers I presume.

"People were trying to attack the man so me and an American lady, we formed a ring around the man, and then about three minutes later the ambulance came for the children and then another ambulance and fire officers came for the man on the ground."

This evening, police cars, buses and trams were torched to the ground and shops looted as scenes of unrest broke out in the city centre.

Speaking to the media as riots raged on, Garda Commissioner described the violence as "disgraceful", saying that they involved a “lunatic hooligan faction” and were “driven by far-right ideology”.

Ireland's Justice Minister Helen McEntee echoed the commissioner's comments, telling national broadcaster RTE that the police were following a definite line of inquiry in relation to the "barbaric attack".

She also claimed the riots were being perpetrated by a "small group of people" who do not represent the vast majority of the people in the country, and they are using Thursday's events to "wreak havoc and sow division".

Ryan Fahey