Three young children were injured in a knife attack in Dublin on Thursday that sparked riots in the city centre.
Public transport was suspended following clashes between riot police and anti-immigration protesters arriving at the scene of the attack along the main thoroughfare of O’Connell Street. Patients have been advised not to travel to the nearby maternity hospital unless absolutely necessary.
A double-decker bus was burnt to the ground in front of the statue of Daniel O’Connell at the start of the street and windows were smashed at the nearby Holiday Inn and McDonalds restaurant. A Footlocker shop was looted. A police car was also burnt out. Police Commissioner Drew Harris told reporters after deploying 400 officers to restore public order:
They are disgraceful scenes. We have a complete lunatic, hooligan faction driven by far right ideology engaged in serious violence.
Such unrest is almost unique to Dublin. There are no far-right parties or politicians elected to parliament, but small anti-immigrant protests have increased in the past year. The government is reviewing security measures around parliament after a recent protest left lawmakers trapped inside.
Harris said all lines of enquiry related to the attack remain open, contradicting a senior officer who earlier told reporters that police were confident the incident was not terrorism-related. He said:
I’m not going to speculate any further in respect of a terrorist motive. Until we’re sure what the motive is, we have to keep an open mind as to why this happened.
A five-year-old girl was seriously injured in the stabbing and received emergency treatment. A man in his early 40s, who was also treated, was arrested by police, who said they were not looking for other suspects.
Police said the man appeared to have attacked several people in Parnell Square in Dublin shortly after 13:30 GMT.
Net migration among Ireland’s 5.3 million residents in the 12 months to April rose to the second highest level since record-keeping began, with around 100,000 Ukrainian refugees arriving in the country since the Russian invasion, one of the highest per capita figures in the EU.
