The man killed in the weekend stabbing in Dublin city has been named as Quam Babatunde (34), an asylum seeker from Nigeria.
Gardaí have begun a murder investigation and were making “very good progress” in terms of identifying those involved, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said.
Mr Babatunde lived at the Ballyogan international protection accommodation centre in South Dublin, having moved there from Citywest accommodation centre last year.
He was fatally injured after an altercation in the early hours of Saturday on South Anne Street, off Grafton Street, having gone to a nightclub in Dublin city on Friday night.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s This Week programme, Mr O’Callaghan said there was “excellent CCTV” footage and those involved should “hand themselves over now”.
An Garda Síochána said it was called to the South Anne Street/Duke Lane Upper area shortly after 3am on Saturday and found a man in his 30s who was seriously injured and unresponsive.
“He was treated at the scene by emergency services personnel and transferred to hospital, where he was pronounced deceased a short time later,” it said.
A second male, also in his 30s, was injured in the vicinity and was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Several bloodstains on the pavement, beginning on South Anne Street and ending on Dawson Street, were marked off by investigating gardaí, who carried out a technical examination of the scene on Saturday.
Mr O’Callaghan said a number of people got into a row in a nightclub and this continued on the street, culminating in the fatal incident.
The Fianna Fáil TD said he had seen “shocking” footage apparently taken at the scene that is circulating on social media. It shows a man with a knife charging back and forth across the street.
“Carrying knives and acts of violence on the street are not acceptable in Ireland and nor will they ever be acceptable,” he said.
Mr O’Callaghan said his predecessor, Helen McEntee, had increased the penalties for carrying knives and gardaí are enforcing that law.
“You’re not allowed to carry knives in Ireland and we’re not going to allow ourselves to develop into a society where young men are carrying knives; it’s completely unacceptable,” he said.
In response to the incident, local businesses, which were forced to close while the scene around South Anne Street was examined on Saturday, and Opposition politicians said a more visible Garda presence was needed in the city centre.
Mr O’Callaghan said he accepted that parts of Dublin are unsafe at certain times of day and that greater Garda visibility on the streets needed to be encouraged.
He said gardaí needed to be able to avail of facial recognition technology, which would “speed up” their investigations into matters such as the South Anne Street incident.
Ash Thulseepersad, senior manager at The Gotham Cafe, which is within the area cordoned off following the fatal incident, said he was “shocked” to hear what had happened.
Mr Thulseepersad said nightlife can be “full on” and makes South Anne Street “super busy”, but he “would have thought it was a safe enough area”.
He said he had looked at CCTV footage and there were about 150 people in the area outside the cafe at about 3am, having left a nearby nightclub.
Patrick O’Neill, owner of Massimo, a suit shop at the corner of South Anne Street and Dawson Street, said he believes more gardaí should be patrolling the area at night to prevent “lawlessness out there”.
Speaking to reporters in Germany, Tánaiste Simon Harris described the incident as “alarming, shocking, and deeply concerning”.
“It would have caused concern for many, many people right across our capital city and beyond,” he said.
Sinn Féin justice spokesman Matt Carthy said “there is a serious problem” in relation to public safety in the city centre and many were shocked that such a thing could happen in one of the busiest and most popular areas for nightlife in the capital.
