Residents of Dublin’s north inner city, some living metres from scenes of rioting on Thursday night, described the disturbances as “horrific” and “disgraceful” on Friday.
Among some, however, there was understanding and even support for the destruction of the previous night.
A young mother, “born and reared in Dublin 1″, was “horrified, absolutely horrified”. “We live up the street here,” she said, standing on the corner of Summerhill and Gardiner Street. “To take out all that on the emergency services is disgraceful.
“I ran to collect my little boy yesterday to make sure he was safe. Everyone is on high alert. It’s in all my group chats. I don’t know one person who doesn’t condemn everything that happened. It is going to be such a stain on us. I think we need to make an extra effort to make people feel safe and welcome.”
Sharon Hand, getting her children into her car on Summerhill, said she was “annoyed” their school was closed early on Friday due to safety concerns. “I got a text message at 11.30am to say they were finished. I had to come back in ... I don’t feel unsafe in the area but I feel sorry for the kids. They lost enough school through Covid.”
Axel Valencia (32), from Mexico, who works in the area as a carer, has been in Ireland for four years, and said the anti-immigrant slogans he saw on social media on Thursday were “sad and unbelievable”.
“They claiming they want to protect the kids but violence won’t result anything like that. It is out of hate. It’s quite sad. This [violence] happens as well in Mexico but here, it’s the first time for me. This is a beautiful country. It has been so welcoming for me. Then this. It’s scary, you know.”
A woman in her 70s stopped briefly on Seán McDermott Street. Of the riots, she said: “It’s brutal. It gives the whole area a bad name.”
Alan Maher (46), from the area, has lived in a homeless hostel for over a year. He describes the riots as “acceptable, one hundred per cent”.
Asked why, he says: “It’s to do with a lot of things. It’s immigration, undocumented people, homelessness, the whole lot. We don’t want this in our country. People are protesting and not being listened to and everything is come to a boiling point. And people have to stand up.”
Saying that he lived in a hostel himself, and alleging he saw “estates being built for Ukrainians”, Mr Maher said: “It just boils my blood.”
If there was no housing crisis and he had a home, would he feel the same? “If there was no housing crisis people would be less angry, one hundred per cent. But it’s the health service too. They haven’t a clue what they’re doing, the Government. This was going to happen eventually. It just needed something to push it over. Everything’s been simmering, annoying us.”
A woman in her 40s who gave her name as Paula echoed him. Standing at the top of Rutland Street she said the riots were “right”.
“The Government’s not listening so they needed to do something like that for them to listen. I don’t agree with the shops getting trashed or people not being able to go to work. My daughter started a job this morning and she was devastated last night, trying to time her buses. I am on the housing list 17 years and I’m still waiting on a house, so I am pissed off, yes, basically.”
Others expressing anti-immigrant sentiments, however, disagreed strongly with rioting as a form of protest. A couple with a toddler in a buggy on Summerhill, who had been homeless, said there were “too many refugees” who were “undocumented” and “unvetted”. But they said the riots were “disgraceful”.
“I don’t think the riots were because of the stabbing. They were just out looking to do damage. What good is all that going to do for that teacher and the five-year-old in hospital?”
[ Politics of cultural despair shaping anti-immigrant protestsOpens in new window ]
The family had been on Marlborough Street – parallel to O’Connell Street – when rioters were “letting flares off” on Thursday. “We had to run. It was very scary. They weren’t doing it for the poor kids who were attacked. They were doing it for their own good, to steal and loot and cause trouble. It is scary that it’s happening on the doorstep. People closing their businesses today are suffering. It isn’t fair. The Government can’t take all the blame, but it has to take some.”
An elderly woman and her daughter on Seán McDermott Street said the rioters were “disgusting”.
“I live in Dominic Street and I had to run,” said the adult daughter. “The rioters had no respect for them children who were stabbed, at all. I know people are trying to get their point across about what’s going on in the country, with unvetted people coming in, but that was no way of showing it.
“They were out for trouble. They weren’t out to protest. They came in from everywhere to do it. And then to come in this morning to find everywhere closed. I came in this morning for her pension. I couldn’t bring her for her pension.”
Her mother said she had “never seen anything like it ... I think the young people have too much say. The police have no say with them. They are all going around thinking they can do what they want and the police have nothing. They need more powers, to do something about them.”
