Politics

State needs to ‘learn lessons’ from escalation of anti-migrant protests in Coolock, Micheál Martin says

Tanáiste was responding to new footage of protests broadcast by RTÉ on Thursday night

Mr Martin condemned the 'intimidation' of RTÉ staff. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw / The Irish Times
Mr Martin condemned the 'intimidation' of RTÉ staff. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw / The Irish Times
Olivia Kelleher
Fri Sept 20 2024 - 13:01

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said he was “uncomfortable” with what he saw on RTÉ Investigates last night with the State needing to “learn lessons” in relation to how anti-migrant protests in Coolock in Dublin last July escalated into rioting.

For the past six months Journalist Barry O’Kelly of RTÉ Investigates has been filming at protests against accommodation for migrants.

The programme captured the moment on July 15th when a security officer at the former Crown Paints site in Coolock was knocked unconscious when he was hit by a pole. It also showed the throwing of a petrol bomb and the abuse of construction workers by anti-immigrant protesters.

Speaking in Cork, Micheál Martin paid tribute to the team at RTÉ Investigates, and in particular Barry O’Kelly, who he said put himself in “harm’s way” to shed a light on a ‘very dangerous trend” developing in Ireland.

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“People are taking the law in to their own hands, intimidating ordinary workers going about their daily jobs, intimidating, harassing and committing violent acts against migrants and against people more generally.”

The Tánaiste condemned the appalling scenes filmed by RTÉ Investigates and said we need to examine what occurred to see what can be learned from it.

“I think the State does need to learn lessons from what happened in Coolock. I watched it [RTÉ Investigates’ last evening. I was uncomfortable with what I saw. I know the gardaí have issued very strong statements accounting for what transpired over those few days. And overall about 200 gardaí were involved.

“But this is a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland in terms of the degree to which people think they can take control of given environments – or indeed the degree to which they think they can take the law in to their own hands.

“I think, yes, there are certainly lessons to be learned. And we do need to reflect on whether our criminal justice system needs review in terms of combating the type of behaviour we saw on RTÉ Investigates last evening.”

Mr Martin wouldn’t be drawn on whether the garda response to the Coolock protests was inadequate as suggested by some people in the documentary. However, he admitted that the days of what we consider to be “a traditional garda response” were over.

“There was period of time there when the workers in the facility had been ringing [Gardai] consistently. It looked very ominous. It looked very dangerous and threatening. The gardaí did get there. And I think we need to learn lessons from it.

“When you look at what happened in the United Kingdom where there was a very rapid response to rioting recently where people were before the courts within days and some jailed within a week I think we could learn lessons from that.

“I think the days of sort of what we might consider a traditional response are over. And I think we cannot accept people taking the law in to their own hands in the pre determined way,” he said.

Mr Martin said that the people responsible for what occurred at Coolock were not getting away with what they did.

“To be fair there have been quite a number of significant arrests arising out of that incident. A report was presented to the Policing Authority in respect of that and quite a number of people are still before the courts. So people are not getting away with what they did,” he said.

Mr Martin also condemned the “intimidation” of RTÉ staff, particularly reporter Barry O’Kelly.

“There can be no tolerance for any interference with the media. They should be allowed to go about their job unhindered and the threats and intimidation of Barry O’Kelly and camera people [as seen on the programme] yesterday evening is a threat to our democracy. Let us be very clear about that,” he said.