At least 1,000 protesters have clashed with police in southwest Dublin, throwing bottles and launching fireworks at authorities during anti-immigration demonstrations sparked by allegations of an attack on a young girl.
Protesters came out in droves after a report that a 26-year-old man had sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl on the grounds of the Citywest Hotel, which houses asylum applicants in Saggart, southwest of the Irish capital.
The unnamed man, who appeared in court on Tuesday, was charged in connection with the sexual assault.
Local media reported that the man, who asked for a Romanian interpreter in court, was an asylum seeker. Police have not confirmed his ethnicity.
The young girl was reportedly under the care of the state at the time of the incident. Tusla, Ireland’s child and family agency, said the girl “absconded” during a trip to the city centre and was reported missing.
The protests, held near the grounds of the hotel on Tuesday, turned violent, with anti-immigrant protesters launching fireworks at police, carrying signs that read “Irish lives matter”, and chanting, “Get them out!”
A police van was set on fire as officers charged at protesters, using pepper spray to push them away from the hotel complex, the news agency AFP reported.
“The weaponising of a crime by people who wish to sow dissent in our society is not unexpected,” Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said in response to the protests. “This is unacceptable and will result in a forceful response.”
Earlier in the day, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the events were “extremely serious and very, very grave”.
Tuesday’s protests come nearly two years after riots broke out in central Dublin in November 2023, after three children were injured in a knife attack outside a school. At the time, police identified the suspect as a man in his 50s from Algeria.
A far-right mob, comprised of at least 100 people, took to the streets of Dublin in the aftermath of the stabbing, torching vehicles and attacking riot police. Some were armed with metal bars and had their faces covered.
Police said that more than 400 officers, including many in riot gear, were deployed to contain the unrest, which they said was “caused by a small group of thugs”. At least thirty-four people were arrested following the rampage.
While Ireland is unique in that it has no far-right members of Parliament, Ireland and the United Kingdom have seen rising anti-immigration sentiment in recent years. Anti-immigration protests across Northern Ireland in June escalated into clashes with police.
Those protests began in Ballymena, a town of about 31,000 people, located 40km (25 miles) northwest of the city of Belfast, when two Romanian 14-year-old boys were arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
During that unrest, hundreds of masked rioters attacked police and set buildings and cars on fire.
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