A day in 100 words – The Dublin Riots
A quick take on last night’s events from your average Dubliner.
The scenes in Dublin last night begged belief.
I’m stunned by the whole thing, being honest.
Having followed the news out of Parnell Street from mid-afternoon, a friend of mine from work and I could already predict the headlines before they came in.
“Foreign National attacks children. All foreign nationals to blame”.
What actually happened was completely outside the grasp of our collective imagination.
But despite the impression last night has left on the rest of Europe, there are a few important points to make.
Firstly: Dublin IS NOT a “racial pressure cooker”, of some sort.
These were the acts of a small, underwhelming, fringe minority of young men possessed by hatred and excitement.
Hatred for the Gardaí who have policed their lives growing up in some of Dublin’s harshest social housing situations.
Excitement to wreak havoc with the freedom of not being caught.
The same young lads who terrorize our streets every day.
In the end, it’s a horrendous misrepresentation of our country, our people, our ideals, our “open-armed” appreciation and love for the immigrants who have made here home.
Given our own tattered history of emigration in this country, you would think we might be more in touch with that delicate, important reality.
Instead, it has been the senseless rush to violence amongst a fleeting number of young Irish men that has detracted from the actual events of yesterday
The brutal attack of three young children and a care worker in broad daylight.
My thoughts, the thoughts of my friends, the thoughts of my family, the thoughts of Ireland are only with them at this moment.
