Police in Ireland have arrested 34 people following a riot in Dublin last week that erupted following a knife attack outside a Catholic primary school, leaving three children and a woman injured, two of them critically. Source: The Tablet.
Police Commissioner Drew Harris blamed the “huge destruction”, which saw looting and transport vehicles set alight, on a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology”.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Commissioner Harris said the “extraordinary” outbreak of violence on Thursday night had given rise to scenes which “have not been seen for decades”.
Thirty-two people were arrested in the aftermath of the violence which left police officers injured as they battled to quell the violent mob. Thirteen shops were damaged and 11 police cars, three buses and a tram were destroyed.
The violence erupted in the wake of a vicious knife attack on children leaving Cólaiste Mhuire (St Mary’s College), a city centre Catholic primary school.
A five-year-old girl remains in a critical condition in hospital. Two other children and a woman in her 30s were injured in the incident.
A man in his late 40s, who was detained by passers-by at the scene, was also hospitalised. Police said they were keeping an open mind about the motive.
In a statement, Dublin Archbishop Dermot Farrell described the attack on the children as “horrific” and said he heard the news with “utter disbelief”.
Archbishop Farrell invited the people of Dublin to join him in praying for the recovery of the injured and their families and all those affected by the “awful attack”, which occurred within walking distance of St Mary’s Pro Cathedral.
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Arrests after riots in Dublin that followed stabbings outside school (by Sarah Mac Donald, The Tablet)
