While the attention of the authorities was focused on the former Crown Paints factory in Coolock, an act of organised public law-breaking and vandalism took place on the nicer side of town.
The media coverage of well-heeled protesters with scarves over their faces taking the law into their own hands helpfully shared their motivations and objections, with sympathetic headlines such as “Pro-refugee protesters pull down fences” and “Protesters tear down ‘hostile’ barriers”.
Great effort was seemingly made to avoid filming the faces of those tearing down barricades by the media present, and while one man was arrested, he was released without charge. There wasn’t a whiff of the pepper-spray used with abandon in Coolock just days before.
While a JCB had been set on fire in Coolock, and the protest saw missiles being thrown at Gardaí, the contrast with the kid gloves approach at Grand Canal is evident.
It was reminiscent, too, of the difference in policing during the Covid panic when thousands marching for Black Lives Matter didn’t seem to warrant the baton charges that took place against either an anti-lockdown protest and against young people engaging in the “outdoor summer”.
An earlier meeting yesterday organised by far-left and left groups – mainly one which bizarrely describes itself as a “tenants union” – at the Grand Canal at Portobello heard calls for the fencing that had been erected to prevent the placing of tents by alleged asylum seekers to be removed.
Among those who made it known that they were attending were Dublin Bay South TD and leader of the Labour Party Ivana Bacik. She was happy to add her voice to those left groups and NGOs for the fencing to be taken down.
And so it came to pass, for no sooner was the protest ended, than groups of masked and hooded persons, presumably sharing the Labour Party leader’s desire to have the fencing taken down, set about vandalising the ‘hostile architecture’ which had been erected seemingly at the request of Waterways Ireland, whose remit on behalf of the citizens is to protect the pathways and pedestrians and cyclists and the resident wildlife from illegal encampments and other activities.
Learning of this unforeseen and dreadful turn of events, Ms. Bacik took again to social media to express her shock. Which is fair enough, but she had actually called for the fencing to be removed and removed it was, albeit clearly not in the fashion intended by the Deputy.
No one is claiming that the Deputy took part in such an illegal act nor directly encouraged such an act, she did not, but the left and the NGOs have a consistent track record of defying and flouting the law when it suits them, for example encouraging such encampments including supplying or collecting money for the supply of tents.
Nor has the lack of any evident connection to vandalism or property destruction – as is clear in the case of Deputy Bacik – prevented elected representatives in other parts of the state having their homes raided and their being arrested for protesting at accommodation centres which were similarly subsequently targeted.
Some social media commentators also wondered, given the tough policy being displayed by Drew Harris and the Gardaí on the other side of the asylum crisis protests, at the disproportionate response. Where were the Gardaí at the ready when the fencing on the Grand Canal was being vandalised? Questions were also raised regarding RTÉ’s reportage of the incidents.
The Gardaí did arrive at some stage we know because the leader of the Labour Party thanked them for removing the dismantled fencing from the pathways. Pathways which had become unsafe due to the placing not of the fencing but of tents by persons claiming to be seeking asylum who had the backing of various NGOs and leftist groups.
There were no reports of anyone being charged, as far as I can see, and certainly no deployment of the Garda Public Order Unit nor of the sort of tactics including baton charges and the use of pepper spray that have been evident at Coolock and Newtownmountkennedy.
Why so? Does Garda Special Branch not gather intelligence on far-left groups some of which make no secret of their insurrectionary intent? Or, as in times gone by, are all of their energies focused on nationalist oriented groups and individuals who advertise themselves by the flying of the national flag.