Fiery But Peaceful: When Irish Eyes AREN'T Smiling

Frank Franklin II

Yesterday afternoon an absolutely horrific attack occurred in Dublin, Ireland’s city center.

Three little kiddoes and their teacher were standing by a creche in front of their Catholic school when a man appeared, and, out of the blue, began slashing at them.

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A FIVE-YEAR-old girl who was seriously injured in a stabbing incident near a school in Dublin city centre yesterday afternoon is in a critical condition in hospital.

Gardaí said they are continuing to investigate all of the circumstances of the incident, which occurred near Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square shortly after 1.30pm yesterday afternoon.

In an update this morning, gardaí said the five-year-old girl remains in a critical condition in CHI Temple Street.

A six-year-old girl is still receiving treatment for less serious injuries at CHI Crumlin.

A five-year-old boy was discharged from CHI Crumlin yesterday evening.

A woman in her 30s, who is the children’s carer, remains in a serious condition in the Mater Hospital.

The man was disarmed by passers-by, and taken into custody quickly by the Gardaí, who’d arrived within minutes on scene.

It is eerily reminiscent of the ghastly attack on little children in the French park this past spring.

What made it all the more disquieting is that none of the news reports of the stabbing itself mentioned a name or description other than age. As the day progressed – nothing. Even the Gardaí press conference last evening was devoid of detail concerning the attacker.

He’s described as simply “a male.”

One of the first clues came in an eyewitness account from a woman on the street as the attack happened. (At :26 in) She says the most peculiar thing. After saying she’d seen what was happening, flown across the road as “he was stabbing two children,” and they got the kids away, then she says there was a bit of a kerfluffle.

“…People were trying to attack the man. So me and another American lady, we formed a ring around the man just to say that we’re not savages in this country. That we let the Garda do their duty…”

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A male, a “man” on the ground.

Not one defining characteristic or status in any report.

Which I guess was clue enough besides pictures from the scene on social media, because all hell broke loose last night in Dublin. It’s suddenly alright to report he’s an “Algerian” man.

Irish police are questioning an Algerian man suspected of stabbing a woman and three children outside a school, in an attack that sparked a night of furious riots, looting and anti-immigrant protests in Dublin.

The Irish Times reported that the suspect is believed to be “a naturalized Irish citizen, who has lived here for 20 years.”

A woman and a five-year-old girl he allegedly stabbed are in a serious condition in hospital. A 43-year-old Brazilian Deliveroo driver, Caio Benicio, was widely praised for jumping off his moped and knocking the man over the head with his helmet. Other people rushed forward to grab the knife.

In a blatant attempt to take the spotlight off the perp, much is being made – as well it should be – of the actions of a brave moped meal delivery driver, who hopped off his bike and whapped the attacker a good one upside the head with his helmet. But they’re not so much celebrating his deeds as emphasizing, “LOOK! IMMIGRANTS GOOD!” which is, I’m afraid, falling on deaf and fed-up ears. Besides which I believe Ireland’s recent surge in immigrant population is not under scrutiny for being awash in Brazilians.

There’s particular umbrage in this instance considering who the “Algerian man” had targeted.

…The fact that a man attacked a school run through the Irish, or Gaelic, language helped fuel an outpouring of rage that saw anti-immigrant riots, lootings and arson in the hours that followed. Police struggled to contain the crowds, who attacked them on the street, and burned a hotel housing asylum seekers as well as a tram, a double decker bus and a police car.

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It got really hot last night.

The rampaging mobs hit hotels where “migrants” have been housed, torched police cars and buses, and got into really fierce confrontations with police, from which they mostly emerged victorious.

The Irish Prime Minister made sure to pour gasoline on that fire in a speech this morning.

His wholesale demonizing of fellow Irishmen shouldn’t be surprising, as this is the same guy who’d been whining about all the white people in Ireland earlier.

It makes me think maybe he and the others in government are not prepared to handle what they’ve wrought on the small country.

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“Right-wing” yobs. The BBC is suitably horrified that the Irish, who are still a step beneath pond-scum in their eyes, chose to lose their collective Schlitz over sliced and diced school children. Don’t they realize there’s nowhere else for these disadvantaged refugees of Global Warming to go?

It’s not that the Irish have been violent. It’s that they haven’t. For months and months they’ve been begging for their government to listen to them, with peaceful gatherings, marches, and rallies. This is from last February:

Ireland has an immigration problem. Almost a year after refugees started to arrive from Ukraine, leaving state capacity buckled and local communities unnerved, two very different expressions of civic disorder have emerged. In one, migrants are housed in cubicle dorms in office buildings or, even worse, in tents. In the other, grassroots anti-migrant protests are sweeping across the country, rallying around the slogan “Ireland is Full”. There were 307 anti-migrant protests in 2022, while 2023 has already seen 64. At the latest demonstration in Dublin, on Tuesday, more than 2,000 protestors took to the streets.

The focal point of the protests is Dublin’s East Wall, where, in November, after the government converted a state building into a migrant residence without consulting locals, hundreds of people started to gather week after week. By December, the demonstrations spread to other areas — Drimnagh, Finglas, Ballymun and Fermoy. Rather than losing steam as each month went by, the protests continued to intensify, sprouting across the country. And as they did, it became clear that they were different from other anti-migrant demonstrations in Europe.

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Ireland is full-up, says the working class. So they are deemed “right wing” and extremist for saying so.

Upper-class Irish and Europeans wonder if everything must be messy and fiery? Why can’t the regular Irish be reasonable and suck it up quietly?

Those damn “local people” who “turn nasty.”

This suspect has lived in Ireland for two decades, has no family, and is believed to have purposefully waited for his opportunity to attack the children.

…Gardaí believe he is a single man with no children in Ireland, where he has lived for about two decades. As the motive for the attack, at about 1.30pm on Thursday on Parnell Square East, has not been established, gardaí have not ruled out a mental health episode or a terror-related link.

…Garda sources said the suspect for the stabbing at lunchtime in Parnell Square East was seen loitering in the area and when children were being brought into an aftercare centre, he lashed out at them with a knife. He stabbed a five-year-old girl in the chest and an aftercare worker was also stabbed as she attempted to use her body to shield the children from the attack.

Gardaí believe the attacker was intent on murder and would have killed or injured more people but for passersby intervening. They included a Brazilian courier, who was in the area in a moped, who used his motorcycle helmet to hit the attack and force him to the ground, bringing an end to the attack.

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And it was at the scene of the attempted murderers that all the evening trouble would start.

…Garda sources said the unrest witnessed later in the day began at a crime scene cordon erected at the junction of Parnell Square East with O’Connell Street and Parnell Street. There, a group of between 100 and 200 protesters gathered in the hours after the attack. They shouted racist and xenophobic abuse at gardaí, apparently motivated by reports identifying the stabbing suspect as a foreign man.

…Some of those gathered then began breaching the crime scene and members of the media, particularly those with cameras, were abused. When the crime scene cordon was breached, the Garda’s Public Order Unit was deployed, clashing with those present.

After the Taoiseach’s (prime minister) address, along with his threat of tightening their already draconian “hate-laws,” and the overwhelming characterization of “right wing/far-right” responsibility for the violence, it’s going to be really interesting to see if this simmers down or if it spreads.

…Varadkar said on Friday that the riot was motivated by “hate”.

“Those involved brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves,” the prime minister told reporters.

“They did not do what they did because they wanted to protect Irish people. They did not do it out of any sense of patriotism, however warped,” he continued. “They did so because they’re filled with hate. They love violence. They love chaos and they love causing pain to others.

As a country, we need to reclaim Ireland. We need to take it away from the cowards who hide behind masks and tried to terrify us with their violence,” he continued.

…Ireland would “modernise” its laws regarding hate and incitement, he added.

Ireland’s parliament hosts no far-right parties or politicians, but anti-immigrant protests have grown in the last year. The government is reviewing security around parliament after a recent protest trapped MPs inside.

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“Reclaim Ireland” is kind of the sticking point – who does Ireland belong to? I’m not sure the PM gets that message or if capable of receiving it at all, doing anything to address Irish concerns.

Nobody needs to be burning anything down literally.

But figuratively?

Maybe it’s about time the Irish woke up.

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