Gardaí 'were unprepared for Dublin riot'

Justice Minister Michael McDowell today admitted An Garda Siochana had prepared for a low key peaceful unionist parade through Dublin city – not the hours of rioting instigated by republican counter-demonstrators.

As opposition parties questioned why gardai were not ready to deal with the hundreds of thugs who fought running battles with officers, the Minister said a preliminary report would be on his desk in the next 24 hours.

Insisting he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of the garda review, Mr McDowell admitted the force had expected a day of peaceful protest.

“Obviously An Garda Siochana had prepared for a low key event in which these 200 to 300 hundred people from the border regions effectively of Northern Ireland who wanted to bring to the attention of the people of Dublin that they too have had their victims in all of the troubles,” Mr McDowell said.

“They intended to do a peaceful march down O’Connell Street and over to Dáil Eireann. They intended to bring a number of loyalist bands with them. They intended to do shopping and then go back up north and this was their democratic right.

“The gardaí were faced with this situation I would imagine and this would be the crux of what turns out in the reports.”

The Minister told Today FM he had spoken to Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy and senior gardaí and added that alternative policing arrangements for the parade would be addressed in the report.

Six gardaí were injured in the sustained violence as hundreds of protestors launched attack after attack on police lines forcing the Love Ulster rally involving Orangemen and relatives of IRA murder victims to be cancelled.

Eight other people suffered injuries and a number of walking wounded were also seen on the city streets after rioters used rubble from building works on O’Connell Street, the city’s main thoroughfare, as missiles.

Dozens of fireworks exploded in the faces of riot police while flares, bricks, paint bombs and bottles rained down in indiscriminate attacks on officers. One journalist was injured.

Mr McDowell suggested senior gardai would review whether O’Connell Street should have been closed off, or if the marchers should have been offered a different route.

And he also said one alternative would have been to have up to 2,000 gardaí lining city centre streets to prevent any trouble.

In all, gardaí made 41 arrests including two women and two foreign nationals.

Some 13 people were charged at special sittings of Dublin District Court but detectives believe video evidence will be crucial in catching ringleaders who led rampagers through the city’s busiest shopping districts.

All those who appeared in court were aged between 17 and 30, gardaí have confirmed.

Gardaí will also use CCTV footage from businesses across Dublin city centre as part of investigations into the sustained rioting which brought the capital to a standstill on Saturday.

It is understood the Dublin City Business Association have contacted gardai and offered to hand over all footage from several flashpoints on O’Connell Street, Ashton Quay, Temple Bar, the Jervis Centre and Nassau Street.