Candlelit vigils for George Nkencho to take place countrywide this afternoon
Protesters outside Blanchardstown Garda Station in Dublin over the fatal shooting of George Nkencho. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
A series of candlelit vigils will take place around the country this afternoon in reaction to the fatal shooting of George Nkencho by armed gardaí on Wednesday.
Gatherings are planned for the Spire on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, Eyre Square in Galway, and at numerous other locations around the country from 3pm.
The protests are planned to be both static and to comply with social distancing, while the dress code is all black. Several hundred attendees are expected at the Dublin meeting, which was organised following a mass Zoom call involving as many as 500 people from the community on Wednesday night.
Mr Nkencho was shot dead outside his home near Hartstown, west Dublin, on Wednesday afternoon following an altercation at a nearby shop.
After a two-hour standoff with both armed and unarmed gardaí he was fatally shot outside his home in an incident caught on camera by a passerby.
A palpable feeling of tension was present in the locality on Thursday, with a protest march wending its way from Blanchardstown Garda Station as far as the Nkencho home yesterday evening.
Dr Lucy Michael, a sociologist with Fingal Communities Against Racism, said the feeling was that protests are unavoidable given the depth of hurt being felt in the local communities.
“People are so hugely upset about this,” she said.
“Many people when they saw the photo of George realised they knew him growing up. When you know someone who’s been killed it is very difficult to process that it has happened in your community.”
“This is a shock, it makes people feel unsafe, that their son or daughter, wife or husband or neighbour, could find themselves in a situation they can’t control, and end up dead as a result.”
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