Gardaí call for riot training and helmets to deal with public order incidents

A bus and car on fire on O'Connell Street in Dublin city centre after violent scenes unfolded last November.

Riot training for all gardaí and better equipment, including helmets and foot protection, has been called for by the Garda Representative Association after missiles were thrown and one member lost a toe in the carnage of the Dublin riots.

The GRA’s annual conference heard that frontline members still do not have public order training or equipment to deal with a similar situation.

John Joe O’Connell, a GRA central executive committee member from Co Kildare, said he was at home watching TV when he got messages from colleagues on their way to respond to the Dublin riots last year.

“We were getting up to Dublin to help our colleagues. This was coming from guards on the ground,” he said.

Some 16–18 gardaí from Naas “grabbed whatever we could” but only more senior members had helmets to take, as headgear is no longer automatically issued to gardaí.

Younger members did not have this protection leaving many gardaí “very exposed on the night".

“You would not expect anyone to walk onto a building site without a hard hat, yet our guys were facing assault, serious verbal abuse, physical abuse, spat at, implements thrown at them — and they were wearing a soft cap.”

Abandoned buses and vehicles made Dublin city centre streets difficult to navigate that night, he said.

“I’m in the guards since 1996 and it was quite amazing to stand on O’Connell bridge at a burned-out double decker bus and a burned out patrol car and know you’re exposed without the proper equipment or training.

“You’re looking at a Garda van carrying Public Order members with every window broken out of it.”

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Defects with equipment on the night led to one garda losing a toe, Garda Karl O’Reilly said.

Full body armour does not cover the feet and the public order boots failed on the night, he said, adding there is not sufficient protective equipment which needs to be urgently resolved.

Communication was also an issue on the night, with gardaí wearing fire retardant balaclavas and helmets which made hearing their radios and orders from their superiors very challenging.

Although an earpiece moulded into helmets has been mentioned, gardaí have not been issued them yet, he said.

But stronger pepper spray has been provided to gardaí and smaller shields have been deployed in some areas.

Garda O'Connell said that only senior garda management could answer why there was a delay "on calling it what it was" that night.

"But our members on the ground were well-able to say ‘this is going to get out of hand and get out of hand quickly’. They wonder why the resources were not called in sooner that night."

100 extra gardaí were added to the public order unit in Dublin and more than 1,000 gardaí have been public order trained with more training due to start next week, An Garda Síochana has said.

But GRA delegates said that basic public order training and equipment must be provided to all frontline gardaí. 

Currently, were such a riot to erupt again, gardaí would again be left scrambling to deploy specialist units from around the country with frontline members dangerously ill-equipped to respond, the representative association said.