Mick Clifford: Fear and loathing at Leinster House

Mick Clifford: Fear and loathing at Leinster House

Members of the Garda and the Garda Public Order Unit outside Leinster House, Dublin, as the Dáil resumesd.

The scenes outside Leinster House last Wednesday require a swift and serious response from the criminal justice system. The harassing and attacking of public representatives and others demands no less. This was not an ordinary public order incident. It was, as noted by the Ceann Chomairle Seán Ó Fearghail, an attack on democracy. The outcome represented a failure of both garda intelligence and the sufficient deployment of resources. There is, no doubt, plenty of video footage with which the gardaí can now work. The principals in these small number of apparently far-right groups can be easily identified. One can only hope that proper cases are assembled and the courts process the matter with the seriousness it deserves.

The shock engendered by the violence and disruption has prompted heightened concern about the rise of this kind of thuggery. All reportage from the scene describes the outstanding feature of the gathering as anger. The precise worldview of the thuggish element is unclear beyond hackneyed slogans about immigration and “Ireland for the Irish” with opposition to transgender rights and even the proposed right to housing referendum thrown in. But unlike the recent targeting of libraries, and before that refugee centres, there appeared to be no focus to their ire beyond generally lashing out at the concept of a national parliament.

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