Dublin riots - Vacuum in North fuels tensions

JUSTICE MINISTER Michael McDowell is merely being pragmatic in ruling out any question of a public inquiry into the riot in Dublin on Saturday because it would largely confirm an outcome of which we are already aware.

Quite simply, the gardaí were unprepared for it, and Assistant Commissioner Al McHugh admitted as much when he acknowledged they had no advance intelligence that protests on that scale were planned.

Yet, despite the quality of such intelligence, it appeared to be common currency. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was able to say that information to this affect was circulating in his own constituency.

People received emails warning them that there was trouble ahead. Saoirse, the monthly newspaper published by Republican Sinn Féin, also intimated that there would be a risk of violence. It headlined a picture of rioting Orangemen at Drumcree, while calling for opposition to the loyalist march.

Mr McHugh, who was responsible for policing the Love Ulster march, ascribed the riot to the work of drunken teenagers, most of whom did not belong to any political grouping.

This is too simplistic and naive, because while there was an element of what he suggested, what was seen by eyewitnesses and television viewers was patently orchestrated by those with a perverted political agenda.

The agenda, fuelled by petrol bombs among other missiles, was to stop the loyalist march at whatever cost.

Today the Cabinet will consider a preliminary garda report and be briefed by Mr McDowell who will later make a statement to the Dáil on Saturday’s mayhem.

He reflected the majority feeling when he asserted that there cannot be thugs on the margins of society deciding who should or should not have civil liberties.

Those are not divisible according to the philosophy of any group who would demand the right to be heard while denying to others that same entitlement.

The loyalist march, which would have included Orangemen, was intended to recall victims of republican violence and was obviously provocative to some elements of republicanism.

But it is not from that quarter that the democratic will of the people can, or should be, subjugated to their narrow sectarian values.

Thankfully, there was no loss of life, although business suffered substantially.

The riot drew widespread condemnation, from President Mary McAleese, the Taoiseach, the opposition parties and even from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, who described the violence as reprehensible.

Northern Secretary Peter Hain said he believed Saturday was a “bad one-off event” rather than some pattern for the future.

He indicated that he would not let the weekend trouble in Dublin deflect him from seeking to successfully conclude political negotiations in Northern Ireland.

That, after all, is what is important and the weekend’s events should serve to galvanise all the constitutional parties to redouble their efforts to bring that about.

What happened in Dublin should have that outcome, because the vacuum that exists at the moment can only be to the advantage of those who would use it for their own disreputable objectives.