Fire breaks out at Ireland asylum center in suspected arson incident News
Boardwalk.Koi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Fire breaks out at Ireland asylum center in suspected arson incident

A fire ignited Saturday night for the third day in a row at a former factory in Coolock, Ireland that was going to be set aside to house asylum seekers. While firefighters have said this latest blaze was put under control, this fire is the latest episode in a series of unrest and violent incidents as locals protest the influx of international protection applicants. According to The Irish Times, the first of the fires on Thursday is being treated as an arson incident by the gardaí.

Violent incidents occurred in the suburb of Coolock in northern Dublin in the early Monday afternoon. When Irish police arrived, several roads were closed and the gardaí circled the area armed with shields and helicopters approached from the sky to monitor the situation. The Dublin Fire Brigade also put up a statement on X (formerly Twitter) reporting closed roads and fires.

A total of 21 people have been arrested in Coolock this week in connection to the protests. 15 of the protesters, 13 men and two women, later appeared at the Criminal Courts of Justice for a special sitting and were charged with public order offences under Section 6 and Section 8 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994.

Taoiseach Simon Harris condemned the violence in Coolock, describing it as “pure thuggery,” and Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said on X (formerly Twitter) that the “thuggish criminal behaviour” has no place in society. However, Sinn Feín president Mary Lou McDonald, claimed that the Government failed to consult Coolock residents before the proposed placement of the asylum center in their neighborhood. McDonald said that the concerns of the largely working-class residents in Coolock were not “taken seriously”.

A protest campsite was set up in March to stop workers from renovating the area in Coolock. The former Crowns Paints site was to be redeveloped to house International Protection Applicants in Dublin. Protesters had put up shacks with slogans and banners saying “Coolock Says No” and for the past number of months, the protestors have disturbed and blocked traffic with some of them being arrested. However, on early Monday, there had been an escalation after a protester posted on TikTok that gardaí were standing nearby to the renovation site at 3:51 AM. By 5 AM, security guards arrived and a JCB digger was demolishing the shacks and by 8AM, social media posts were made to gather protesters to the scene.

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