Irish police claim to have acted in self defence by shield-charging and pepper-spraying protesters at the site of a possible migrant camp on Thursday night, but a journalist witness challenges this version of events.
Protests have been ongoing at Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow, which is alleged to be the intended site for a migrant camp. Ireland is presently experiencing extremely high levels of immigration and in common with other European countries that have experienced this phenomenon the state is struggling to find space enough to house its new residents, sometimes resorting to tent cities.
Now those protests have seen clashes with police, with six arrests made overnight into Friday but, fortunately, no injuries. Dublin Live reports “several Garda Public Order Units” were deployed to the area and that a fire raged near the entrance to the contested site.
The Irish Police (Garda) said in their own statement that their officers had come “under attack” and they subsequently acted in self defence. Video from the protest last night showed lines of helmet-wearing, shield carrying officers charging protesters and pepper spray being deployed.
Independent Irish media outlet Gript, whose journalist was pepper-sprayed by advancing police last night, disputed the police’s accounts of events, saying it was not evident they were acting in self defence, and rather had been deployed in large numbers to force through a migrant centre in the teeth of local opposition. An “unarmed man was beaten by members of the force while defenseless and on the ground”, they said, and a female journalist, who repeatedly identified herself as such, had “pepper spray aimed directly at her face, despite posing no threat to Gardai, and complying with their instructions”.
A statement by Gript’s editor stated: “The force of the state has been deployed – in quite extraordinary numbers, according to the Gardai themselves – to facilitate the opening of a migrant accommodation centre that is ferociously opposed by the people who live in that small, previously peaceful village.”
As previously reported, protests having been taking place at Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow for some six weeks over alleged plans to establish a migrant tent settlement in the small town. Protesters claim that police recently “forced” a body of “balaclava clad workers” onto the site so they could start to prepare it for new arrivals. Police said of this: “This incident has developed as a result of workers, contracted to carry out lawful employment on the site, entering the site… A number of trespassers were also identified on and removed from the site.”
Irish outlet The Journal reports their understanding of the plans for the site, stating:
The Department of Integration had been assessing the site after it accepted a HSE offer to use the vacant building and its grounds to accommodate asylum seekers, as the Government is under considerable pressure to accommodate those sleeping in tents in Dublin city.
The Irish Examiner reported on 13 April that works being carried out as part of the assessment process had stalled at the site. It’s unclear if there are still plans for asylum seekers to be accommodated there.
On Friday, the Irish government condemned what they said was “thuggery” by protesters. The Irish Times said the Prime Minister Simon Harris accused people present at Newtownmountkennedy of protesting with “an axe” fire, calling them “unacceptable and reprehensible”.
He said: “I fully understand how communities can have views. I get that. Protest is legitimate in a democracy, I get that, but you don’t protest with an axe. What happened last night in this county of Wicklow will not be tolerated and will not be tolerated anywhere in this country as the laws of the land are clear and the laws of the land will be enforced by an Garda Síochána.”
The Irish President called the protest against the planned migrant camp a threat to Irish democracy. Four people have been charged on public order offences over the clashes of Thursday night.
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