On Tuesday morning, locals in Coolock were reacting to serious civil unrest that unfolded in the environs of the old Crown Paints factory, where the Department of Integration plans to house 550 International Protection Applicants.
The violent scenes included fireworks being aimed at lines of Public Order Unit gardaí. Also thrown at gardaí were glass bottles, so-called “fast gas” canisters, rocks, stones and kerbing taken from businesses within the Malahide Road Retail Centre.
The Garda operation which continued on Tuesday after a tense stand-off on Monday resulted in a security man hospitalised, a number of gardaí injured, arson attacks on a Garda car and a digger, and 15 arrests being made.
Colette Brennan (63), who lives directly beside the old Crown Paints factory, said she felt like a prisoner in her own home during yesterday’s severe unrest. She said that after a JCB digger was set alight on the grounds of the factory during the unrest, trees on her property began to catch fire.
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“The fire brigade arrived, protesters wouldn’t let them in,” she said, standing with a trolley of groceries at the junction between the Malahide Road and Greencastle Road. Eventually, Dublin Fire Brigade were granted access to Ms Brennan’s garden, and the fire was extinguished.
“We were actually advised by the police to leave our home, because there could be an explosion. But if we had, the roads were closed until 10pm last night, we wouldn’t have been able to get back.
“We’re like prisoners in our own home basically,” she said. “It was worrying, it really was.”
Ms Brennan criticised the potential housing of asylum seekers at the factory, and said that she has never received any information, from politicians or otherwise, about plans to use the site for accommodation.
She said that she understood that people “have to be looked after”, but she expressed concerns about single men being housed in the area.
She said that violence was “absolutely” the wrong way to approach the situation at the factory. “That’s completely wrong. You can imagine the cost.
“All of the shops, businesses that had to close yesterday. That’s loss of business,” she said.
She also criticised attacks on gardaí on Monday. “There were young men, taunting [gardaí], dancing around them, there to fight, to cause trouble.
“They do not represent anybody. That’s going to do no good to anybody.
She said that the people of Coolock want authority figures to communicate with them, “at the very least”, about plans at the factory.
“There’s people talking [about] things like, ‘the only way you’ll stop anyone going in there is to burn it to the ground’. Nobody wants that. That’s wrong.”
One local man (70s), walking the footpath across from the factory, said that an emphasis on the far-right by politicians and the media “overlooks the fact that genuine people, old people like me, have concerns”.
The man said the Government has long neglected the working class communities of Dublin city and the northside.
“Places like Coolock, places like East Wall, places like Darndale, places like Sherriff Street, they don’t care. If there’s any problems here, they’ll overspill into Darndale, it’ll overspill into Coolock. They won’t overspill into Killiney Hill,” he said.
He said that those in power should not be surprised at events like Monday’s unrest, when for years, communities like Coolock have not been listened to.
“You can go into the rights and wrongs of it until the cows come home,” he said. “But if you’re not listened to day after day after day ... they don’t give a s***, it’s that simple.”
A 76-year-old man, originally from England but a long-time resident of Coolock, criticised the use of force employed by public order Garda units on Monday.
“If we accept [asylum seekers], we have to house them humanely, or say no, we can’t help them. And that’s what we should say,” he said.
“We can’t house our own, for God’s sake. My grandson lives with his mother, he’s a postman. Of course he can’t buy a house. He can’t get council houses, forget that,” he said.
Clashes between gardaí and protesters opposed to international protection applicants being housed in a disused former paint factory.
Protesters remained at the site of the Crown Paints industrial unit, Malahide Road, Coolock, on Monday night after violent clashes earlier in the day resulted in a security man hospitalised, a number of gardaí injured, arson attacks on a Garda car and a digger, and 15 arrests being made.
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