Irish police arrest 23 people in second night of anti-immigration unrest

Clashes with police follow arrest of man accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl.

Twenty-three people have been arrested in Dublin, Ireland, following a second night of unrest outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers, Irish police have said.

The disturbances on Wednesday followed the arrests of six people the previous night after demonstrations against the government’s immigration policies turned violent.

Footage posted on social media showed demonstrators hurling missiles and fireworks at police.

Two officers were taken to hospital for medical attention after one was struck in the head with a bottle and another suffered an arm and shoulder injury, police said.

“The public disorder was predominantly carried out by young adult males and teenagers,” the Irish police, known as An Garda Siochana, said in a statement.

Irish Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan commended police for responding “bravely” and “professionally” to the “thuggish violence”.

“Many have been arrested and more will follow,” O’Callaghan said on X.

“They will be charged, named, and dealt with relentlessly by our criminal justice system.”

Protesters have gathered outside the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, southwest Dublin, since Monday in response to the arrest of a 26-year-old man over the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl.

Local media have reported that the man is a foreign national who was served a deportation order earlier this year after a failed asylum application.

Speaking to the Irish parliament on Tuesday, Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of the opposition party Sinn Fein, said the public needed to have confidence in the country’s asylum system.

“Any question mark around a person overstaying in the State when a deportation order has been made is, again, deeply unnerving,” McDonald said.

While far-right politics have made little headway in Ireland, unlike in several other European countries, public sentiment towards migration has soured as arrivals have approached record highs in recent years.

In an Irish Times/Ipsos B&A Snapshot opinion poll carried out last year, 59 percent of respondents said they favoured a more closed immigration policy.

In 2023, anti-immigration riots erupted in Dublin after an Algerian-born naturalised Irish citizen injured three children and a school worker in a stabbing attack outside a primary school.