I Predict an Irish Riot...
Created | Updated Mar 9, 2006
On Saturday, 25 February, a riot happened in Dublin. Riots aren't a good thing ... but this was absolutely Oirish. No one killed, thank God. Some minor injuries. People going into town for the shopping wandered peacefully down, around and in between the riot. Building equipment — bricks, par exemple — were left out with 'throw me' written on them. It was a riot of epically funny proportions.
To start with, it was pretty tame. Two petrol bombs thrown (practically as free as water in Belfast), four cars, two mopeds, two bikes burnt out, two wheelie bins overturned and a lot of bottles full of urine thrown at the police. More people cleaned up after the riot than there were riot Gardaí who tried to stop it. Let me say again, it was fairly funny. It was funny, however, because no one died and only fourteen people got minor injuries ... what can a bottle of p*ss do, really? It wasn't exactly Belfast in the 1970s. It was hardly a 3.00am on a Sunday morning outside a night club.
The riot happened because of a series of stupid, stupid reasons. First, some eejit granted a Loyalist bid to have a parade down O'Connell St. The same street with plenty of easily-thrown building materials not secured, anyway. The parade was in memory of Loyalists 'disappeared' by the IRA. They have the right to free speech, but obviously lack common sense. So straight away, Republicans were blamed for the riot. Let's face it, a fair assumption. However it looks more like it wasn't Republicans. There were 50 or so members of the Republican Sinn Féin there, but they left when the riot started. It was, for the most part, young males. 16 - 18 was the major age group taking part in the riot. Disillusioned urban youth? Possibly. The only way of voicing their opinions? Maybe. It's true that chain text messages were passed around days before the riot saying that there would be one, but in the end ... an anticlimax?
The riot was full of simply hilarious incidents. Firstly, the Gardaí's only helicopter wouldn't work. One Garda advanced towards some rioters looting a sports store. He fell over and was promptly helped to his feet by the rioters. Charlie Bird, a chief news reporter for RTÉ, was 'assaulted' when he decided to march into the middle of the riot to shoot his spot. His coat was viciously ripped! To make matters funnier, it was the day of the Ireland-Wales rugby match in Lansdowne Rd. So in the middle of the 'riot', a viewer would catch a glimpse of a confused-looking man wearing a Wales jersey with a pint in one hand, wondering what was going on. Did I mention the two overturned wheelie bins?
A particularly Irish riot? Oh sweet God, yes.
