Still no arrests in connection to arson attacks on accommodation for refugees
IRISH Mail on Sunday readers may have felt as if they were suffering from déjà vu on Friday morning as they tuned in to RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynold’s report about no arrests being made in connection with a spate of arson attacks on buildings associated with asylum seeker and refugee accommodation.
Last Sunday, we reported that gardaí had yet to make a single arrest in connection with no fewer than 13 arson attacks across the country since the start of last year. Gardaí told us last weekend it would take some time to collate the information we had requested. On Thursday, following the latest arson attack in Lanesborough, Co. Longford, this week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he was told by gardaí that arrests were forthcoming.
Early on Friday we received a response, which just stated that criminal investigations are ongoing and gardaí are ‘on record as expressing concern about extremist activism’. A short time later, RTÉ was leading with a report about no arrests in connection to 15 arson attacks – the two others being the Lanesborough incident and the burning of a building in Co. Donegal dating in 2018.
At the time of going to press last night, there were still no arrests in connection with any of the attacks.
In its response to the MoS, gardaí said they do not believe a single organisation is behind the attacks but they are ‘aware’ genuine protesters are ‘used by a small minority with extreme and potentially criminal and dangerous intent to spread misinformation, disinformation and fake news’.