Two more arson attacks – but just don’t believe what you have been told about ‘10’ arrests
AS the emergency services rushed to the scene of one of the country’s latest arson attacks last Sunday morning, one far-right agitator was already prepped and ready to record their arrival.
‘That’s the seventh fire engine now,’ comments the named man who was photographed on his social media page wearing a balaclava while waving two Ireland flags. ‘And the guards are here now as well and whatever that yoke [unmarked car] is,’ he adds.
The man filmed his footage as a fire raged in the St Brigid’s nursing home at Crooksling, near Brittas in south Dublin, as the country enjoyed the bank holiday weekend.
He posted his video to X, formerly Twitter, commenting: ‘Crooksling got some climate change #irelandisfull #irelandbelongstotheirish #irelandisrising.’
The same man had posted footage outside the Crooksling nursing home less than two weeks earlier while people protested at the site.
‘Great support here tonight lads,’ he remarked at the time.
‘Last month the same man was outside the Station after a device was thrown’
He later posted footage outside a building in Clondalkin, Dublin, which he claimed is a ‘people trafficking centre’.
‘This is where they traffic them around the country to your communities. We need to put a block on all proposed buildings ASAP.’
Last month, the same man was outside Ronanstown Garda Station after a suspicious device was thrown through its door.
‘I’m after jumping over my back wall,’ he tells a garda standing outside the station.
The garda tells him she thinks the device was a pipe bomb – it later transpires to be a hoax – while he expresses shock at events and posts his footage alongside the comment ‘#Irelandisfull’.
Another agitator, with tens of thousands of followers, was accused of inciting arson at St Brigid’s in the weeks before the attack when he posted that ‘every woman and child in the surrounding area is in grave danger’.
‘Tonight we went up to St Brigid’s Nursing home Crooksling off the old Blessington road,’ he wrote.
‘This place is vast with multiple buildings to cater for thousands of illegal criminals & in doing so place every woman and child in the surrounding area in grave danger.’
He went on to declare: ‘A stand must be made as regards this property.
‘We must keep exposing every POS that endangers our innocent children for monetary gain.
‘God bless all the men & women out in that weather tonight & giving up their precious time fighting for everything & everyone that they love & hold dear.’
The trend of far-right agitators posting footage of themselves at the scenes of future arson attacks continued in Leixlip this week.
A residential property in the Co. Kildare commuter town was falsely rumoured to be earmarked as an accommodation centre. One right-wing agitator posted pictures from the grounds of the property to social media at the end of last month. He told his followers on January 22: ‘So checked out few up and coming fakugee places but this was the one up near barnhall… we could get close up to and what we saw was crazy… we seen [sic] loads of bunk beds and single mattresses some of which looked used. We saw about 40 to 60 mattresses. I’d say there’s only days.’
Under his post people posted fire emojis and more blatant threats.
‘Those mattresses are highly flammable,’ said one while another
named woman added: ‘Turn the place into ash.’ The man who filmed the footage was accused of trespassing, but he remarked he was he was ‘allowed as a commissioner of the peace to go where I like, especially when it comes to safety’. The owner of the house was informed of a potential arson threat in recent weeks. Gardaí were actively monitoring the site, but on Wednesday a second attempt to set it alight in a week was successful.
Meanwhile, criminal investigations are ongoing into 18 suspected arson attacks on buildings proposed or rumoured to be proposed for accommodation centres.
Despite persistent sinister online commentary from several named individuals, the first arrests for arson attacks on buildings only came this week when gardaí arrested two men and a woman in relation to the suspicious fire at the Shipwright pub in Ringsend, Dublin in December.
Asked over recent weeks how many arrests had been made in relation to the suspected arson attacks on buildings link to asylum accommodation, a garda spokesperson said they were ‘not in a position to provide detailed update on every investigation listed in your enquiry, nor does An Garda Síochána comment generally on any particular group of investigations’.
However, in a statement issued this week, gardaí said five people had been arrested in respect of the ‘criminal damage and public order incidents on Sandwith Street’.
The Sandwith Street incident occurred in May last year, when tents belonging to homeless refugees at a makeshift camp were set alight after demonstrations by anti-migrant protesters.
Footage of the scene, which captured tents and furniture on fire, was shared widely online.
Gardaí also said this week that two men were arrested in relation to the criminal damage at a building housing asylum seekers in Killarney, Co. Kerry, on New Year’s Day.
‘The Government will review to see if tougher measures are required’
In its statement, which was reported verbatim by RTÉ, gardaí said these were part of 10 arrests linked to ‘arson’ attacks across the country.
However, there was no fire or attempted arson at the Killarney building; the door of the accommodation centre was damaged by a suspect who was charged at Listowel District Court on February 1 in relation to the incident.
A second man was charged and appeared before Tralee District Court on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Micheál Martin appeared to contradict Garda Commissioner Drew Harris when he referred to the arson attacks this week as an ‘organised campaign of arson and criminality’ against properties that may be used to house refugees and asylum seekers.
Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, Mr Martin said that the Government will ‘review the situation to see if tougher measures are required, if greater deterrence is required to stop this activity’.
This appeared to contradict comments by Commissioner Harris in December when he said the attacks are not centrally orchestrated or organised, but instead carried out separately by disgruntled individuals and groups of local people.
He said there was ‘no evidence to suggest there is a coordinated effort, that there’s some in effect invisible hand or guiding hand in these attacks’.
The garda chief added it was ‘easy to blame some nebulous ill-defined group’ for being behind these incidents but said this was based on prejudice and driven at a local level.