One Year Later: Recounting the Night That Transformed Dublin and Its Aftermath
What Sparked the Riots? The Events of November 23rd, 2023
The Dublin riots broke out on Thursday, November 23, of last year, following the stabbing of three children in a primary school in Parnell Square East.
Riad Bouchaker, 50 of no fixed abode, was charged on December 21 2023, with attempted murder of three children, and assault causing serious harm to a care worker.
Five-year-old schoolgirl Emily was left fighting for her life. Speaking to the Irish Independent, her mother says one year on her daughter “remains non-verbal and must be fed through a feeding tube. She is unable to walk and requires constant care”.
The attacks that day led to anti-immigrant protests and far-right extremists caused havoc in the capital later that night.
An Eerie Night in Dublin: Aimeerose’s Perspective
21-year-old student Aimeerose Cazenova was living in the north side of Dublin city last year near Phibsborough during the riots.
Aimeerose was meeting friends that evening and had to walk from the North side to St Stephans Green as news broke about the stabbing in the primary school.
She recalls a “very eerie feeling leaving the apartment and walking into the city centre”.
Getting into the Christmas spirit at a pub with her friends Aimeerose says her Brazilian friend who grew up in Dublin, saw online that there were going to be anti-immigrant protests, and got really upset. “What the hell are they doing, they’re gonna cause a riot” she recalls her friend saying.
“Suddenly videos started pouring in of these fires and crazy things, we were confused. It only started getting alarming when my friend’s parents started ringing them and telling them to come home immediately,” she says.
Aimeerose had to walk through the north of the city in order to get home which meant crossing the bridge and going over O’Connell Street. “The city was just crazy there were people everywhere, there were dodgy-looking characters, the Garda Emergency Response Unit was there with shields and barricades trying to control the crowds” she says.
She walked through Henry Street and witnessed JD Sports being broken into, “I just stood there surrounded by criminals,” she recalls and remembers there were “gazelle shoes, brand new shoe boxes all over the streets”
“I saw Lifestyle sports absolutely destroyed, it felt like the whole world stopped and you were just walking through a movie set or something” she remembers.
As Aimeerose approached her apartment she recalls seeing three teenage boys with their bicycles and big footlocker bags.
“There was a really weird feeling in Dublin the week after, shops destroyed were all boarded up”.
Justice Served? Convictions and Accountability
A year on, 57 people have been arrested in connection with the riots, with 53 of those charged with public disorder offences.
Some 14 people have been convicted of public order offences, with punishments ranging from imprisonment to a caution.
A 28-year-old man, Declan Donaghey, is the first of the Dublin rioters to be convicted at the Circuit Court level.
Mr Donaghey has been jailed for six and a half years for setting fire to a Garda patrol car and attacking an accommodation centre for International Protection applicants.
This week Gardai have published the faces of 99 ‘people of interest’ appealing to the public to help identify them. At the time of publishing, 18 people so far have been identified.