On November 23, 2023, the streets of Dublin, Ireland, were set ablaze by a riotous mob — the largest incident of violence on the Emerald Isle in over twenty years.
The rioting was triggered by a mass stabbing of children at an Irish-language primary school by a homeless Algerian national in his 50s. The attacker has been a naturalized Irish citizen since 2014.
The attacker stabbed three young children, ages 5 to 6, and a childcare worker. One of the victims, a five-year-old girl, was left in critical condition. The quick actions of bystanders, including a French and Brazilian national, helped stop the rampage.
Rumors of the attacker’s foreign identity rapidly spread after the violence. Social media played a particularly sinister role in the spread of misinformation, including that the attacker was an illegal immigrant and that the children were dead. The hashtag #IrelandIsFull spread across social media, implying the country was “full” and unwelcome for further immigration.
In one particularly disturbing incident, a WhatsApp group circulated threats by instructing members, “Any f–cking foreigner… just kill them. Just f–cking kill them.”
As online rumors and calls to violence mounted, the streets of Dublin were overrun with young Irish rioters. Gathering a few yards from the scene of the stabbings, a mob of around 200 people dawned balaclavas, crowbars, and fireworks. Police were assaulted with bottles as the crowd became increasingly unruly.
The riot soon swelled to around 500 people, who began waving Irish flags, chanting “Irish lives matter,” and setting fire to police vehicles. As the violence and arson intensified, rioters began lighting flares and chanting “Get them out,” referring to immigrants; local businesses and a train were raided and set ablaze.
During the rioting, local businesses closed, bus routes were postponed, and nearby Trinity College, Dublin went into lockdown. Police established a barricade of the Irish parliament building, Leinster House, to safeguard the establishment from the mob. 400 police officers were deployed, some on horseback, to contain the spiraling violence.
Around 10 pm, the riot was contained, but hundreds of officers remained on standby. Black Friday followed the proceeding morning, witnessing a devastating 70% decline in sales from the previous year as businesses remained hesitant — or unable — to reopen.
The following evening, a second riot was forming before being raided by police and shut down. 32 people were brought before Dublin courts on Black Friday, with charges ranging from weapons violations to theft. Northern Ireland has loaned Irish police anti-riot equipment until the New Year, anticipating further disorder.
Reactions to the violence have been sharply negative, with Chief of Police Drew Harris condemning the mob as a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by a far-right ideology.” However, calls for Harris’ resignation mount as he faces subpoena before the Justice Committee, the Irish legislature’s committee on criminal matters.
The disturbance on the Emerald Isle comes at a particularly tense moment, as the ramifications of the British withdrawal from the European Union cement. Decades of sectarian violence on the island, called “The Troubles,” threatened to reemerge as old wounds were exposed when Britain exited the European Union. The disturbances in Dublin signify a potential return to normalized violence on the island.
The status of Northern Ireland remains in limbo under the Northern Ireland Protocol. The protocol established an intricate balancing act of respecting the Good Friday Agreement, which nominally resolved the Troubles, while also implementing Brexit. This is nearly impossible because, as Britain left the European Union, British and Irish tariff laws became separate. This makes maintaining an open border, one of the key policies of the Good Friday Agreement, difficult — if not impossible — because an open border would allow potential smuggling and tariff violations.
Reactionary shifts in Irish politics, as seen by Dublin’s recent tumultuous instability, could have serious consequences for the delicate legal balance between the two countries.
The Good Friday Agreement is already strained by significant legal loopholes coined by the British government, which an unstable Ireland could destroy. Without the Good Friday Agreement, the Emerald Isle could descend back into sectarian violence, which Dublin’s riot could be the opening salvo to.
Time will tell whether Dublin’s unrest is a one-off incident, but what’s clear is that Irish and British politics are taking a turn toward populism. As anti-immigrant and nationalist sentiment is on the rise in both nations, the safety of everyday people is increasingly jeopardized. While significant progress has been made in Ireland, from sectarian tensions to the economy, one wrong step could herald an era the previous generation fought to extinguish.
First-year Richie Dockery is a Staff Writer. His email is rdockery@fandm.edu.