New Delhi: The alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl by an asylum seeker has taken Ireland by storm. An unprecedented anti-migrant protest of around 2,000 people outside a Dublin hotel housing asylum seekers turned violent, with some attacking police. Ireland, known for its peaceful, friendly image, witnessed the police using water cannon on people for the first time in the country’s history. Why is a moderate country now chanting the slogan “Ireland is full”?
The riots started with the gathering of anti-migrant protesters launching an attack on the police Tuesday, injuring three officers. A police van was set on fire and officers were pelted with bricks, fireworks and glass bottles. A helicopter circling the area was targeted with a laser. The police have arrested 24 protesters, and are scanning CCTV and body cam footage to identify more attackers.
Police said the rioting outside the Citywest Hotel in Saggart village was “pre-planned”.
“The actions can only be described as thuggery. This was a mob intent on violence against gardaí (police),” a BBC report quoted Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly as saying. Meanwhile, the rape accused, a 26-year-old man, was produced in court Tuesday.
What happened
The victim, reported to be a 10-year-old Irish girl who was in care under Tusla — Ireland’s state child and family agency — was attacked near the entrance of the Citywest Hotel complex.
The Irish Independent reported that Tusla confirmed the girl was living in a registered residential placement, but had ‘absconded’ during an outing to the city centre; she then later revealed that she had been involved in a “serious incident”.
The alleged assault took place Sunday, after which the Irish police cordoned off the main entrance area of the hotel. The demonstrations started peacefully the following night but escalated into violence after the alleged perpetrator was produced in court Tuesday.
On the evening of 21 October, the number of protesters swelled to around 2,000, with some among them carrying Irish flags and shouting anti-immigration slogans. The Irish police, known as Gardai, said youth on horse-drawn carts and motorbikes — locally called “scramblers” — joined in and began causing trouble.
Acting Deputy Garda Commissioner Paul Cleary told news outlets that they were “violent thugs who were there purely to incite violence and promote fear”.
Of the 24 people arrested, 17 are adults who have been charged with public order offences. Speaking to the media Wednesday, Garda Commissioner Kelly said there would be a “robust response again to any further disorder”.
The Citywest complex houses families under Ireland’s international protection programme. According to reports, the man who assaulted the child was served a deportation order after his asylum application failed earlier this year.
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Anti-immigrant protests in Ireland
The unrest in Dublin is part of a growing wave of anti-immigrant mobilisation across Ireland. What started in 2022 as scattered demonstrations has now turned into a more structured pattern of protests.
According to the Irish police, the number of such incidents doubled between 2022 and 2023 in the Dublin region — from about 300 to 617.
One of the reasons for the intensifying protests has been the Irish government’s decision to accommodate asylum seekers in state-provided lodgings, including facilities in and around Dublin.
Several violent incidents have been reported from different parts of the island. In 2023, after three children and a woman in her 30s were seriously injured in a stabbing attack, anti-immigrant protests flared up in central Dublin. By evening, the protest had turned violent, with agitators setting a police car and a public bus on fire.
In June this year, the arrest of two 14-year-old Romanian boys accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl triggered another round of protests. Clashes broke out between police in several towns in Northern Ireland and protestors. About 40 officers were injured and 15 protestors were arrested. In some locations like Portadown, County Armagh, the crowd threw bricks and masonry at the police.
In 2025, there have also been reports of racial abuse against Indians in Ireland. In July, a 40-year-old man was attacked and stripped by a group of youths in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght.
In August, a taxi driver, Lakhvir Singh, was assaulted with glass bottles while at work and reportedly told to “go back to your own country”. The same month, a six-year-old girl was attacked by a gang of boys aged between 12 and 14. They punched her, pulled her hair, and injured her private parts by shoving a bicycle wheel against her, calling her a “dirty Indian” and to “go back”.