34 people arrested in Dublin as riots erupt over stabbing attack

Irish police arrested 34 people Thursday night in Dublin after rioters stormed across the capital city, torching cars and clashing with police in response to a stabbing attack near a school.

Ireland’s national police service, An Garda Síochána, said 32 of the people who were arrested were charged for participating in rioting and destruction across the city.

Rioters damaged seven vehicles, including three buses and a tram, Irish police wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Another 11 police vehicles were “extensively damaged,” authorities said, and 13 properties were “attacked and substantially damaged.”

Police officers who clashed with rioters were also injured, authorities said, but it’s unclear how many were injured and to what extent.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said approximately 500 people were involved in the riot, the BBC reported. Irish authorities said they will launch a formal investigation into the incident.

“Those involved have brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves,” Varadkar said, according to The New York Times. “This is not who we are. This is not who we want to be, and this is not who we will ever be.”

The riots broke out after a knife attack seriously wounded a 5-year-old girl and hospitalized a woman and two other young children.

Garda has not established a motive in the stabbing yet, but the suspect is in his late 40s and was seen loitering around the area of the knifing, an aftercare center, according to The Irish Times.

Irish authorities have blamed far-right groups for fomenting the unrest that followed the stabbing, including false claims that the stabbing suspect may have been a foreign national, the BBC reported.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said in a press briefing that some people were trying to break into the crime scene and the rioting broke out shortly after. He added that people were “radicalized” across the internet and promised a formal investigation.

“Yesterday’s events were just terrible,” Harris said Friday. “Just disgraceful scenes from start to finish.”