Far Right Rioters Attack Police in Dublin. Government Blames The Far Left.

Cheetodust

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On Saturday a large number of anti-lockdown/anti-vax protestors held a rally in Dublin which led to violent clashes with the Gardaí and a firework being shot at them. One Garda was hospitalized and two others were injured. 23 people were arrested.

In a statement Garda Commissioner said that the event was organized by elements of the far left and the far right leading to outrage. Every far left and left organisation in ireland has been advocating a Zero Covid strategy while all previous anti-lockdown protests have been organized by far right groups and figureheads like The National Party, Gemma O'Doherty and John Waters (not that one).

After the backlash the Gardaí Commissioner retracted his statement and clarified that there was no evidence of any left wing involvement in the rally. The Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, having already parroted the "far left and far right" comments, rather than retract "clarified" that the Gardaí Commissioner meant "Republican Groups", (FG still have this 1980's mindset where anyone who wants a united Ireland is a terrorist, they also once applauded a DUP speaker for suggesting Ireland may someday rejoin the Commonwealth, they're the worst). When people pressed her on that bullshit she then changed tactic to say we shouldn't be getting hung up on which groups organiser the protest. So rather than condemn the far right, absolve the far left and stand up for Gardaí who had explosives fired on them the Justice Minister doesn't think we should focus on who started a riot.

Apropos of nothing here's an old picture of Fine Gael from the 30's.
 

Thaluikhain

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Ok, so the head of the Garda didn't condemn the correct people? Who attacked members of the Garda?

Not to say it's ok to pull this sort of thing when it's someone else's people being attacked, but that sounds like a morale booster right there.
 

Cheetodust

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Ok, so the head of the Garda didn't condemn the correct people? Who attacked members of the Garda?

Not to say it's ok to pull this sort of thing when it's someone else's people being attacked, but that sounds like a morale booster right there.
Ok, so the head of the Garda didn't condemn the correct people? Who attacked members of the Garda?

Not to say it's ok to pull this sort of thing when it's someone else's people being attacked, but that sounds like a morale booster right there.
Yup, even though beforehand Gardaí were saying the event was organized by far right violent groups.


The event was organized (and monitored) through far right groups on platforms like facebook and telegram. The national party were posting pictures at the event and people could be seen carrying NP fliers. Yeah he since retracted that claim but the damage has been done. Claims of false flag antifa attacks and all the other fun stuff from the Capitol riots are already circulating and emboldening right wing extremists and confusing things in the mainstream.

"Fine people on both sides."
Exactly what it reminded me of.
 

SilentPony

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Huh, I never associated the Irish government with be far right and corrupt and being against the people. That just seems so out there and wrong for the Irish government.
 

Elijin

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Huh, I never associated the Irish government with be far right and corrupt and being against the people. That just seems so out there and wrong for the Irish government.
Really? Im not sure where I picked it up, but I have this perception of the Garda being incredibly racist and corrupt, and they're only just overturning that stigma in the last generation or so.

Im not sure where that came from, or how accurate it is, but it's definitely the link in my mind.
 

Revnak

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Never let an Irishman become a cop, it crushes their spirit.
 

Trunkage

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Huh, I never associated the Irish government with be far right and corrupt and being against the people. That just seems so out there and wrong for the Irish government.
The Irish government?

Now I don’t know enough about Sinn Fein to call them left. But there is definitely a right wing coalition combining to make sure she doesn’t get power. As far as I understand the current parties in power don’t care a whit about the people, hence people voting more for Sinn Fien
 

Cheetodust

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Huh, I never associated the Irish government with be far right and corrupt and being against the people. That just seems so out there and wrong for the Irish government.
Ireland is hilariously corrupt. Leo Varadkar is currently under investigation for leaking a contract between the department of health and a doctor's union to a friend of his that was president of another union. He has told lie after lie about it including that the contract was already in the public domain. But now it has come out that the Minister for health was still being denied access to the contract at that time because it was still being finalized. Leo is currently being investigated by the police which has barely been mentioned in the press. The major newspapers have basically only covered it to say "ah it's probably nothing."

Former attorney general for the Fine Gael government was made a supreme court judge despite never having sat as a judge in his career, 3 actual judges were put forward for the role but minister for justice just straight up never told cabinet about there being other applicants and only told them about her pal. Which is now also being investigated.

This current government has been particularly egregious with an attitude of just not giving a fuck because, as Trunkage has pointed out, the two largest parties have realized that between the two of them it would be almost impossible for anyone else to form a government unless they get totally wiped out in the election. Imagine if the states actually got a viable 3rd party but in order to block them forming a government the Dems and Reps just kept forming coalitions or the smaller party agreeing to support the larger as a minority government. That's what we have here. I mean the Taoiseach declared in the Dáil that we didn't bail out the banks. Like the entire world knows we did.

Then there's things like that galway tent which was basically a big party for construction industry leaders to bribe politicians. Ireland isn't necessarily more corrupt than a lot of countries but it is very open and public.
 

Cheetodust

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So it turns out that the reason it was attributed to the far left is that the Gardaí's working definition of "far left" is " those who are intent on using violence for political means."

So that's problematic.
 
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Cheetodust

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Update:

RTÉ had a far right liar on to discuss the events on Saturday. During the course of the debate he falsely claimed that socialist party Eirigí were involved in the shooting of a journalist a couple of years ago. No retraction was offered until the very end of the show, literally right before the credits rolled the host offered a lame "that thing we said earlier was actually untrue. That's all from us goodnight."

So the police, the department of justice and the state broadcaster all working to give fascists a pass and lie about involvement of the left in violent events.

Also on Saturday a fine gael minister tweeted that anyone who uses the word but when describing far right violence legitimizes them. On Monday a fine gael spokesperson literally said "obviously nobody condones the violence but..."
 

Cheetodust

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Charles Haughey comes to mind.
When you think how many Taoisigh have some kind of corruption scandal attached to them AND then remember Ireland as a state isn't yet a century old and only 15 people have held that office it's a little bit impressive.
 

Agema

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When you think how many Taoisigh have some kind of corruption scandal attached to them AND then remember Ireland as a state isn't yet a century old and only 15 people have held that office it's a little bit impressive.
I think it's quite common in relatively young countries - I'm pretty sure Israel and South Korea have had plenty of issues, too. Mind you, it's quite common in older ones, too.

I remember Haughey because he had a reputation a long, long time before he was formally caught out in the late 90s (after he'd left office?) I think it was well known he had a lifestyle that seemed to be well beyond his salary.
 

Cheetodust

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I think it's quite common in relatively young countries - I'm pretty sure Israel and South Korea have had plenty of issues, too. Mind you, it's quite common in older ones, too.

I remember Haughey because he had a reputation a long, long time before he was formally caught out in the late 90s (after he'd left office?) I think it was well known he had a lifestyle that seemed to be well beyond his salary.
Bertie Ahern is funnier. When questions were raised about a mysterious 50K appearing in his account he claimed it was money he had saved up over a number of years when he had no active bank account. Minister of Finance. No bank account.
 

Agema

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Bertie Ahern is funnier. When questions were raised about a mysterious 50K appearing in his account he claimed it was money he had saved up over a number of years when he had no active bank account. Minister of Finance. No bank account.
😂 Oh I had not heard that one.

Didn't he also claim something like that he was just being given gifts, purely as a private citizen by friends, because he was such a lovely person and all?
 

Trunkage

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Bertie Ahern is funnier. When questions were raised about a mysterious 50K appearing in his account he claimed it was money he had saved up over a number of years when he had no active bank account. Minister of Finance. No bank account.
Well, no bank account with his name on it.

How does someone survive without a bank account?
 

09philj

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The Irish government?

Now I don’t know enough about Sinn Fein to call them left. But there is definitely a right wing coalition combining to make sure she doesn’t get power. As far as I understand the current parties in power don’t care a whit about the people, hence people voting more for Sinn Fien
Helps that Sinn Fein aren't quite so associated with terrorism as they used to be... although Northern Ireland's a powder keg which could change that at any time.