Police In Dublin Pelted With Bottles, Cans, And Fireworks By Anti-Lockdown Protesters

By Tony Winterburn • Published: 28 Feb 2021 • 7:00

Police In Dublin Pelted With Bottles, Cans, And Fireworks By Anti-Lockdown Protesters. image: Twitter

Police In Dublin Pelted With Bottles, Cans, And Fireworks By Anti-Lockdown Protesters.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Dublin protest over Ireland’s restrictive lockdown policies. However, the Saturday gathering soon turned violent, as police were pelted with bottles, cans, some of the crowd even threw fireworks at them.

Ireland’s first national lockdown in 2020 was the longest in Europe, and the nationwide restrictions currently in place have been ranked the fourth-toughest in the world – and the toughest in Europe – by researchers at Oxford University. With the highest level of restrictions set to remain in place until early April at the earliest, hundreds of protesters gathered in Dublin on Saturday to protest against the strict ‘draconian’ measures.

After symbolically assembling at the General Post Office, where Irish revolutionaries declared independence from Britain more than a century ago, the hundreds-strong crowd marched to St. Stephen’s Green, a park that had been closed by police in anticipation of the protest.

The demonstration devolved into violence along the way. Police officers blocking the route to the park were heckled and shouted at by the protesters. Video footage then showed one protester shooting a firework into an officer’s face at point-blank range.

Police responded with a baton charge directly into the crowd as more fireworks were launched. Those offenders who didn’t flee in time were clubbed to the ground, and “a number of arrests” were reported by Justice Minister Helen McEntee. A spokesman for the police said that 23 people were arrested and one police officer was taken to hospital.

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