It is as if many of us were dreaming but we are all awake now! We were not at all expecting what happened in the center of the capital recently.

Horrible attack

Three children and their care assistant were joining a queue outside their school, Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire in Parnell Square, when they were attacked by a man. He stabbed them with a knife and seriously injured two of them – a five-year-old girl and the care assistant, a woman in her thirties. They are still in hospital receiving treatment, at the time of writing. As bad as things were, they would have been much worse without the bravery shown by people, especially two immigrants.

Caio Benicio

Mr Benicio, a native of Brazil, who was working for the Deliveroo service and was driving his motorbike at the time of the attack, said he slowed down when he saw what was happening.

"It was native instinct," said Caio. “I remember taking off my helmet to protect myself and use it as a weapon. I hit the attacker in the head with all my strength. And he fell down.”

Thanks to his sharp mind and brave action, that terrible attack was stopped, and the guards arrested the attacker. The attacker himself is currently in hospital.

Leo Villamayor

A Filipino nurse was walking to the Gresham hotel, when he saw the attack. Nurse Leo Villamayor said: “I saw this little girl, she was running and then everything stopped, and she fell in a heap on the ground. She had shortness of breath and was in urgent need of medical attention. I started doing chest compressions on her. Suddenly, I heard the ambulance behind us, I heard the defibrillator, and someone pushed me out of the way. Two men put the defibrillator on her chest, and then a woman next to me took over. It was like a scene from a movie, all in slow motion.” Leo may have saved that girl's life when he immediately jumped in to help her.

Riot

Around 500 rioters gathered after the attack and caused massive damage in the city centre. And that's no coincidence! Messages went out online on social media and chat groups, wrongly saying that the attacker was an illegal immigrant - an Irish citizen, living in the country for the past 20 years, and that they should gather in the middle of the city with anti-immigration protest rally. Several police cars, three buses and a light rail train were burned. More than a dozen shops were looted. Police said they arrested 48 people, most of whom were issued summonses for riotous behaviour, assault and theft. The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said the government will introduce two key pieces of legislation within weeks. Police will be empowered to use facial recognition technology to track CCTV footage of the riot. They will also be empowered to prosecute the perpetrators of online hate speech.

Conclusion

You wouldn't believe something like this could happen here in Ireland. That was the instinctive response of many people. But on the other hand, there were signs that things were getting out of control in the last few years. For example, a few people were badly attacked in the summer in Dublin city centre. A Ukrainian actor was badly attacked in June just outside the Abbey Theatre. In July, an American tourist was attacked and seriously injured near his accommodation in the city centre. Afterwards, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said she had been in contact with the Garda about the investigation. "The message will be sent with a strong and firm response that we will not tolerate this bullying on our streets." When asked about the attacks on the Ukrainian actress and the American tourist, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there would be "a strong response from the Government in terms of civil penalties and in terms of increasing Garda resources". But – they did nothing in the interim and look what happened! Right-wing extremists are radicalizing people and using the internet to incite and spread racial hatred. They organize violent protests every chance they get, including this recent protest. The government needs to be monitoring the internet to get early warning so they can protect the public from ugly violence like we've seen recently. Our government has been indifferent in carrying out its business up to now. If a strong plan is not put in place soon, things will get worse, and it will be much more difficult to solve this existential, threatening crisis then!