US actor Henry Winkler, best known as The Fonz from sitcom Happy Days, has praised Dublin firefighters involved in this morning's evacuation of the historic Shelbourne Hotel.
Winkler, who is staying at the hotel while he is in Dublin to promote his memoir 'Being Henry', was also seen thanking fire officers for their work.
Dublin Fire Brigade said a fire, which appeared to have started in the roof space above a bedroom in the hotel, had been contained and everyone was safe.
The Republic of Ireland
The Republic of Ireland
Henry Wonkler of "The Fonz" fame praises Dublin's Fire Brigade for handling a fire where he was staying.~
Hic sunt dracones
The Republic of Ireland
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/20 ... m-seekers/
Gardaí have arrested 19 people during clashes with anti-immigration protesters at a site earmarked for asylum seekers in Coolock, north Dublin.
Thirteen men and two women appeared before a special sitting of the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on Monday night charged with public order offences.
The clashes follow an incident on Monday morning during which a number of fires broke out at a makeshift camp established by protesters objecting to a disused warehouse being used to house migrants.
Speaking outside the court, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said it “has been a difficult policing day for us in terms of dealing with serious public disorder, what we saw today was really unacceptable”.
He said more people will be charged overnight and gardaí are seeking a number of people. He said CCTV footage would be analysed in a bid to identify suspects. Mr Harris said some gardaí were wearing body cams, which will be “very useful” in terms of evidence gathering.
He said there were no reports of serious injuries to any gardaí but two Garda vehicles were badly damaged.
He said the Garda responded well in dealing with “a very volatile and difficult situation over almost 12 hours” and Coolock Garda station remains operational.
A Garda car was set alight on Monday evening and two Dublin Bus vehicles were surrounded as protesters moved from the original site towards Coolock Garda station. A second Garda operation was put in place at the Garda station before the protesters were dispersed by members of the public order unit.
The Malahide Road at Coolock has been reopened and the Crown Paints site has been secured.
Just after 6pm, hundreds more people joined an already large crowd of mostly males in their teens and 20s, who had gathered at the site near the old Crown Paints warehouse on the Malahide Road from lunchtime. About 200 gardaí had been deployed to Coolock throughout the day, including about 30 members of the Garda public order unit with riot shields.
Some 30 Garda vehicles were lining the road, which was closed between its junction with Oscar Traynor Road and the Darndale roundabout, a distance of about 1km, after the fires broke out.
Over the course of several hours, gardaí came under sustained attack from protesters hurling rocks and other missiles as they dispersed the crowd using pepper spray.
At around 6pm, hundreds of people arrived at the site in Coolock, including a number of far right agitators from outside the county. The crowd became so big and unruly at the cordon between the Malahide Road and Greencastle Road that a small group of protesters broke off and walked to Coolock Garda Station, where they began jumping on Garda cars.
Two Dublin buses were surrounded by the crowd, but gardaí managed to disperse the group across a larger area. By evening, they had cordoned off an entire section of the industrial area – which includes the Odeon cinema, Power City and Burger King.
A protest camp, which is on private grounds outside the warehouse, was established several months ago to block workers from renovating the property. It is understood there were efforts on Monday morning to dismantle the camp, leading to clashes between protesters and gardaí.
The fire at the site destroyed a mechanical digger, which was being used to prepare the site for development, before spreading to other areas. The cause of the fire, which was brought under control by members of Dublin Fire Brigade, is being investigated.
At least one person, believed to be a security guard on the site, was injured.
Video from the scene shows a man in a tracksuit hitting another man wearing a high vis jacket with an object. In another video, paramedics can be seen taking someone to an ambulance on a stretcher.
Hic sunt dracones