Leitrim JPC strongly condemn Dublin attack and riots

Cllr Enda McGloin sent "best wishes to the victims of the horrendous crime that took place in Dublin city" and noted that a young girl and an SNA are still in hospital currently. 
"We send our best wishes for a full recovery and to the families of the victims who are obviously very traumatised by what happened. 

He was speaking at the latest Joint Policing Committee, where all the councillors condemned the Dublin riot that took place on the evening of November 23 involving incidents of vandalism, arson, looting, and assaults on Gardaí.

Cllr McGloin said that he also sent his best wishes to the Gardaí involved in the riots and said that anyone who observed the "clashes between the rioters and the Gardaí and the burning of Garda cars, buses and the Luas and particularly some of the Gardaí who had to defend themselves in the most awful of circumstances, from this JPC, we send those officers our very, very best."

He said it was an example of what members of An Garda Síochána "have to deal with" and said the "disrespect and the way those Gardaí are treated by some members of the public is outrageous and I hope those individuals are brought to justice and serve time for that disgraceful behaviour.

Cllr Enda Stenson supported the comments and said as father of a "young lad who had to go to that and be in Dublin on that occasion, it's extremely worrying for everybody and uncalled for and shouldn't be tolerated" adding that "those people are hooligans and out of control".

He described the incident during which three children and a school care assistant were injured in a knife attack as "a terrible thing thing to happen" but stated that "what happened afterwards was unjustified and has nothing to do with it."

Cllr Sean McDermott said that an American couple who were heading to Glenfarne got caught up in the riot and "were frightened out of their lives and will probably never come back to Ireland again". 

Cllr Padraig Fallon commended the actions of An Garda Síochána and the emergency services and said there was "amazing restraint shown by a Garda surrounded by a number of individuals and backed up the street for metres and metres". 

Cathaoirleach Cllr Justin Warnock said a number of young people in his own area have joined An Garda Síochána and "it's worrying for their families". 
He said the incident was the result of "something that has been building up for a while" and said that "within seconds it had gone global and was on every news station across the globe and it's bad publicity". 

He said that he hoped "all those thugs are rounded up and the law takes care of them."

Cllr Felim Gurn said that more needed to be done to clamp down on such individuals communicating on social media. 
"To gather that amount of people so efficiently along the streets; there needs to be more investment with regard to technology to get ahead of this."

Full story in this week's Leitrim Observer...