Riots that followed a mass stabbing of young children in Dublin should be met with a “good, honest, decent beating”, an Irish senator stormed in “frank” remarks.
Now a week since the stabbing of three children and their teacher that sparked anti-immigration riots in Dublin, Ireland, and the dark mutterings of retribution — against the rioters, that is, not the knifeman — with a Senator speaking of those involved needing a beating. The remarks came within hours of another Irish politician hitting the headlines over claims he’d said he wanted to see the anti-migration rioters beaten to death.
Speaking in Ireland’s upper house the Senate on Thursday, Fine Gael party Senator Seán Kyne was venting over the riots that took place last week which have been said to be the nation’s worst in years. As reproduced by the Irish Independent, the senator said events were down to outsiders who are “absolutely unsavoury individuals who gathered, congregated for the sole purpose for creating havoc, creating mayhem, attacking members of [the police]… it was mindless violence that we witnessed.”
Speaking of how the police should respond should anti-stabbing or anti-immigration protests get violent again in the future, Kyne said the response should be “serious” and claimed “the majority of people I have spoken to from around the country” had told him they feel “the only response that people involved in this sort of criminality and rioting understand is a good, honest, decent beating.”
Possibly acknowledging the cringing response to his statement in the chamber from Helen McEntee, the Irish minister for justice, Kyne said he was “being blunt about it” but, nevertheless, “you probably cannot say that… but it’s what people want to see”.
The frank remarks came just hours after another politician generated controversy with his apparently forthright views on what fate should befall anti-migration rioters. Controversy reigned after a local newspaper report asserted Limerick councillor Azad Talukder had said rioters should be killed.
Speaking in a council meeting, the Fianna Fáil councillor said: “Not even an animal does these kind of thing. It is very shameful and they should get public punishment. I’d like to see them shot in the head or bring the public in and beat them until they die.”
The chairman was reminded “you can’t call for people to be shot in the council chamber” and he withdrew the remark. After ignoring media requests for comment in the wake of the story going viral, the Irish Independent reported he had finally responded, insisting his remarks had been misinterpreted, and that actually his killing comments were meant for the knifeman, not the protesters.
He is reported to have said: “How it is published in the newspaper, it looks like I am making comments against the rioters but I didn’t do that. I said, who can stab five year old kids, is like an animal, should be punished publicly. Mistakenly, I said he should be shot and immediately I said, I don’t mean shot like real shot, it’s just emotional language… I didn’t mean real shot, I expressed my emotion only.”
