Hundreds of people attended a public antiracism gathering in Tallaght called to protest an assault on an Indian national in the area last weekend.
The crowd, which included many members of Dublin’s Indian community, heard the man, the father of an infant child who had just arrived in Ireland to take up a tech role with Amazon, was on the way to a religious service when he was set upon, beaten, stabbed, stripped and robbed by a group of youths.
Jennifer Murray, a local woman who had intervened to help the victim told the crowd “the attackers and people on social media rapidly spread a lie that this man had committed a crime of a sexual nature at the local playground.
[ Man violently assaulted and partially stripped by gang in TallaghtOpens in new window ]
“No such thing [happened]. This is a complete fabrication to justify the beating, stabbing and stripping of an innocent man. The only crime here committed was by our own, by a gang of Irish teenagers.
RM Block
“But this is not who the people of Kilnamanagh are. This is not who the people of Tallaght are. So it is time for change. There’s been a lot of negative people shouting very loudly lately, and it is time to turn our silence into action.”
The innocent man who had been attacked, she said, “has shown such dignity, such bravery and such humility in the aftermath of this awful ordeal, his wishes are just that this never happens to anyone ever again. But I say this never should have happened to him”.
The crowd, which included TDs Louise O’Reilly of Sinn Féin and Ruth Coppinger of Solidarity-People Before Profit, as well as former TD Bríd Smith and a number of other local representatives, also heard from Shashank Chakerwarti, an activist and candidate in last year’s local elections who was born in India but moved to Ireland with his family at the age of 12.
“Like many others,” he said, “I don’t claim to be Irish by birth but by belonging.”
The Indian community and other migrants were not, he said, “guests but fellow citizens” determined to contribute to “making Ireland a fairer society”.
Sarah Holland of Dublin South West Together said decent people had been appalled by what had happened last weekend and said those who claimed to be patriots in the spirit of those who led the Rising were misguided.
“The 1916 leaders wanted a Republic that cherished all its citizens because we are all equal,” she said.
The meeting, which took place outside the Rua Red arts centre close to the Square shopping centre, was flanked by a significant Garda presence amid rumours beforehand that a counter protest by members of the far right might spark violence.
In the event, around a dozen people protested close by with a handful holding up placards bearing photographs of Ashling Murphy and the man who murdered her, Jozef Puska. The event ended without any disorder.
