Ireland desperately needed a symbol, a moral, to lift it out of its misery. Most of the Irish who were terrified after the night of street violence, burning vehicles, broken windows and racist and xenophobic slogans that hit the center of Dublin last Thursday have clung to the Brazilian Caio Benicio, 43, born in Rio de Janeiro and delivery man Deliveroo in this city for a year.
“I don’t see myself as a hero, no matter how much people repeat it. I also have two children. Anyone would have done the same thing I did. When you see a big man, with a big knife, who is attacking a girl… It doesn’t occur to you if you are an immigrant or he is an immigrant. You are simply a human being who decides to act. It’s an instinct, you don’t consider whether it’s dangerous or not,” the man who has received the most applause and praise this week due to so much pain explains to EL PAÍS.
At 1:40 p.m. (2:40 p.m., Spanish peninsular time), a man armed with a knife spread terror in Parnell Square, in the center of Dublin. The primary school students were leaving at that time. Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire [en irlandés]. She stabbed three children and a teacher who tried to defend them. Of them, both a five-year-old girl and the woman remain hospitalized in critical condition.
Benicio left his motorcycle on the ground and dealt the aggressor a huge blow with his helmet. He knocked him down immediately and managed to push the knife away. Not before the man had already inflicted several stab wounds on himself. He remains hospitalized and in police custody.
“I hit him again when he was already on the ground. Immediately she approached a lot of people who began to kick her. She wasn’t moving at all. “Someone took the girl away from there,” explains Benicio this Saturday morning in front of the school door, adorning his story with gestures. “From then on, I only remember bright flashes. I saw three ladies who were trying to protect him, because if not, I’m afraid they would have ended up killing him,” says the Brazilian.
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The news spread on social networks instantly. The rage of those present turned into the anger and fury of hundreds of far-right fanatics who took to the streets. There was a rumor, never confirmed by the police, that the attacker was a foreigner. Some identified him as Algerian.
“Everyone out on the streets this afternoon at seven. There are no excuses. Everybody out. “Enough is enough,” wrote Gavin Pepper, one of the most active far-right in the anti-immigration campaigns carried out in recent months in Ireland, on X (formerly Twitter). He then erased it, but the fuse had already completely lit. “They won’t be able to control us all. Let’s break up into small groups and do what we have to do. At seven, everyone out on the street. Well equipped. Any fucking foreigner you see, kill them. To all. Kill them all,” said a voice message on Telegram from an account calling itself Kill All Immigrants (Kill All Immigrants). I told it in The Irish Times security journalist Conor Gallagher.
For this reason, the Brazilian Caio Benicio is the hope that many citizens cling to to try to convince compatriots who may fall into doubt in the face of a wave of migration that in Ireland is as high as in the rest of Europe to never leave the country. human side of this crisis.
Racism and street crime
The center of Dublin was filled with shouts against immigrants on Thursday night. And some groups of protesters attempted to hunt down refugees sleeping scattered in hotels and accommodation across Ireland. About 73,000, of which more than 50,000 are from Ukraine. The doors and windows of the residence-bedroom Dublin City Dorms They woke up this weekend covered with wooden panels. No immigrant had slept there for months, but the assailants tried to enter the building.
Most of them, however, were more concerned about burning cars, police vehicles, buses, tram cars. And for getting a good pair of sneakers after breaking the windows of Foot Locker or of JD Sportstwo stores specialized in sports clothing that also woke up this Saturday completely covered with protective panels.
“The windows of that Spar also burst,” points out the woman who runs an Oxfam second-hand book store for charitable purposes at the supermarket across the street. “They were only interested in cigarettes and chocolate,” she laughs, with the relief of thinking that the worst is over.
Hundreds of police have been deployed in the city center to prevent a repetition of riots that, the Government admits, have been the worst recorded in Ireland, at least since 2006. The Garda, as the forces of order are known ( Guardians of Peace, in Irish) was not prepared for such enormous violence. Several of its officers suffered attacks and injuries. It took work to control 200 or 300 people who moved like a multi-headed snake bent on destroying everything in its path.
Degeneration in the neighborhood
“The threat from the extreme right and xenophobic movements has been there for at least two years. It has worsened with the arrival of refugees from Ukraine, and the messages of hate that spread through the networks have skyrocketed,” says Peter Farrelly, campaign coordinator of one of the deputies of the Fine Gael, one of the three main Irish political parties. The most inclined towards the center right in a scenario in which everyone is, above all, nationalists. “But there is a second factor that caused everything to overflow. There is a growing degeneration in Dublin One [el distrito del centro de la ciudad al norte de la ría, cada vez más de moda, pero con serios problemas de seguridad]. There is massive drug consumption, in the public eye, and a considerable increase in crime. “It is these people, those who have nothing to lose, who combined their forces with the extreme right to raze the city,” he points out.
It is a double consolation for many. Not only is it easier, because it is exceptional, to blame thugs for violence and riots. It also serves to preserve the image of Ireland as a country of welcome and tolerance.
The signals that reality emits, however, are more worrying. Last year, almost 150,000 foreigners arrived in Ireland, a country of five million people with serious problems of housing and public services. They may be a minority, but the ultra fans who walk the streets of Dublin with signs demanding Houses for Irish not for the world (Houses for the Irish, not for the rest of the world) move as they please. The correspondent was able to see one of them while he pursued and harassed two local journalists, recording them on his mobile phone and accusing them of protecting the perpetrator of the girl’s stabbing. Next, along with another group of radicals, she boasted while posting the video on the networks.
“The police immediately told us to seek protection [el jueves] and I hid. Today I feel comfortable again, but I admit that I was scared,” explains Promise Enofe. He is Nigerian. He has been in Ireland for 20 years. He works on the street, requesting donations and subscriptions for the humanitarian organization ActionAid. Near him, this weekend, there is a considerable group of agents patrolling the commercial street where Enofe moves.
“I feel very safe in Dublin. Remember that I come from Rio de Janeiro,” Benicio jokes. “I know many Irish people who have treated me very well. There is a small group of people who hate immigrants, but I think it cannot be generalized,” he says.
Many Irish people today rely on the Brazilian’s optimism, but the Government has already announced that it will toughen the laws against hate crimes and strengthen the capabilities of the police. What happened this week in the center of Dublin, everyone admits, is a warning sign that must be attended to.
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