Exclusive - The Irish Mirror has established that just nine ordinary gardai were left in fear for their safety amid escalating violence at the protest site on the Malahide Road on Monday morning - after some Public Order Unit members initially assisted with getting workers onto the site at around 4am, but were then ordered to leave.
Public Order gardai were called off the Coolock site BEFORE the protest began - leaving just nine officers calling for backup for over five hours.
But we understand that the unit then left the site once workers were in - and a handful of gardai were then left to deal with the subsequent criminal break-in and fires that happened afterwards. The extremely violent scenes of petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks being thrown then began, and Public Order officers eventually managed to bring about order after spraying pepper spray, forming a cordon, and making numerous arrests. Asked about this issue, Garda Headquarters did not return a comment before this article went to print.
"We will now be raising this matter with the Commissioner and senior garda management and we will express serious concerns on whether lessons were learned from the incidents of last November and demand that we are better prepared for any possible future attacks. The safety of our members is paramount."
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