Dublin rioter jailed for setting police car on fire

Police cars were set alight during rioting in Dublin in November 2023

A man who set an Garda (Irish police) vehicle on fire during rioting in Dublin last year has been jailed for six and a half years.

Declan Donaghey, 28, from William Street in Dublin also attacked an accommodation centre for International Protection applicants.

Judge Orla Crowe said she did not accept Donaghy acted in a moment of madness, as he had claimed.

Donaghey had admitted to gardaí that his actions made him "look like a scumbag".

The court heard that the 28-year-old Dubliner threw a wheelie bin at one garda car on Parnell Street during the riots on 23 November 2023.

He jumped on the bonnet and smashed the windscreen of another, before setting a third garda car on fire.

He picked up a burning box and put it into the back seat of the garda car before closing the door.

The car was burned out.

A short time later, Donaghey attacked accommodation for International Protection applicants.

Fifty people were inside "under siege" at the time.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to arson, criminal damage, and violent disorder.

He also wrote a letter to the court in which he apologised to "the Government, everyone" saying what he did was completely "out of character".

He said he was only there to "support the victims" and "did it without thinking" but accepted it only made him "look like a scumbag".

Judge Crowe said that Donaghey was "an active, spirited participant" in "one of the gravest public order incidents in the history of the state".

She described his actions as "shameless and senseless vandalism" and said any attack on gardaí was "an attack on all of society".

He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, with the final year suspended.

Afterwards his family and supporters had to be escorted from the court by gardaí, and Donaghey shouted "scumbags" at gardaí before being led away.