On Friday evening, Tola Vintage hosted its annual block party as a part of Culture Night in Dublin. The shop stated on Instagram that the block party hosted outside of their store in Temple Bar “always wraps up by 11:30.” However, this year the block party ended prematurely when An Garda Síochána broke up the party.
Shortly after, videos circulated on social media of Gardaí pushing event goers. As a result, there have been calls from community groups and people of colour for an examination of the treatment of black and brown people in Ireland.
In a statement from the Garda Press Office to The University Times, the Press Office stated the reason for intervention was due to safety concerns: “Gardaí on patrol in Fownes Street, Dublin 2, became aware of public safety concerns in relation to a very large crowd gathering outside a premises on Fownes Street. The retail premises, which had advertised an event on social media, was playing music into the public street, and had attracted a large crowd, unsuitable for the street capacity. The premises had also not put in any additional public safety measures for the advertised event.”
According to the press office, “Gardaí initially engaged with the management of the premises with a view to managing the situation but received limited support.”
“An operational decision was made to manage the developing public safety issue with the increasing crowd on the street. Members of An Garda Síochána commenced to engage with and disperse the crowd in an orderly manner.
A number of individuals present, particularly those who had consumed alcohol, failed to comply and actively disrupted Garda directions for persons to disperse from the street.
Three individuals were arrested for public order offences.”
Further commenting that they have taken note of the concerns raised and have been in ongoing engagement with them: “On Saturday 21st, following concerns raised with An Garda Síochána by some representative groups, An Garda Síochána through the Garda National Community Engagement Bureau and local management have engaged with these representative groups. This engagement is ongoing.
Any actions undertaken by Gardaí on the night were solely focused on public safety in a public space.”
Tola Vintage themselves commented on the incident, stating in an Instagram caption, “we don’t receive the same respect given to other businesses and streets in Dublin”. The activist group Black and Irish have also made a statement condemning the actions of Gardaí, stating that they have arranged to meet with the superintendent who is responsible for the Temple Bar area alongside the owner of Tola Vintage to prevent incidents like this from happening in the future.
Visual artist and attendant of this event Christian (Higo) Figuera spoke with The University Times and shared their perspective of the Culture Night at Tola Vintage:
“The Culture Night event I attended was a Block Party held by Tola Vintage and a big number of those attending happened to be People Of Colour [sic].
The block party was an annual celebration of fashion, art and the success of a Black owned business. I arrived at 21:30 to music playing, the crowd dancing and to people simply enjoying each other’s company. The Gardaí arrived shortly before 22:00 where they aimed to shut down the event.
People were rightfully disappointed, it didn’t make sense. From every direction and around every corner from Tola Vintage was a pub, club or event equally as loud and equally as busy. No property was being damaged, the attendees only interacted with each other and paid no mind to people passing by.
The Gardaí would force their way into Tola Vintage, and had the music stopped. People booed and filmed the incident but refrained from making physical contact with them.
Figuera further stated that “The force they used to make us disperse was unjustified. The shoving, shouting and intimidation they resorted to was completely premature. I saw one Garda officer draw their pepper-spray and another a baton just because an attendee pointed at them.
A man who’d stood his ground with his friends, to the right of Tola Vintage, was shoved then tackled and beaten by over seven Gardaí. While being dragged, the Gardaí barreled violently through a crowd of people without any concern of the bystanders’ safety.
Myself and my friends were several meters away but was nearly caught by the group of Gardaí charging at him [sic].
The man was then was cuffed [sic] after being trampled by the officers for several minutes, his face covered in blood. More Gardaí then proceeded to brandish their batons and we were physically pushed outside the area.
The whole incident felt surreal, the sudden escalation of violence by the Gardaí felt completely unjustified. Even with our disappointment and anger, the attendees never resorted to violence but the Gardaí did.
At this moment, we all just want a statement from An Garda Síochána regarding the incident”.
The University Times has been provided with video footage that substantiates Figuera’s account.
An alumna of Trinity expressed her disappointment regarding Friday night’s events to The University Times, stating “What about the other areas of temple bar that had similar capacity, why weren’t they told to disperse?” and that “this event happens every year and the same size and they have never had a problem ever so what changed now?”
At present, the groups United Against Racism Ireland and Black and Irish have released statements expressing solidarity with Tola Vintage.
