Patrick Maughan (22) pulled up slabs in a car park, broke them up and threw them at officers during last year’s Coolock riot.

He was ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service instead of a four-month prison sentence.

Maughan’s defence told Dublin District Court he was not a “ringleader” but got “caught up in the general community feeling” on the day.

Judge Treasa Kelly said it was a “very violent” crime that had put gardai at risk of injury “at the very least”.

Maughan, from Chanel Grove, Coolock, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and criminal damage.

Garda Paul Reddy said that, on July 15 last year, there was a large-scale public order incident on the Malahide Road in Coolock where a crowd had gathered at the former Crown Paints factory, which had been earmarked for an Ipas centre.

Maughan was seen on CCTV lifting up concrete kerbs in the Odeon cinema car park, breaking the slabs up and throwing them at uniformed and public order unit gardai. He later changed his clothing in the nearby McDonald’s to evade arrest.

Maughan had previous convictions.

Defence solicitor Donal Quigley put it to the garda that Maughan “wasn’t the most serious player” in the disturbance and “wasn’t organising it in any way”.

“I wouldn’t say he was one of the ringleaders,” Gda Reddy agreed.

Mr Quigley said Maughan’s prior convictions were at a “lower level” and he had never been involved in anything like this before.

“He got caught up in the general community feeling there at the time,” Mr Quigley said. Maughan regretted what happened and accepted he should not have got involved in it.

At the time, a family member was dying, which had a “massive impact” on him. Maughan had been smoking cannabis but was not doing that any more. Maughan had since moved out of the Coolock area and his girlfriend was pregnant, Mr Quigley said.

“This was a very violent offence,” Judge Kelly said. “The violence was conducted against the gardai who on this occasion had a very difficult job to do and they were doing the best they could. You showed them no respect and you went further than that, you put them at risk of injury at the very least.”