{"id":209404,"date":"2025-12-01T09:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/209404\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T09:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:58:10","slug":"nothing-is-left-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/209404\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Nothing is left\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A north Dublin<\/a> community has rallied around a Venezuelan<\/a> family whose food truck was set on fire. <\/p>\n

Papi\u2019s Street Food, run by Ana and Jos\u00e9, who preferred not to give their surnames, was set alight shortly after midnight on Monday, November 17th. The business served a mixture of Irish and Venezuelan flavours, with dishes including smash burgers and \u201cloaded\u201d chips, and was situated in Finglas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since the attack, Ana has received \u201cso many messages of people trying to help and saying they miss us\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people have been so good to us, we\u2019re very grateful. The good outnumbers the bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple moved from Venezuela in 2018. It took them \u201cthree years of working and saving\u201d to be able to afford to run the food truck. Jos\u00e9 ran the business and Ana would \u201chelp out\u201d at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople liked the flavours and trying new things,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was very popular with really good reviews. We were very happy that people liked the food.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the early hours of Monday morning, her husband ran to the truck after receiving a call from the owner of the neighbouring Quarry House Pub, from whom they rent the land where the food truck sits, to say it had caught fire.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Woman targeted in Clondalkin fire attack suffered burns to most of her bodyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"Papi’sPapi\u2019s Street Food was set alight shortly after midnight on Monday, November 17th. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

Ana woke later, with her 11-month-old daughter, and found out what happened after checking her phone. \u201cEverything is gone, nothing is left,\u201d her husband told her.<\/p>\n

The van had already been targeted a week earlier in an incident during which the tyres were damaged and an attempt was made to set it ablaze.<\/p>\n

However, the couple \u201cnever believed [the attacker] would come back\u201d.<\/p>\n

When her husband arrived home, Ana hugged him. \u201cIn that moment you don\u2019t need words, just a hug.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him, it\u2019s so frustrating. He keeps saying I just want to work. He didn\u2019t do anything wrong, no one had a problem with him,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand. How can someone do this to us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe couple set up a GoFundMe page to help them \u201cbring Papi\u2019s back\u201d after friends and customers told them to.
\nPhotograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

Ana recalled the \u201chorrible smell of the fire\u201d when the couple went to inspect the damage on Monday. \u201cYou could smell the fire before you could see the truck, it was shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their five-year-old son keeps asking, \u201cdaddy, are you going to the food truck today?\u201d and \u201cwhen will the new food truck be set up?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

They are unsure if the attack was racially motivated or random.<\/p>\n

They want to bring back the business but feel \u201cafraid\u201d. \u201cWe need the money, we have kids and rent,\u201d said Ana. \u201cIt\u2019s a difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple set up a GoFundMe page to help them \u201cbring Papi\u2019s back\u201d after friends and customers told them to. It had raised almost \u20ac9,000 at time of publication.<\/p>\n

Local councillors expressed support for the owners, with Fianna F\u00e1il councillor Keith Connolly said the \u201cwhole community is disappointed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mary Callaghan, Social Democrats councillor, said it was a \u201cvery well-frequented food stand\u201d and described it as a \u201chuge disappointment for the owners and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed<\/a> said investigations into an incident of criminal damage are ongoing and they are appealing to anyone who may have information on this incident to come forward.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Call for \u2018zero tolerance\u2019 approach after latest children\u2019s play facility arson attackOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A north Dublin community has rallied around a Venezuelan family whose food truck was set on fire. Papi\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,52,18,13,14,8030,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,4450],"class_list":{"0":"post-209404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-garda-siochana","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115643725666993849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}