{"id":217827,"date":"2025-12-06T02:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T02:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/217827\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T02:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T02:22:12","slug":"dublin-rioter-50-jailed-for-2-5-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/217827\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin rioter (50) jailed for 2.5 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A qualified plasterer, who put a female Garda in a headlock and assaulted two male Garda\u00ed, having been \u201ccaught up in the frenzy\u201d of<\/strong>\u00a0the Dublin riots, has been jailed.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The Circuit Criminal Court heard that the accused had been drinking at the time, that he has epilepsy, and that he is \u201cgoing blind\u201d due to a rare eye condition.<\/p>\n

Garda Tom McAvoy, of Store Street Garda Station gave evidence of how Don Sheridan (50) of Whitestown Park in Blanchardstown, made contact with Garda\u00ed after recognising himself in a series of photos of persons of interest released after almost a year of trawling through CCTV. <\/p>\n

The accused pleaded guilty to assaulting Detective Garda Tracy O\u2019Reilly by putting her in a \u201cheadlock\u201d and assaulting Garda Robert Brennan, and Garda Stewart Morrin on the 23rd of November, 2023. <\/p>\n

The court heard how the incident took place after \u201can anti immigration protestors\u201d gathered at the top of O\u2019Connell Street after three children and a care worker were stabbed at a school in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prosecuting counsel, Emer N\u00ed Ch\u00faag\u00e1in BL\u00a0told Judge Martin Nolan that \u201ctensions were extremely high\u201d as Garda\u00ed were \u201cholding a line\u201d by the \u201ccrime scene\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the course of the evening, 600 Garda\u00ed were deployed, 500 protestors were gathered in the area, 3 buses \u201cwere destroyed by fire\u201d, others were damaged, a Luas was \u201cdestroyed\u201d and a number of Garda vehicle were damaged or destroyed. <\/p>\n

\u00a013 Garda\u00ed and 5 civilians were also assaulted, the court heard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A video taken on the evening from Parnell Street showed the accused saying, in relation to the Garda line, \u201cWe had a chance to take them from the back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sheridan was also captured on CCTV attempting to break into a POU vehicle, attempting to strike an officer with a glass bottle, and being in the midst of a group who were firing bricks, fireworks, and glass bottles at Garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Det Garda O\u2019Reilly said she saw the accused throwing a gas canister at a POU vehicle, which was later damaged by a group of protestors, but was still operational. Over \u20ac8,000 was required to repair the vehicle, although it could not be determined how much damage Sheridan\u2019s individual actions had caused.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When O\u2019Reilly tried to retrieve the canister, Sheridan \u201capproached her and assaulted her by placing her into a headlock,\u201d Ms. N\u00ed Ch\u00faag\u00e1in said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The court heard how Garda O\u2019Reilly, seeing how much she and her colleagues were outnumbered, tried to radio for help on numerous occasions, to no avail. <\/p>\n

Noticing that Garda Morrin was isolated among the protestors and becoming \u201cafraid for his safety\u201d, she tried to shout to him to retreat, but said that the nine of the crowd was so loud that she believed he could not hear her. She said that \u201cfrom the moment she arrived\u201d on the scene she was being verbally \u201cabused\u201d and that the protestors were \u201cblaming\u201d the Garda\u00ed for what had happened to the children.<\/p>\n

When trying to take the gas canister from the accused, she became involved in a \u201ctussle\u201d with him before Garda Morrin came to her assistance.
O\u2019Reilly described having pepper spray on her person, but deciding it would be counter productive to deploy it due to being so heavily outnumbered.<\/p>\n

When Garda Morrin \u201cgrabbed\u201d the accused and \u201cpulled\u201d him off her, she said that he became \u201cfurious\u201d when he realised that Morrin was an officer. Sheridan then threw a punch, which did not land, at his face before a third party ran up, punched him, and then disappeared back into the crowd.<\/p>\n

She said bags of rubbish, glass bottles, and bricks were being thrown at her and her colleagues, while the crowd were \u201cshouting and jeering\u201d as they chased Garda Morrin having \u201cfocused on him\u201d and being told to \u201cget him\u201d by certain individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the point, there were shouts of \u201cattack, attack, attack,\u201d being aimed at Garda Morrin who had to \u201cin fear for his life\u201d after he was \u201cencircled\u201d by the crowd.<\/p>\n

N\u00ed Ch\u00faag\u00e1in described how Morrin was able to outrun most of the crowd on foot, but that 2-3 others on electric scooters kept apace with him as he ran towards the Gardiner Street area.<\/p>\n

At this point, one of the men on the scooters said, \u201cLeave him alone, fuck off now\u201d before Morrin was able to make an escape back towards Fitzgibbon Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sheridan was also charged with assaulting Garda Robert Brennan, who was in riot gear on the night in question, by trying to hit him over the head with a glass bottle near the corner of Murray\u2019s Pub on O\u2019Connell Street. <\/p>\n

CCTV footage showed Sheridan refusing to leave the area before Brennan \u201cchecks him with a shield\u201d, after which, \u201cfeigning to walk away\u201d, the accused \u201cremoves a glass bottle from his jacket and tries to strike him over the head with it,\u201d while in the midst of other protests, N\u00ed Ch\u00faag\u00e1in said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sheridan hands himself in.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Garda McAvoy agreed with counsel that Sheridan was not motivated by any particular \u201cpolitical\u201d or \u201cideological\u201d reason to participate in the riots, but that he was \u201ccaught up in the frenzy\u201d and had been drinking in a pub before learning what had happened with regard to the injured children.<\/p>\n

When he was interviewed he said he was\u00a0\u201cprotesting because foreigners, they are carrying blades\u201d, and \u201cwhat happened to that young kid,\u201d in reference to a 5-year-old girl who was seriously injured that day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He expressed remorse for his actions saying he had \u201cmade a thick out of himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

Defending counsel, Michael Lynn SC argued that his client had given no trouble to Garda\u00ed after handing himself in, and that he did not request the presence of a solicitor when being interviewed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Lynn argued that his client had a long work history as a plasterer, but had developed epileptic fits in 2013, which caused him tools his job, and eventually become homeless \u201cfor a number of years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lynn said that if the accused should be jailed, he would lose the housing he had gained with the assistance of Cross Care.<\/p>\n

Sheridan also has an alcohol addiction, and a \u201crare genetic eye condition\u201d and is \u201cgoing blind\u201d, Mr. Lynn argued. <\/p>\n

His client wants to\u201cpublicly say today [that] he\u2019s profoundly ashamed of what he did,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garda McAvoy accepted that the accused\u2019s expressions of remorse were genuine. <\/p>\n

Sentence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having considered the matter over lunch, Judge Nolan said that the accused didn\u2019t seem to have \u201can active bias towards foreign people\u201d but that he had been an \u201cactive participant\u201d in the rioting which caused \u201cmuch criminal damage and destruction,\u201d.<\/p>\n

The court commented on how Garda Morrin \u201chad a very hard time\u201d after the \u201cmob picked on him\u201d causing him to \u201crun for his very life\u201d, and that Garda O\u2019Reilly \u201cwas grabbed by this man\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judge Nolan said that the accused had used a glass bottle to assault Garda Brennan during a \u201chuge amount of chaos\u201d, and that he \u201chad his own reasons for behaving the way he did. \u201d<\/p>\n

Noting the medial conditions highlighted by Mr. Lynn, the court said that \u201cnone of these problems stopped him\u201d on the night and that, \u201cfor some reason he got a burst of energy\u201d which he \u201cused to attack\u201d Garda\u00ed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judge Nolan set a headline sentence of six years, but, having regard to the mitigating factors of the early guilty plea, the \u201cvery slight\u201d record of the accused, his age and medical circumstance, passed a final sentence of two-and-a-half years from today. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf he was a healthier man, it would be much longer,\u201d the court said, adding, \u201che doesn\u2019t look like a rioter\u201d, and \u201che doesn\u2019t have the age profile\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A qualified plasterer, who put a female Garda in a headlock and assaulted two male Garda\u00ed, having been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15412,9,10,27,715,68560,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-217827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-assault","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-dublin-riots","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-featured-news","16":"tag-featurednews","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115670243399652678","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217827","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=217827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}