{"id":493149,"date":"2026-05-19T22:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/493149\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T22:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:49:15","slug":"congolese-community-mourns-and-calls-for-justice-at-vigil-after-henry-street-death-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/493149\/","title":{"rendered":"Congolese community mourns and calls for justice at vigil after Henry Street death \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intense sadness and anger were the dominant emotions at a vigil on Tuesday in memory of Yves Sakila<\/a> (35) who died after being restrained by security guards in Dublin<\/a> city centre on Friday afternoon. <\/p>\n

The Congolese<\/a> man, who had lived in Ireland since 2004, had been homeless for several years. <\/p>\n

He had been in prison a number of times and last lived in a Salvation Army hostel in Dublin 1.<\/p>\n

Staff at the charity\u2019s Granby Centre, where he lived for two years, spoke to him on Friday morning before he left. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the last time they saw him,\u201d said a spokesman. <\/p>\n

Staff described him as a \u201cpleasant and quiet\u201d resident who had a \u201cdeep interest in technology and sometimes attended prayer services\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sakila was allegedly involved in a shoplifting incident on Henry Street<\/a> before attempting to flee around 5pm on Friday. <\/p>\n

He was held on the ground outside Arnotts department store by a number of men, in an incident that was filmed and shared on messaging apps over the weekend. <\/p>\n

\"FlowersFlowers left at the vigil. Photograph: Brian Lawless\/PA Wire<\/p>\n

Described as \u201cvery upsetting\u201d and \u201cawful\u201d by members of the Congolese community, the almost four-minute video which starts as the incident is already ongoing, shows Sakila moaning in distress as his face is pushed into the pavement. At one point a security guard appears to kneel on his head or neck.<\/p>\n

More than 100 people, including many members of the wider community, gathered from noon on Tuesday with flowers and cards at the site. <\/p>\n

Arnotts closed its Henry Street entrance for the duration as numerous garda\u00ed looked on, with more on adjoining streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need justice for our brother,\u201d said Chris Kibidi, a facilities operative with MetroLink, who last saw his friend a few years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a nice guy. There is much to say but I am speechless right now. I am shocked. I am shaking. Maybe he shoplifted but whatever he did …we need justice for him. We are not here to break anything. We are here for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople take part in the vigil on Henry Street. Photograph: Stephen Collins\/Collins <\/p>\n

Several people laid flowers \u2013 single red roses, white lilies and carnations \u2013 at the foot of a lamp-post near the ground where Sakila was held. <\/p>\n

Antoinette Lukeba, an older woman who knew Sakila from the Zion Church he sometimes worshipped at in Clondalkin, knelt prostrate at the flowers and wept as she prayed in the Central African Lingala language. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy? Why? Why?\u201d she wailed, gesticulating and crying. She said afterwards she had been \u201cpraying as a mother, praying for mothers\u201d. She led members of the African community in singing a Christian lament. <\/p>\n

Lizette, who came to Ireland from Congo when she was 13, did \u201cnot feel safe to give\u201d her surname. \u201cSomething like this happening, [we are] just questioning for all of us if we are safe in this country. <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand he was probably shoplifting. I don\u2019t understand exactly what happened, but the video evidence is enough. It is atrocious, it is awful to see what happened. I would like see people held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgette, who did not give her surname, came to Ireland in 1998 and works for An Post. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have racism every day, everywhere we go \u2013 shops, the streets, but we keep quiet. We don\u2019t want any trouble. We just leave it. I have two adult children born here, I worry for our children, especially for our boys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were feeling this is our country where we can live but we are not safe any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boma Biansolo was at the vigil with her eight-year-old son. \u201cI came here because … my brother [died] here on Friday and no one tried to help him or save him … Of course I am scared for my son because that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other nationalities attended including Thais Mumiz, a black woman from Brazil. She was there \u201cas a person who cares\u201d about social justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing here is just the least I can do. People who look like me are higher targets to this kind of violence, so I am here to protest and pay my condolences to this brother who died.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"ArnottsArnotts on Henry Street closed its doors before the vigil. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni<\/p>\n

An older, Irish woman said she \u201ccouldn\u2019t stay in bed after what had happened … I look out the window and what I have seen over the years being done to young, black Dublin children and teenagers is so painful … Racism is a big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nessan Vaughan, a retired public servant, said he was there \u201cto show white Irish people are disgusted too by what happened\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday evening, Arnotts said it was deeply saddened by Sakila\u2019s death following a \u201cserious incident that occurred outside our Henry Street\u201d last Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo loss of life should ever be the outcome of a retail security incident. We recognise the deep hurt and concern this tragedy has caused within Dublin\u2019s Congolese community and among the wider public, and we take those concerns with the utmost seriousness,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The company said it was \u201dactively cooperating” with the Garda investigation into Sakila\u2019s death and \u201cconducting a full review with the independently contracted security firm\u201d that provides in-store security services for Arnotts.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin on Tuesday described the circumstances of Sakila\u2019s death as \u201can issue of the deepest concern\u201d which needs to be \u201cthoroughly and fully investigated\u201d. <\/p>\n

He was responding in the D\u00e1il to Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who said footage of the moments leading up to his death was \u201cvery distressing and disturbing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Martin said \u201ceverybody is deeply saddened that the person has lost his life\u201d and that the manner it occurred in \u201chas caused huge concern across society\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Irish Times understands the postmortem on the dead man\u2019s remains has proven inconclusive relating to a cause of death. Garda\u00ed are awaiting the results of toxicology tests, which may offer further information.<\/p>\n

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) described the level of force used by security guards to restrain Sakila as \u201cdisproportionate and excessive\u201d<\/p>\n

Sakila had previously come to the Garda\u2019s attention. He was most recently convicted of shoplifting at Dublin District Court and fined \u20ac110 in January for stealing perfume valued at \u20ac106 from Arnott\u2019s Henry Street.<\/p>\n

In 2018, he was sentenced to a period of just over one year after being convicted of robbery. He spent further time in custody since completing that sentence, including three months last year for theft offences. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Salvation Army said the charity was \u201cshocked and saddened\u201d by Sakila\u2019s death. <\/p>\n

\u201cMr Sakila had been living at The Granby Centre \u2013 one of five homeless hubs operated by the church and charity in Dublin \u2013 since 2024,\u201c he said. \u201cWe would like to express our deepest condolences to Yves\u2019s family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Intense sadness and anger were the dominant emotions at a vigil on Tuesday in memory of Yves Sakila…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[199342,9,10,36812,52,18,13,14,6,35305,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-493149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-arnotts","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-henry-street","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116603688132558883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493149","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=493149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}