{"id":511154,"date":"2026-05-31T03:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T03:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/511154\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T03:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T03:11:13","slug":"let-us-be-no-more-silent-protesters-keep-up-pressure-over-death-of-yves-sakila-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/511154\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Let us be no more silent\u2019: Protesters keep up pressure over death of Yves Sakila \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 100 people attended a protest in Dublin city centre on Saturday to continue the campaign for \u201canswers, accountability and justice\u201d after the death of Yves Sakila<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Congolese<\/a> man (35), who had lived in Ireland since 2004, had allegedly shoplifted from Arnotts<\/a> on May 15th.<\/p>\n

He was followed from the store by security personnel to Henry Street<\/a>. He knocked an elderly man to the ground as he fled, leaving the man injured.<\/p>\n

When garda\u00ed arrived on the scene, Sakila had been held on the ground by a group of security guards for a period. Garda\u00ed handcuffed Sakila in an apparent bid to get control of the situation and attend to the injured pensioner.<\/p>\n

However, almost immediately after the handcuffs were applied, garda\u00ed realised Sakila was unwell, removed the handcuffs and began performing CPR. He was then taken to the city\u2019s Mater hospital where he was pronounced dead. <\/p>\n

\"CampaignersCampaigners want an independent investigation into the death of Yves Sakila <\/p>\n

A campaign group called Justice for Yves, which says it was set up at the direction of Sakila\u2019s family, organised the protest on Saturday. Protesters walked from the Garden of Remembrance to Henry Street, where speeches took place. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a peaceful protest to show our collective horror at the loss of Yves\u2019s life. We are coming together to reaffirm our solidarity with the family of Yves Sakila and the broader Congolese and African communities in Ireland,\u201d the group said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The demonstration followed other events, including a protest at Government buildings and a vigil<\/a> in the days after the death. <\/p>\n

\u201cYves Sakila should be alive today,\u201d said Mambokadzi Emelia Collier, of Nations of Mother Earth, a group dedicated to helping marginalised communities of African descent. <\/p>\n

\u201cI say this with love because I have lived here more than 15 years,\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cI have planted seeds here. This is also my home.<\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters walk towards Arnotts on Henry Street, Dublin, on Saturday. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

\u201cIreland knows what it is to have a language suppressed, land taken, your people scattered across the earth. You know famine and the coffin ships. So of all people you should understand that we should not let Yves Sakila become a statistic or a name on a long list.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not tell us this was an isolated incident. We have been hearing that for 500 years. Every time they kill one of us, every time a black man dies at a shop on the streets, they do not silence us. They mobilise us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protesters held placards saying: \u201cJustice for Yves, justice for all.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bissa Kembetia, who attended the protest on Saturday, told The Irish Times: \u201cWe are human beings. Justice must be done. Then we will stop. If there is no justice, we will not stop. I came to this country more than 20 years ago. I don\u2019t want to say Irish people are racist, that\u2019s not true, but few of them are.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a speech to the crowd, he said: \u201cWe are not taking your houses. We are paying our rent. We are not jobless. We are paying our taxes. Let us no more be silent. Let us stand up and demand justice.\u201d <\/p>\n

People laid flowers at the foot of a lamp-post near the area of paving where Sakila had been held. Floral tributes left over the past two weeks remained there. <\/p>\n

In a letter addressed to Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan last week, special rapporteur on racism and equality Ebun Joseph called for an \u201curgent\u201d independent investigation<\/a> into the death of Sakila. <\/p>\n

An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a> is carrying out an investigation. Sakila\u2019s death has also been referred by Garda Headquarters to Fiosr\u00fa, the Office of the Police Ombudsman.<\/p>\n

Fiosr\u00fa<\/a> investigates any incident where a person is seriously injured or dies at or about the time they have had contact or dealings with garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100 people attended a protest in Dublin city centre on Saturday to continue the campaign for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,199342,9,10,52,18,13,14,5650,6,35305,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-511154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-arnotts","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fiosru","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\/116667003385844623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511154","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=511154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}