{"id":561703,"date":"2026-06-30T14:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/561703\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:31:14","slug":"three-people-victim-of-vile-and-unprovoked-assault-at-parkrun-in-dublin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/561703\/","title":{"rendered":"Three people victim of \u2018vile and unprovoked assault\u2019 at Parkrun in Dublin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poppintree Parkrun and Sanctuary Runners have expressed their shock and disgust at the incident last Saturday morning<\/p>\n

13:25, 30 Jun 2026Updated 13:30, 30 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

\"Poppintree<\/p>\n

Poppintree Parkrun takes place every Saturday morning (Image: Poppintree Parkrun )<\/p>\n

Three people were the victim of an alleged \u2018vile and unprovoked assault\u2019 at a Parkrun event in Dublin last Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

The incident happened at the Poppintree Parkrun near Ballymun<\/a> \u2014 a hugely popular 5km timed run that takes place every weekend and in hundreds of parks all over the country.<\/p>\n

The victims are believed to have only recently arrived in Ireland and were taking part in \u2018Sanctuary Runners\u2019 \u2014 an initiative that brings people and communities together through physical activity and solidarity.<\/p>\n

Footage of the disturbing incident has been posted on various social media sites and shows one of the male victims punched in the face when confronted by another man.<\/p>\n

A statement from Sanctuary Runners Ireland said: \u201cWe are aware of the deeply troubling incident which took place in Poppintree Park on Saturday morning following the Parkrun event there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree people who took part with Sanctuary Runners were the victims of a vile and unprovoked assault. The incident has been reported to the Gardai in Dublin.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts go out to the victims who simply went to the park for to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanctuary Runners have been welcomed by the community in Poppintree for the last seven years and have felt only support and solidarity from the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The members of Poppintree Parkrun expressed their disgust at the alleged attack with a post on their Facebook page saying: \u201cPoppintree Parkrun is proud to be an inclusive event in our community, and over the last several years, the Sanctuary Runners have become an integral part of of our community.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach week a large number of Sanctuary Runners participate by running, walking, jogging and volunteering at our event.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoppintree Parkrun is aware of and is disgusted by an incident which took place in Poppintree Park on Saturday following our parkrun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree people who took part with Sanctuary Runners were the victims of an unprovoked attack. The incident has been reported to the Gardai.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not be commenting any further as this is now a Garda matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Garda statement said: “Garda\u00ed responded to reports of an alleged assault in Poppintree Park, Ballymun, Dublin 11 on Saturday 27th June 2026. Investigations are ongoing.”<\/p>\n

A number of other Parkruns have posted messages of shock at the incident and given their support to the victims and Sanctuary Runners.<\/p>\n

The Dodder Valley Parkrun in South Dublin said: \u201cAs the volunteers of Dodder Valley parkrun, we were shocked and deeply saddened to hear about the assault at Poppintree parkrun last Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand in solidarity with those who were attacked. Having only recently arrived in Ireland, they came to a community built on inclusivity, diversity, and openness\u2014values that are at the heart of parkrun and that we proudly uphold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in an Ireland where everyone feels welcome, safe, and respected, regardless of where they come from. There is no place for hatred or violence in our communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s stand together to protect the values that make Dublin and Ireland strong: kindness, openness, and support for one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Poppintree Parkrun and Sanctuary Runners have expressed their shock and disgust at the incident last Saturday morning 13:25,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,124316,9,10,52,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,239933,7,8],"class_list":["post-561703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-ballymun","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-parkrun","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116839546858862839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561703","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=561703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}