A 28-year-old man who set a garda car on fire, jumped on the bonnet of another and attacked an accommodation centre for International Protection applicants on the night of the Dublin riots last year has been jailed for six and a half years.
Declan Donaghey from William Street in Dublin who pleaded guilty to arson, criminal damage and riot later admitted to gardaí that he “made himself look like a scumbag”.
Judge Orla Crowe said she did not accept he acted in a moment of madness.
Donaghey shouted “scumbags” at gardaí as he was led away to jail this afternoon as the public order unit escorted his family and supporters from the court.
The 28-year-old threw a wheelie bin at one garda car on Parnell Street during the Dublin riots on 23 November 2023, jumped on the bonnet and smashed the windscreen of another before setting a third garda car on fire.
He picked up a burning box and put it into the back seat of the garda car before closing the door and jumping up and down.
He was not wearing gloves, so he ran back to the door handle and wiped it down to erase fingerprints.
The car was burned out. The value was estimated at over €20,000. The cost to repair the second garda car was over €8,000.
A short time later, Donaghey attacked accommodation for international protection applicants and threw a bicycle saddle at the building. Fifty people were inside “under siege” at the time.
He was identified, arrested, admitted what he had done and pleaded guilty to arson, criminal damage and violent disorder.
He told gardaí he was “very angry” that day because his partner’s cousin had an eight-year-old child in the school where the earlier attack had taken place.
He also wrote a letter to the court in which he apologised to “the Government, everyone” saying what he did was completely “out of character”.
He said he was only there to “support the victims” and “did it without thinking” but accepted it only made him “look like a scumbag”.
Judge Crowe said that Donaghey was “a participant in one of the gravest public order incidents in the history of the state”.
She described his actions as “shameless and senseless vandalism” and said any attack on gardaí was “an attack on all of society”.
Donaghey’s partner’s cousin’s child was in the school that had been attacked earlier that day, but the Judge said that many people had connections to the school but did not go out and disrupt the investigation or riot.
The judge also said that Donaghey’s motives for rioting “do not stand up” and described him as “an active, spirited participant”.
She did not accept his claims that he acted in a moment of madness and pointed out that he had been on the streets for two hours and committed his crimes over a 14-minute period.
She took into account admissions, his early plea of guilty, the fact that he was working on his rehabilitation and that he has never been in prison before.
She sentenced him to seven-and-a-half years for arson and concurrent sentences of four-and-a-half years for rioting and three years for criminal damage, with the final year suspended.
Afterwards his family and supporters became upset in the court and gardaí had to escort them out as Donaghey shouted “scumbags” before being led away.
