# Police arrest six after violent Dublin protest outside migrant hotel
Event date: 2025-10-21. Six people were arrested after a protest outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers in Dublin turned violent, with Irish police attacked by missiles, fireworks, bricks and glass bottles.
The confrontation took place outside the Citywest Hotel in Saggart, where riot police formed a line to keep protesters away from the property. According to the evidence packet, the crowd attempted to breach the police cordon and some people brought garden forks and tools. Officers also reported damage to walls being used to gather missiles. A police vehicle was set on fire during the unrest.
The scale of the policing operation shows how seriously authorities treated the incident. About 300 officers were on duty, roughly half of them from the public order unit, and police deployed a water cannon, mounted officers and a dog unit. The packet says broadcaster RTÉ reported that several thousand people gathered near the hotel, indicating the protest was large even before it escalated into violence.
Political leaders moved quickly to condemn the disorder. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there could be no justification for attacks on police, while Tánaiste Simon Harris said there was no excuse for the violence. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said the scenes were unacceptable and would bring a forceful response. The violence also cut across the final Irish presidential debate, where candidates Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly both described the events as deeply troubling.
Police said the crowd’s tactics included charging the line with horse-drawn sulkies, shining lasers at a helicopter and trying to force their way toward the hotel. One female officer needed medical attention for a foot injury. Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly condemned the unrest as “thuggery” and said the crowd had been intent on violence against officers.
The packet also says investigators believe the disorder was pre-planned and that detectives had already begun gathering CCTV and bodycam footage for future identification of those involved. That suggests authorities are treating the event not as a spontaneous flare-up but as organised disorder with potential follow-up arrests.
What happened in Saggart was not just a protest but an attack on public order. The immediate facts are straightforward: a hotel housing asylum seekers became the flashpoint, police were attacked and a vehicle was set alight. The broader political dispute over immigration is real, but it sits outside what the evidence can verify here.
Claim-to-source map
The arrests, violence, hotel location, police deployment, statements from Irish leaders and the commissioner’s response are supported by BBC source 7926.
