The police had reclaimed O’Connell Bridge and were preparing a baton charge on the south side of the River Liffey, but the rioters and bystanders on Westmoreland Street did not want to lose their view of the fires.
A masked youth had just ignited a bin, which had erupted with a great whoosh. On the far side of the bridge, a doubledecker bus and car blazed at the foot of the statue of Daniel O’Connell.
The police hammered their batons on their shields, a prelude to another charge, and still the crowd lingered, almost hypnotised by the spectacle of flames in the heart of Ireland’s capital.
“It’s sad it’s come to this,” said one spectator in his 20s, not a rioter. “But the situation has got out of control.”
He was referring
