News server Independent.ie has reported that in the Irish town of Waterford in the southeastern part of the island an anti-Romani demonstration took place last Saturday involving roughly 200 participants. Demonstrators attacked a building in which three Romani families live.
The mob broke through the building’s front door and smashed out all of the ground-floor windows. After gathering for an assembly convened through the Facebook social networking site by the nationalist ultra-right party Britain First at 5 PM, the action deteriorated into the attempted lynching and extralegal punishing of 30 people from the local Romani community who have allegedly committed crimes in the area.
State police ultimately arranged for the transfer of the families under attack, including several infants and senior citizens, to safety. According to their local legal representative, Gareth Noble, tensions have been increasing since an anti-Romani Facebook page was created about them.
"Given how many children were present, what happened was a tragedy," Noble told news server Independent.ie. Marek Kurucz, a local Romani man who moved to Waterford from Slovakia, has posted a brief amateur video from the scene of the attack online to social networking sites.
"About a year ago, Romanians came to our town and began preying on people," Kurucz alleges in his video, "and this is the result. They smashed in their windows, surrounded them inside the house and now the police are protecting them so nothing, God forbid, will happen to them. I don’t believe this is the way to do this."
The author also posted a written commentary online beneath his video. "I don’t believe fascist marches and attacks on their buildings will resolve all of this!" it reads.
