Probe after graffiti sprayed on Department of Foreign Affairs building
Gardaí are investigating after graffiti was sprayed on the front of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin.
Red paint was splattered on the facade of the building, along with messages against facilitating the US military to use Shannon Airport in the south-west of Ireland and a pro-Palestinian solidarity slogan.
The writing included: 'US military out of Shannon' and 'search the planes'.
A spokesman for the Department said it was aware of a 'security incident' outside the Iveagh House building early on Friday morning.
He said gardáí are 'actively following up on the matter'.
A spokesman for the gardaí confirmed an investigation had been launched.
'The alarm was raised shortly after 4am following paint damage to the building's front facade.
'The scene has undergone forensic examination, and inquiries are ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Pearse Street Garda Station at 01 666 9000 or the Garda Confidential Line at 1800 666 111.'
The Department of Foreign Affairs on St Stephens Green being cleaned after red paint was thrown at the building . Picture: SAM BOAL/Collins Photos
US flights stopping off at Shannon Airport to refuel have long been an issue of contention in Ireland, as politicians and activists raise concerns that it makes Ireland complicit in US military actions.
Protests have been held at the airport over the Iraq War, Western intervention in Syria, and more recently over US support for Israel during its military operation in Gaza.
In recent months, there have been reports that flights carrying munitions to weapons manufacturers and contractors in Israel have travelled through Irish airspace.
Permission is needed from the Transport Minister to carry munitions over Ireland.
Earlier this year, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said landing facilities have been made available to the US and other foreign militaries for decades.
He said: 'Arrangements for foreign military aircraft to land in Irish airports are governed by strict conditions, including stipulations that the aircraft is unarmed; that it carries no arms, ammunition or explosives; that it does not engage in intelligence gathering; and that the flight in question does not form part of a military exercise or operation.'
Mr Martin, who made the comments while he was deputy premier and minister for foreign affairs, added: 'Ireland's traditional policy of military neutrality is fully consistent with foreign military and state aircrafts being allowed to enter Irish sovereign territory under certain circumstances. '
Ireland is also examining a report that a flight carrying deportees from the US to Africa stopped at Shannon Airport.
Read More
At least 40 killed by Israeli strikes in northern Gaza Strip, officials say
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
35 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
US strikes three Iranian nuclear sites
President Donald Trump said that the United States military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel's effort to decapitate the country's nuclear programme in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran's threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, quoting a provincial official, confirmed attacks on Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. The decision to directly involve the US in the war comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country's air defences and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. US and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and the 30,000-pound (13,500-kg) bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear programme buried deep underground. 'We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,' Mr Trump said in a post on social media. 'All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.' Mr Trump added in a later post that he would address the national audience at 10pm eastern time, writing: 'This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!' Trump said B-2 stealth bombers were used but did not specify which types of bombs were dropped. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation. The strikes are a perilous decision for the US as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault, and for Mr Trump personally, having won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism. Trump told reporters on Friday that he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran, saying it's 'the last thing you want to do.' He had previously indicated that he would make a final choice over the course of two weeks, a timeline that seemed drawn out as the situation was evolving quickly. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the United States on Wednesday that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will 'result in irreparable damage for them'. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared 'any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region'. Trump has vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and he had initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country's leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully. Israel 's military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran's foreign minister warned before the U.S. attack that American military involvement 'would be very, very dangerous for everyone.' The prospect of a wider war threatened, too. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would resume attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joins Israel's military campaign. The Houthis paused such attacks in May under a deal with the US. The US ambassador to Israel announced the US had begun 'assisted departure flights,' the first from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Thursday's press briefing that Trump had said: 'I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.' Instead, the U.S. president struck just two days later. Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel's operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran's nuclear program, perhaps permanently. The Israelis say their offensive has already crippled Iran's air defences, allowing them to already significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites. But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel appealed to Trump for US bunker-busting bomb, which uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The penetrator is currently only delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is only found in the American arsenal. The bomb carries a conventional warhead, and is believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast. The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility. Previous Israeli strikes at another Iranian nuclear site, Natanz, on a centrifuge site have caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area, the IAEA has said. Mr Trump's decision for direct US military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear programme. For months, Mr Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time. The US in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and US bases from Iranian attacks. All the while, Mr Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a 'second chance' for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Mr Khamenei and making calls for Tehran's unconditional surrender. 'We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding,' Mr Trump said in a social media posting. 'He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.' The military showdown with Iran comes seven years after Mr Trump withdrew the US from the Obama-administration brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the 'worst deal ever'. The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, US and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Mr Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran's non-nuclear malign behaviour. Mr Trump has bristled at criticism from some of his Maga faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further US involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end US involvement in expensive and endless wars.
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
Number of Irish J1 students travelling to US drops by 25pc as social media vetting kicks in
Undocumented Irish being quietly detained and deported after attending routine check-ins There has been a 25pc drop in young people travelling from Ireland to the US on student visas, US authorities recorded last month. Preliminary data from the tourism office within the US Department of Commerce shows Denmark saw an even steeper decline in May compared to the same month last year, with a 32pc drop in student visa arrivals.
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
‘Unconditional bail never felt so good': Barry Egan watches Kneecap celebrate freedom with hip-hop hymns for the Dublin faithful
There is only one band in the world with titles like that. And yet, on a long hot summer night, the atmosphere at Kneecap's sold-out show in Fairview Park on Thursday was as friendly and inclusive as any Westlife concert. There were kids with their shirts off playing basketball on the court outside the venue, as if they were in Brooklyn. Inside, fans were eating hipster burgers and chips or drinking pints of beer in the sunshine. But there were plenty of political statements around too. Many fans wore tricolour balaclavas and Ireland football jerseys or had Palestinian flags draped over their shoulders. One young man had a flag with the slogan 'From the river to the sea' on it. Another had a T-shirt with 'England get out of Ireland'. People were taking selfies beside a vehicle mocked up as a PSNI armoured Land Rover. On the wall beside it was the wording: 'More Blacks. More Dogs. More Irish. Mo Chara.' The most popular T-shirt of the night had the words 'Free Mo Chara' on it. At 8.50pm, the man the T-shirts were referring to bounded on stage to deafening applause and said: 'I'm a free man.' The 8,000-plus fans at the sold-out show were bouncing about inside the giant tent so vigorously that you could probably feel the vibrations all the way to Westminster Magistrates' Court, where last Wednesday the 27-year-old rapper (real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) was granted unconditional bail after being charged with a terrorist charge. He is accused of displaying a flag in support of proscribed organisation Hezbollah at a London gig last November. 'Unconditional bail never felt so good. I'm going to make the best of it,' he said. The crowd cheered and waved their Palestinian flags He was true to his word as he raced around the stage like a nationalist Mick Jagger in a shiny tracksuit. He was flanked by fellow rapper Móglaí Bap, with DJ Próvaí in his Tricolour balaclava behind them at the DJ console supplying the beats and some raps himself. Before they took to the stage there was a video screen with messages about Israeli genocide in Gaza, the 60,000 Gazans killed and the Irish Government allowing the US military to use Irish airports. ADVERTISEMENT The crowd cheered and waved their Palestinian flags and the show began with It's Been Ages — and Móglaí Bap showing off his bilingual lyrical dexterity: 'Oh it's been ages/since we made the front pages/Sin deireadh linn ár hiatus/Back to annoy c**ts that hate us.' The feel-good hip-hop had everyone under the big tent dancing like they were having the time of their lives. The feeling was reciprocated by the energetic three men in tracksuits and runners on stage. Next up was Fenian C**ts. Once you get past the title, it's a hip-hop hymn to the beauty of Protestants and Catholics in the North... ahem, getting it on. It had 8,000 people dancing and singing along to the tale of a latter-day Romeo and Juliet in Belfast, with an unhappy ending. Móglaí Bap raps about hooking up with a young woman who's as beautiful, he says, as the mythical Niamh Cinn Óir, the golden-haired lover of Oisín, son of Fionn MacCumhail. It might sound overblown, but it's fun. As pop critic Miranda Sawyer wrote last year: 'Like Eminem, Kneecap's humour is the key to their success.' Another song, the club-friendly banger Parful, is about young Catholics and Protestants dancing with each other in the North's clubs on a Saturday night. As Mo Chara rapped in Fairview: 'These young people have lived their entire lives in a society poisoned by sectarian hatred/Rave brings Protestants and Catholics together…' On Rhino Ket, they sing about the effects of coming home after a night on the tiles in their beloved Belfast, taking the drugs of the song title. 'Can't sit, can't think, can barely even walk,' raps Mo Chara. 'Dunno how the f**k we'll make it back to the Falls,' answers Móglaí Bap. We don't discriminate in who we piss off On another song about the joys of drugs, Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite, Mo Chara raps: 'I swear I haven't got any gear Mr Garda.' I was curious about the reaction to that one from any members of An Garda Síochána present at the concert. I spent a memorable few hours with the group at a hotel in Newry in 2021. On that occasion, they arrived late because their car broke down on the way from Belfast. When they walked in, a little sheepishly, Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap from West Belfast and DJ Próvaí from Creggan in Derry ordered flat whites, cappuccinos, herbal teas. Their only rock'n'roll behaviour was when DJ Próvaí, who wears a tricolour balaclava when he performs onstage, reached into his trousers, took his trademark headgear out of his underpants and threw it to me. (I still have it.) The Guardian recently described Kneecap as being post-Good Friday Agreement bad boys, taking out every old authority figure without fear. They quoted them saying: 'We don't discriminate in who we piss off.' And on Thursday night in Fairview, it would appear so. The Recap, their new single, is released tomorrow (though a bootleg version has been doing the rounds on SoundCloud for a while now) and it was one of the standout songs of the night. The track was inspired by UK Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch. Lest we forget, Kneecap won a court case last November against Badenoch after she had blocked an arts grant being awarded to the band, citing their politics as being anti-British. For two hours on Thursday, Kneecap were a blur of energy as they dared and prodded the audience to keep up with their exuberance — it's powerful, innovative, exciting and fun music. They sliced and diced their lyrics between English and Irish in their songs and the crowd lapped up every word. In short, it was a great show, all 17 songs of it. Yes, they're gobby, and yes, they're controversial. And yes, you probably won't like all — or any — of their songs, which are deliberately provocative. But as they say themselves, they are simply holding up a mirror to society. I think there is a huge sense of pride in Ireland for what Kneecap stand for The biggest cheer of the night came after they shuffled off and then returned to encore with Get Your Brits Out and Hood. The latter is about... well, as Mo Chara raps 'Low-life scum — that's what they say about me', while the former is about a made-up drug-fuelled night on the town with the grandees of the Democratic Unionist Party. They rap, with 8,000 people joining in: 'Arlene's throwing shapes/half a yoke nearly killed her/Jeffrey Donaldson's lost all his filters.' After the show, I spoke to Kneecap's manager, Daniel Lambert, who is also chief operating officer of Bohemians Football Club. 'It was a phenomenal night,' he said. 'The atmosphere was unbelievable. I have never felt noise like it coming off a stage. I think there is a huge sense of pride in Ireland for what Kneecap stand for — and that they are going around the world and bringing such a positive portrayal of Ireland. 'Kneecap deliver such positive messages. I think that they're a really important act at the moment — and we should also remember what Fontaines DC are doing, what the Mary Wallopers are doing, what Lankum are doing, what CMAT is doing, what Gurriers are doing, what Murder Capital are doing. 'What they're all doing around the world is great — going out there and bringing amazing music to people, but also a message of solidarity and empathy with Palestine, which is so important right now. 'I think Kneecap can forever hold their heads up high and know they've done — and are doing — something really special. I am really proud of them.'
