21/09/2023
DUBLIN TERROR ATTACK
By Suzie D
"Mayhem broke out outside the Terminal....the man, who is a non-national, began attempting to allegedly stab people all around him. He unfortunately got one older man and kept allegedly stabbing him. It was so very strange and those travelling and us working inside were very frightened. There were airport police everywhere. They closed down the road out of Terminal One while the incident was taking place." The words of an airport staff member. This was a terror attack.
It has not been reported if the perpetrator had just arrived or not. They're too busy trying to downplay what occurred instead. Maybe he was a guest from one of the many human trafficking centres in Santry or Ballymun? (and if he was he will probably be referred to as a local man). What we have been told is that Gardaí and emergency services attended attended a "public order incident" outside terminal 1 at Dublin Airport, Co Dublin. They acknowledge one victim is being treated for "non life threatening injuries." Sounds like a lot of minimising going on, and no doubt the mental health card will be pulled, in what will be a predictable sequence of events. Almost as predictable as the attack itself.
An attack that will not be a one off.
As I've described many times before, I am very cognisant of being conscious of exits, and also emergency stop handles on public transport. Recently I was aboard a train when an incident on the tracks occurred. The train was held up for several hours as helicopters and emergency personnel descended on the scene (after some time).
During this trip I had a conversation with a well know Irish face. "Its being treated a a crime scene " he said to me. "Yes, I said. I know". "Its just a precaution" he said, lowering his voice, "but you never know , it could be one of those fellas who kill themselves in the name of Islam." "Well, its a matter of time before a terror attack occurs in a public place" I replied. Little did I realise that time would come so soon after.
Who knows if it was in the name of religion. Or if there was another motive, but to me a terror attack is not necessarily one where someone needs to have been a religious extremist, or one acting as part of a group. The very definition of terror is someone taking out a deadly weapon in a public place and randomly attacking innocent civilians.
When I was on that train that day I realised that I was locked in. Even if I could get out, it was several feet down to where the tracks met a rocky steep slope. Isolated fields surrounded us. I have felt assured in the past that I would know how to react in a situation like the one at the airport. I would act fast and I would know how to escape. I would know how to get my child out, or anyone else's. Now I'm not so sure. Where would we go? Who would be there to help? How would anyone old, very young or disabled get away?
One of the reasons the airport attack did not result in more people being injured, or indeed in people being killed was because it was an environment with high security (although this also a reason to expect it should not have happened there at all). Airport police decended within seconds.
This gives the incident an air of being less serious than it was.
What happens when this kind of attack occurs in an area where there are not several police to take down the offender? I dread to think, but I've a feeling we will find out soon.
The culmination of today's attack was not the end of something. Its only the beginning. Society will be irrevocably changed.
Meanwhile, we have a Judge directing Gardaí to make it their priority to pursue and arrest an ever growing number of people who are evading turning up in court for not paying their TV licence. Essentially the Judge wants the Gardaí to act like mercenaries for RTE. Perhaps a better use of our Gardaí's time would be to identify potential threats within our country.
Or better still stop those threats from entering in the first instance.
