MINISTER FOR JUSTICE Jim O’Callaghan has commended the gardaí who responded to what he called “an awful, random attack” in the Stoneybatter area of Dublin yesterday. 

Speaking to RTÉ Radio this morning, O’Callaghan said: “This could have been a lot worse, and I want to commend the gardaí, particularly the guard who arrived there first and apprehended and disarmed the individual concerned.”

He said that if gardaí had not responded as quickly as they did, “I fear we could have been talking about something much worse this morning, rather than the three serious injuries that took place”. 

Yesterday afternoon, a man attacked people with a blade in Stoneybatter, leaving three men in hospital. Two of them are being treated for serious but not life-threatening injuries, while one was admitted with less serious injuries.

A man in his 20s has been arrested and detained at a Garda station under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.

O’Callaghan said the assailant, who it’s understood was homeless and originally from South America, had no history of violent attacks that gardaí were aware of and that the three men were attacked at random. 

“What appeared to happen is the individual went along the streets,” he said.

“The three men who were attacked were just unfortunately in a position where the person was passing by at the time, and it was horrific for them.”

The Minister also said he knows one of the victims. 

“In fact, one of the individuals who was attacked is a brother of a friend of mine. I was in contact with the friend last night, his brother was coming out of the house, and the man came up behind him and slashed him in the back of the neck,” he said, adding that he understands he was the man hospitalised with less serious injuries. 

O’Callaghan was asked if he agreed with Social Democrats local TD Gary Gannon’s statement that “far-right agitators” had spread false information about the attacker online.

O’Callaghan said he doesn’t pay much attention to what’s said online, but that rumours the attacker was an asylum seeker were not true. 

“I don’t spend a huge amount of time looking at what’s online, because there’s so much inaccurate information there,” he said.

“But certainly the information that’s been brought to my attention is that this isn’t a person who was seeking international protection or being granted international protection.”