Balaclavas to be banned in Ireland amid anti-immigration protests

Ireland to ban ‘intimidating’ protesters from wearing balaclava after clashes with police at anti-immigration demonstrations.

The government has received legal advice that banning face coverings is possible where there is a clear intention to intimidate or prevent the police from identifying someone who is committing a crime.

“The minister intends to introduce a ban on the wearing of masks at protests in circumstances where the wearing of a mask is intended to intimidate,” a spokesman for Helen McEntee, the justice minister, told the Irish Independent.

Balaclavas are particularly threatening in Ireland because of their use by paramilitary groups during the Troubles. Drew Harris, the Garda Commissioner, recently said their behavior had “potentially sinister overtures in Ireland” in an internal memo.

The new legislation will allow face masks to be worn for medical reasons or if it is cold in a country which, like Britain, has recently seen far-right marches and riots against migrants.

British police were given the power to arrest masked protesters earlier this year, before riots broke out after three children were killed at a summer camp in Southport.

People in the UK found guilty of wearing a mask with intent to intimidate face a £1,000 fine or a month in prison.

Protests across Ireland

Last November, businesses were looted and trams set on fire in Dublin city center after children were attacked outside a city center nursery.

Last month, hooded protesters threw projectiles at Irish police at the proposed site of an asylum center in Coolock, Dublin. It came after masked protesters in June gathered outside Taoiseach Simon Harris’ family home to protest his government’s immigration policies. Mr. Harris refused to move to an official state residence where he could be better protected, citing concerns about uprooting his family.

Irish far-right groups traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, before riots broke out there on Saturday. Some of those who traveled to the rally outside Belfast City Hall, which was organized online, were part of the Coolock Says No protest. Four people have been arrested and three police officers injured in clashes at the rally following the Southport stabbings.