Fire outside River Lodge caused extensive damage to the overhead wires.

"We speculate this is the main electricity source for the buildings. Fire brigade hadn't arrived as of 10pm."

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Footage from earlier this evening in Newtown captured by Gript's Fatima Gunning who was subsequently pepper sprayed despite identifying herself as a journalist according to Gript editor John McGuirk.

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A compilation of footage taken today showing the lead-up to tonight's commotion in Newtownmountkennedy.

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The moment the riot squad arrived in at River Lodge in Newtownmountkennedy this evening.

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Holding the line.

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The moment Gript reporter Fatima Gunning got pepper sprayed for objecting to a protester being batoned on the ground.

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It's a new plantation. It has to be reversed now so future generations don't suffer the consequences.

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The security at River Lodge in Newtownmountkennedy today.

They used to bring down loyalists from security firms in the north to do the jobs Irish people didn't want to do, but they're no longer needed.

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Pat Kenny says public representatives in Wicklow told Newstalk that they were not available to publicly discuss the scenes in Newtownmountkennedy yesterday.

One councillor said he would be afraid to "rile up those in his area."

John Mooney, crime and security correspondent for the Sunday Times, said it was only a matter of time before protesters engaged in more serious types of violence.

"This isn't going away. This is evolving."

"So what we're probably seeing at the moment is the start of a much more significant problem that is going to manifest itself in the coming years."

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UPDATE #Newtownmountkennedy

Drone footage taken last couple of hrs:
- migrants NOT moved in to site yet, last night's blockade worked
- locals predict arrival of migrants IMMINENT as soon as site damage repaired
- sheer scale of site shocking, could hold 1000 migrants it seems. For reference: Newtownmountkennedy has a population of 3000. There is a GAA club next door, a young girls' team was training last night a stone's throw from the site

1000 unvetted migrant men would destroy community life there.

Eyewitness account of events in Newtown last night.

"It was like something out of a war movie. I'm traumatised."

"They made a charge with their batons, shields and their pepper spray, and I saw them spraying women who were trying to get out of their way and ran into the little canteen we had. They dragged them out of it and they pepper sprayed them and they were knocked to the ground and they walked all over them."

"I woke up crying in my sleep during the night. I just can't get over what has happened to our village. We were playing by the rules all of the time. Everything they asked we did, and we got stabbed in the back."

"None of this surprises me that it's being painted that the protesters were at fault. It's going to keep on happening that way because the mainstream media are just there to serve the public with what the government narrative is."

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lol

https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1cdpp78/has_this_sub_gotten_more_antiimmigrantforeigner/

Sounds like Newtownmountkennedy has a decent local election candidate in John Larkin.

Larkin told Newstalk today that the axe found at the site was there for cutting up wood for the fire barrel to keep protesters warm at night. He said a spark from the fire barrel had obviously caused the pallets to go up accidentally.

He believes the gardaí totally overreacted and that an appropriate reaction would have been a blue flu.

Asked what should be done with all the asylum seekers, he replied that Ireland sends a lot of aid to Africa so we should use that money to help construct safe zones for them back in Africa instead.

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