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Dublin comic shop reacts to protect customers during riot

By James Bacon on November 24, 2023

James Bacon was in Dublin yesterday and reports on the awful events in the city centre…

I had a cracking afternoon visiting the city centre comic shops, Sub City, Dublin City Comics and chatting with comic fan pals over tea, coffee and a pint at Wigwam in Abbey Street.

Unfortunately, as widely reported, this terrible attack was the catalyst for a racist protest described by the head of An Garda Síochána (the Irish police force) Drew Harris during a press conference as “a complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology”, which turned ugly.

We went on to Forbidden Planet on the Quays, oblivious to an appalling knife attack against school children and their carer outside Gael Scoil Colaiste Mhuire on Parnell Square, half a mile from the store, that very afternoon.

Inside Forbidden Planet, as matters became clear to the management and staff that the situation was escalating, prompt action was taken.

First, most customers like ourselves were totally unaware of what was going on outside, and were calmly warned of the situation, informed of where to avoid and the threat to safety shared.

Kevin the manager and his team at Forbidden Planet Dublin were kind and considerate, and impressively went straight to a thoughtful and caring stance, calmly ensuring awareness and encouraging comic buyers to get home safely. There were offers of walking folks home if required. That’s phenomenal, in what are exceptionally unusual circumstances and difficulties.

This prompt, preventative and proactive action was wise, as a very short time later, matters escalated to unprecedented levels of violence and destruction as the situation deteriorated and buses, a tram and police cars were set on fire in what has been the worst rioting to be seen in Dublin, in my lifetime, at least.

As our thoughts go to those poor unfortunate children and carer who were attacked, a sense of gratitude with the feeling of real community thoughtfulness comes from the actions of Kevin and staff at Forbidden Planet Dublin.

James Bacon

James Bacon (he/him) is an Irish fan, a train driver living in London. A Hugo Award-winning editor of the fanzine “Journey Planet”, he is a comic fan and enjoys comic art, war Comics, Star Wars, Irish aspects to comics and railways in comics or otherwise. He has been writing about comics for over thirty years.