Man (20) who set Luas on fire during the Dublin riots is jailed

Sonya McLean

A young man who started a fire on a Luas during the Dublin riots, causing nearly €5 million worth of damage, has been jailed for three years.

Evan Moore (20) of Grangemore Road, Donaghmede, Dublin 13, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to rioting, damaging a Luas by fire and damaging the windows of a Luas tram on November 23rd, 2023.

He has been in custody since a sentence hearing last May.

The riot broke out after a five-year-old girl was severely wounded in a stabbing at Parnell Square earlier that day, in which two other children and a crèche worker were also injured.

The court heard that the Luas service was suspended for 24 hours and the damage to the tram was estimated at just under €5 million after seats and wiring was damaged.

The estimated cost of the clean up by council workers in the days after the riot was €159,000 and €115,000 worth of damage was caused to property in the area.

Sentencing him on Monday, Judge Orla Crowe said Moore was “an immature young man who allowed himself to be whipped up by social media” on the day in question. She noted he did not have to go into the city centre and engage in rioting that day.

“He chose to do those things and for that, a custodial sentence has to take place,” she said.

The judge noted it was of concern that Moore was seen at an anti-immigration demonstration in the city centre a number of months later. When questioned by gardaí who spotted him there, he admitted being in town on the day of the riots and later made further admissions.

She noted the Dublin riots caused considerable damage and upset to the population of Dublin and the entire country. “To this day it represents a stain on this city,” she said.

She set a headline sentence of eight years but reduced this to four years taking a number of mitigating factors into account, including that Moore was 18 at the time, has no previous convictions, entered guilty pleas, comes from a stable pro-social family and is midway through an apprenticeship.

She suspended the final year of this sentence on a number of conditions, including that he be of good behaviour for four years and remain under the supervision of the Probation Service for 12 months upon his release.

At a sentence hearing earlier this year, a 12 minute long video – a compilation of CCTV footage and videos on social media from the day – was played to the court. This showed that Moore’s involvement in the riot lasted from 7.05pm to 7.40pm that evening.

He could be seen on the footage moving a bin that was alight and bringing it onto the Luas before damage windows on the tram.

Detective Inspector Ken Hoare accepted in cross-examination by Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing SC, defending, that subsequent analysis of Moore’s phone found conversations with his mother in which she was asking her son to return home from town.

“Scumbags wrecking their own city,” Moore’s mother messaged, following by a message a minute later: “Get out before it is too late and something happens.”

Then finally she messaged him: “Please, please leave Evan….my heart is racing.”

Det Insp Hoare agreed with Mr Ó Dúnlaing that Moore’s parents found it “abhorrent” that their son was in the city centre that day and the messages found on his phone “were reflective of his family’s attitude to him being there”.

Det Insp Hoare told Stephen Montgomery BL, prosecuting, that a group of anti-immigrant protestors had gathered at the Garden of Remembrance around 3.30pm following the earlier incident at Parnell Square.

A hostile crowd gathered around 4pm at Cavendish Row, at the bottom of O’Connell Street and the Luas line was blocked there by the gathering.

A total of 600 gardaí were deployed to deal with the riot and it was estimated that at its height, 500 rioters were involved.

Det Insp Hoare confirmed that the riot began with the burning of a garda vehicle.

A Luas tram was initially blocked at 4.40pm by around 10 protestors preventing it from passing onto O’Connell Street. The passengers got off the Luas but the driver remained on it until the violence escalated. He was then removed for his own safety and the tram was locked.

Det Insp Hoare said the footage showed Moore damaging widows on the Luas around 7.30pm before he and others brought materials from a bin that had been set on fire onto the tram.

Gardaí viewed 17,000 hours of CCTV footage and identified over 100 suspect rioters.

In May the following year during another anti-immigration protest, Moore was spotted by officers.

He was stopped and admitted that he had been in the city centre the previous November during the riots. His home was later searched and his phone seized for analysis.

He was arrested on May 14, 2024 and during interview, Moore identified himself on footage.

He agreed that he had got “caught up in the moment” and that he was ashamed of his behaviour and regretted his involvement.

Det Insp Hoare confirmed that Moore has no previous convictions and was 18 years old at the time of the riots.

He agreed with Mr Ó Dúnlaing that the riot was “one of the most shameful acts in Irish history”.

He acknowledged that Moore made immediate admissions when he was stopped by gardaí during the May protest.

Det Insp Hoare agreed that there were different levels of criminality involved in the riot that day which had started on the back of “a horrific attack on a child”.

He acknowledged that many young people had “been whipped up into a frenzy” by ill-informed “malignant narcissists” and “horrific racist commentary” on social media following the attack.

Det Insp Hoare accepted that Moore was one of those people that fell into the category of being “whipped up” and influenced by others.

Moore’s mother, Karen Moore, told Mr Ó Dúnlaing that she had pleaded with her son to come home once she had learned he had gone into the city.

She said she was disgusted, embarrassed and ashamed by his behaviour.

“He was always raised to respect the law and the gardaí,” she said.

She agreed that he has since completed an anti-racism course online and is an apprentice electrician.

Mr Ó Dúnlaing submitted that his client is from a stable family and has positive employment and is someone who could engage positively in society. A letter of apology was handed to the court.

Counsel said Moore was also involved with his local GAA club.

“He can be a force for good,” Mr Ó Dúnlaing submitted.

He said his client was a “very impressionable young person” at the time that had been “swept up in anti-immigrant sentiment”.