On thing is Covid fueled the creation and subsequent growth of a permanently aggrieved, conspiratorial protesting class who move from issue to issue with little coherence but lots of pent up anger.
Another thing is Covid really changed the atmosphere of Dublin's city centre. Dublin is a little different from most other capitals I've experienced in that the traditional working-class inner city areas are located extremely close to the central commercial and tourist areas - in fact they overlap in many places, and many people - "native" Dubs, migrants, yuppies, etc. - live together right in the centre of town. Pre-Covid this created quite a nice diverse vibrant mix, but with the lock-downs the worst element of the traditional working-class communities - basically comprised of the type of bored, troubled teenagers in the 12-17 age group that you see running amok in these videos - kind of took over the streets while everyone else - bar the homeless/drug addicted - stayed in. I was living and working right there during that period and had a couple of moments where I felt unsafe in my own city for the first time in my life.
Finally, the Garda are extremely demoralized and understaffed. There is next to nothing they can do to seriously punish the youngfellas who rack up dozens or even hundreds of convictions before the age of 18, and many have moved on to other careers since 2020.
