‘It was like having Tabasco poured in my eyes’: Irish caught in French riots recall chaos

“We didn’t want to get into any altercation with the riot police, so we ended up just running through the tear gas, and I have never felt anything so painful in my life,” says Clara Conyngham (23), a Dubliner who took part in protests in Paris on Saturday.Conyngham has been taking part in student protests since she moved to the capital to begin a master’s in cognitive science at the École Normale Supérieure this year.Her student body joined a movement started by secondary school students “after we saw the kind of violence they were met with for these very reasonable protest demands”.“If a teacher got sick or was away at maternity leave, these poor students would be left for seven or eight months without a teacher for that subject,” Conyngham says.READ MORE“The classroom conditions were terrible: cockroaches, rats, crazy temperatures in the summer and then freezing in the winter, and obviously this disproportionately affected poorer areas.”At noon on Saturday she went to the official march starting point at Place de la République in central Paris, where student protesters joined a revived Yellow Vests movement including farmers, climate activists, trade unionists united in anger about the cost of living.The involvement of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) with the ongoing French school blockades expanded the scope of demonstrations across France last weekend. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images There she encountered riot police as she tried to join.“We were walking down one of the streets when we saw them coming up behind us, the riot police, coming with batons and all, a big line of them,” she recalls.“We were just gonna leg it in the other direction, but they had already thrown tear gas canisters, about five of them, in front of us.”Conyngham ran through the gas to get away from the advancing police line. “It was like having Tabasco poured in my eyes,” she says.She was assisted by protesters and “street medics”.“Everyone was helping each other out. People had saline that they were giving out, and we were all putting it in each other’s eyes. In the midst of all this chaos, it was kind of a beautiful moment,” she said.[ French prime minister calls for partial curfews in bid to quell unrestOpens in new window ]Conyngham eventually managed to link up with the main march as it made its way through Paris. The scene was “night and day” to the chaos at Place de la République. “People playing music, chanting, singing. Old people, young people. There was a child who was holding up a sign from his apartment, saying ‘Bravo’, and everyone would cheer when they went past.”The area where she lives was affected by the looting and violence that spread from the initial clashes on Place de la République.“There’s burned-out bikes and looted shops,” Conyngham says. “Obviously I don’t believe in the burning and the looting, but you also have to understand that no people who are happy with their circumstances are taking these actions.“I think it is a desperation move. This sort of group desperation, group violence, I think it takes on a mind of its own.”Originally from Ballina, Peter Durkan (40) has lived in Limoges for 15 years where he runs a 3D printing company. He was returning from a basketball tournament with his daughter on Saturday when they saw cars “coming up the motorway in the wrong direction” and realised something was wrong.“The gang of people – I don’t even know how to describe them – they went on to the motorway and stopped all the traffic, then put a cop car over on its roof, and burned it,” he says.He managed to get to his home in Limoges city. “You couldn’t see it from where we live, but you could smell the smoke,” he recalls.The protesters made their way to Limoges town hall, a protected structure from 1883 that stands at the centre of the city.During demonstrations on Saturday evening, Limoges protesters set fire to the town hall. Photograph: Elise Cabane/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images The destroyed Limoges city hall, a day after nationwide protests. Photograph: SDIS 87/AFP via Getty Images “It’s this unbelievably beautiful building at the heart of the city. It’s where I got married 10 years ago, it’s where all the kids get their paperwork, where their birth certificates come from, it’s a super important part of the city,” Durkan says.Local police say that by this point they had run out of tear gas canisters and were overwhelmed by the protesters.“It was obviously strategically planned,” Durkan says. “They broke in by going in via the basement at the back, and also they had a battering ram.”Footage of what followed has gone around the globe: flames engulfing the town hall and its spire collapsing in scenes reminiscent of the fire at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.[ What’s behind the violence shaking France, and what comes next?Opens in new window ]On Sunday Durkan went to have a look at the aftermath. “It’s smouldering,” he says. “It’s super unbelievably sad.”A solidarity rally was held in the square, and the mayor and local officials addressed the crowd. Some sang the Marseillaise. “It was quite emotionally charged.”Some protesters were peaceful and had reasonable demands, Durkan says. He believes those who caused the damage were a mix of politically-motivated people “who are just against everything that the government stands for” and kids “from the suburbs who are just making the most of the chaos to loot shops”.“Petrol is expensive, and I can understand their frustration, but that’s nothing to do with the French government,” Durkan says. “After the amount of hatred and anger and violence that was used – it’s got zero credibility, it’s outrageous.”