THE EVACUATION OF Connolly Station in Dublin yesterday immediately led to a spate of false claims and unfounded speculation online about what had happened. 

Gardaí evacuated the station and conducted a security sweep of both the station and the train on which the arrested man was travelling.

Gardaí believe the man was travelling to Dublin to sell the decommissioned firearm.

Many of those spreading rumours speculated that foreign nationals or asylum seekers were the target of the Garda operation, but the man who was arrested for carrying a firearm is an Irish citizen.

A video of gardaí searching people at the train station was shared on a number of social media platforms, including X and Facebook. 

In the video, people can be heard saying that the people being searched were “causing all the trouble on the train”.

The video appeared in a Facebook post that has since been viewed 21,000 times.

It has the caption: “A number of non-national males are being searched at the station and @rtenews have reported a man was arrested for possession of “a weapon.” 

The Irish man was taken into custody and gardaí said investigations are ongoing. 

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