Death of Congolese man renews scrutiny of race relations in Ireland

Irish authorities have agreed to a second postmortem on the body of a Congolese man who died after being restrained by shop security guards on a Dublin street, prompting an outcry and comparisons to the death of George Floyd. A forensic pathologist from England is to conduct an independent postmortem this week on Yves Sakila, 35, an alleged shoplifter who was pursued and pinned to the ground in the city centre on 15 May. The police force, An Garda Síochána, is investigating. Protestors have held several rallies and on Saturday held a vigil at Henry Street near Arnotts, a department store where Sakila allegedly stole a bottle of perfume, leading to a chase outside, where security guards detained him for about five minutes until police arrived and found him to be unresponsive. Some of the incident was filmed and shared on social media. Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, visited Dublin last week to meet family representatives and Irish officials. Yves Sakila reportedly had convictions for theft and was living in a homeless shelter. Photograph: Enterprise News and Pictures Sakila’s relatives were traumatised and “reeling”, the minister told RTÉ . …