IRISH Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has condemned anti-immigrant rioters who caused “huge destruction” in the centre of Dublin after three young children were stabbed.

Mr Varadkar said today that the far-right protesters wanted to cause chaos, not protect Ireland’s way of life.

Police arrested 34 people on Thursday night after up to 500 people looted shops, set fire to vehicles and threw stones at police officers.

The violence began after rumours circulated that a foreign national had been responsible for the attack outside a Dublin school on Thursday afternoon. It was later revealed that the man was an Irish citizen.

“These criminals did not do what they did because they love Ireland. They did not do what they did because they wanted to protect Irish people. They did not do it out of any sense of patriotism, however warped,” Mr Varadkar told reporters this morning.

“They did so because they’re filled with hate, they love violence, they love chaos, and they love causing pain to others.”

The rioters “brought shame” on Ireland, the prime minister insisted, promising new laws within weeks to bring those involved to justice.

Following the school stabbing, police said that a five-year-old girl was in a critical condition at a Dublin hospital and a teaching assistant was in a serious condition.

A six-year-old girl continued to receive treatment for less serious injuries today and another child was discharged from hospital overnight.

The assailant, who was stopped by a Deliveroo driver, remains in hospital in a serious condition.

His motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

National police Commissioner Drew Harris said one officer had been seriously injured in clashes with the rioters.

Mr Harris described the protesters as a “complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology” that have been radicalised online.

Dublin Communities Against Racism said that well-known fascist and far-right opportunists had “seized the attacks on children to manipulate and twist the account to suit their cynical agenda.

“In so doing, the gangs mobilised by these fascists destroyed the crime scene, attacked emergency workers, attacked ethnic minority passers-by and transport workers, burned cars, buses and a Luas [tram] and terrorised ordinary decent working people in their places of work or on their way home,” the network said.

“The far right have nothing to offer ordinary working-class people, only despair, hatred, mayhem and terror for people going about their everyday lives.

“Their response to a horrific attack is to unleash more horror and sow more division and fear.”