Canadian ambassador tackles protester in Ireland

Canadian Ambassador to Ireland Kevin Vickers famously foiled an attack by a gunman who stormed Parliament Hill in 2014, and on Thursday he tackled a protester who interrupted a ceremony in Dublin.

The invitation-only event commemorated the 100 British soldiers who died during the 1916 Easter Rising, when Irish republicans tried to overthrow British control of the country. The protester, wearing an Easter Rising T-shirt, jumped up and yelled, "This is an insult," CBC News reports. Vickers then grabbed the man, identified by the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA) as a member named Brian Murphy, and lead him away. Murphy was later arrested, and the IRPWA said what Vickers did amounted to "assault."

"We were all kind of surprised, to put it mildly, that a dignitary kind of beat the Irish police in wrestling this guy to the ground," photographer Colin Keegan told CBC Radio's Vanessa Vander Valk. "I have to hand it to him. It was impressive." Before Vickers was appointed ambassador early last year, he was sergeant-at-arms of Canada's House of Commons, and he helped stop gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau as he entered a parliament building while shooting at people. Before he came into the building, Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed a soldier serving as a ceremonial guard at the Canadian National War Memorial.

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