Attempts by authorities to convert a disused warehouse into accommodation for up to a thousand asylum seekers elicited mass protests in Ireland over the weekend as thousands rallied outside the site of the planned centre.
During the protests, in the working-class suburb of Coolock in north Dublin, young men on horseback and in balaclavas were seen directing a crowd of thousands under the campaign slogan ‘Coolock Says No.’ The incident was just the latest flashpoint in the Republic’s crippling asylum crisis which has seen the issue of migration surge into the mainstream and become a leading political issue.
Locals in Coolock are up in arms against plans by the Department of Integration to place anywhere between 500 and 1,000 asylum seekers into the former paint warehouse, just metres from nearby housing estates. In a series of speeches, attendees at yesterday’s march expressed concerns over the impact on public services as well as the safety of their children.
This spirited community mobilisation was organised by local figures as well as European Election candidate Malachy Steenson. Demonstrators travelled up and down the Malahide Road with chants of “Ireland Belongs to the Irish,” quoting the country’s revolutionary hero Pádraig Pearse, before temporarily blocking off key transport routes into Dublin city centre between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.
There were tense scenes outside a local police station at around 6 p.m., however, as local youths shouting “Get them out” got into a verbal altercation with masked police officers, although no arrests were made during the entirety of the march.
Sunday’s demonstration is just the latest in a series of grassroots protests against mass migration in Ireland. Last November, Dublin city centre was the scene of riots following a mass stabbing by an Algerian migrant.
While the evening’s events occurred without incident, reports surfaced on Sunday night of a physical altercation between what appears to be local youths and a security guard at the location of the planned asylum centre. The Republic has experienced over a dozen acts of arson on various refugee centres throughout the past year.
The location of yesterday’s protest occurred near East Wall, the working-class community which has become synonymous with the recent agitation against mass migration. The recent wave of demonstrations first broke out there in late 2022 when locals protested against the opening of an asylum centre for primarily Albanian and Algerian men in an abandoned office block.
The Republic of Ireland appears to be in a period of transition as over a third of the electorate are now expressing a wish to vote for an anti-immigration party. The country’s ruling party Fine Gael also appears to be entering crisis mode following the sudden resignation of PM (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar as well as approximately a third of its parliamentary top brass.