Civil disobedience against the introduction of asylum centres in the Republic of Ireland continues to gather steam. The working-class suburb of Coolock in north Dublin saw anger over the planned transformation of a former paint factory into an asylum centre, culminating in a string of arson attacks.
Riot police were also deployed to republican stronghold Dundalk, where its community rallied under the banner “Dundalk Says No” against plans to convert a former orphanage into accommodation for 260 displaced Ukrainians.
In both cases, hundreds of locals risked arrest to voice their concern that the Irish state is prioritising the welfare of migrants over their own well-being.
Local hostility to the official ‘open borders’ policy of Ireland’s ruling politicians illustrates the chasm between the two sides—with the establishment continually accusing locals of racism and criminality for protesting about housing shortages or migrant crime.
The Dundalk protest was addressed by local speakers, including Councillor Malachy Steenson, a recently elected nationalist municipal politician. He declared recently that Dundalk, and the country at large, were living in “revolutionary times”—meaning that anti-immigration agitation is changing politics across the Republic.
Dundalk is politically synonymous with Sinn Féin—Ireland’s left-wing opposition party—and republican militancy due to its close proximity to Northern Ireland.
In Dublin, authorities were forced to take the embarrassing decision to effectively abandon a prospective asylum centre after at least five separate arson attacks. Locals reportedly took to the streets repeatedly to celebrate whenever smoke was seen rising from the burning premises. Somali refugee encampments were also attacked in inner city Dublin.
The growing protests are forcing the Irish government to change tactics over its dysfunctional asylum policy, promising to move away from using converted hotels and local housing accommodation and towards placing applicants for international protection into disused office blocks.
Ireland’s asylum crisis means that tweaking the policy cannot conceal the disconnection between rulers and ruled on the question of mass migration.
Police service An Garda Síochána—which claimed that anti-migrant protests were a diversionary tactic tying it up in order to conduct arson attacks—stands accused of a failure to provide adequate resources to frontline officers. Speaking on national radio, a retired Garda Sergeant complained that force personnel were effectively becoming “lambs to the slaughter” due to low morale and underfunding.
Warnings were issued in the Irish press that the personal details of police officers were being disseminated online. These latest humiliations follow the Dublin government being forced to import water cannons from Belfast in response to anti-migration rioting that rocked Dublin last November.
As hysteria against the rise of the so-called far right continues, the Irish media broke news of an alleged plot to assassinate former Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar, involving at least one member of the country’s security forces. Separately, the arrest was made of a balaclava-wearing man whose viral video came to the attention of authorities when he threatened to kill Sinn Féin opposition leader Mary Lou McDonald.