Dublin unrest exposes rising anti-immigrant sentiment
DUBLIN: Eight months after Ireland’s worst riot in decades, fresh anti-immigrant clashes in Dublin have shone a spotlight on rising far-right sentiment amid a deepening asylum-seeker accommodation crisis. “Mob fury” read one headline in an Irish tabloid newspaper on last week after street violence rarely seen in the European Union member state.
Unrest in Coolock, a deprived outer district of the capital, erupted at the site of a planned accommodation facility for some 500 asylum seekers. Police cars were attacked, machinery set on fire and bricks and fireworks were thrown at riot police by hundreds of protesters, some carrying “Irish Lives Matter” placards, during tense stand-offs lasting hours.
At least 21 people have been charged with public order offences. Prime Minister Simon Harris described the clashes as “reprehensible” and said “thugs” hijacked the protest. “These actions are criminal and are designed to sow fear and division. We should not accept them being legitimized in any way by describing them as ‘protest’,” he said.
Surge in arrivals
The latest violence comes as the government grapples with accommodating a surge in asylum-seeker arrivals and a wider housing shortage. The number of people seeking asylum in Ireland rose to over 10,500 in the first six months of 2024, nearly double the rate at the same period last year, according to government data.
Migrant tent encampments have been increasingly popping up in Dublin, quickly reappearing in nearby locations once they are dismantled by authorities. Harris has admitted the asylum system is ill-equipped to process the surge in applications and has moved to harden migration policy while vowing to adopt a “common sense” approach.
But “while the government has changed its rhetoric and tone, no one has actually set out a strategy on migration”, politics professor Eoin O’Malley from Dublin City University told AFP. David Quinn, a commentator at the Sunday Independent newspaper, said “unless the government gets its act together, we can expect public unease to continue”. “It doesn’t have enough people processing claims, almost no one is being deported after a failed asylum application, and lots of people coming in are really economic migrants in disguise,” he added.
‘Ethnonationalism’
Overnight Monday to Tuesday, protective concrete slabs were installed around the building site in Coolock with the top of a digger just visible above, as a small group holding Irish flags protested outside. Justice Minister Helen McEntee condemned the violence and insisted “plans will continue as set out” to complete the disputed facility, “in consultation with the communities”. “We have an obligation to provide international protection,” she added.
But some locals criticized officials for a lack of communication. “You have a vacuum that allows misinformation to spread,” John Lyons, an independent councilor for the area, told public broadcaster RTE on Tuesday.
Last November, central Dublin was engulfed by riots after far-right social media accounts incited protests following a knife attack on schoolchildren by an Irish citizen from an immigrant background. Arson attacks have also increased on buildings around Ireland planned for accommodating asylum seekers, with several dozen fires at such properties since 2023.
“The rhetoric and tactics around these efforts by groups and individuals opposed to the housing of asylum seekers in their area has shifted significantly in the last 18 months,” said Aoife Gallagher, an analyst with the Institute of Strategic Dialogue think tank. “While in the early days, genuine issues around housing supply and lack of services were used to get people onto the streets, those leading the charge now are motivated by racist tropes about ‘unvetted men’ committing swathes of crimes, and ‘replacement’ of the native population. “Ethnonationalism is now at the center of this movement, there are people more than willing to commit violence in the name of this ideology.”
‘Ingredients on the table’
Unlike elsewhere in Europe, Ireland has not yet seen a successful far-right movement, but polls show a rise in hardline anti-immigration attitudes. At recent European elections no extremist candidates were elected, but on the same day candidates from a range of small new ultra-nationalist parties won seats at local council ballots for the first time.
“What’s exceptional about Ireland is not the level of support for the underlying farright beliefs,” Irish Times commentator Fintan O’Toole wrote on Tuesday. “It is merely that no one has yet been able to funnel those beliefs into a serious political force, the ingredients are on the table — what’s missing is a competent chef.” — AFP