Police in central Dublin, Ireland, on November 24, 2023 (AP Photo/Peter Morrisson)
Last week’s anti-immigration uprising shows the rise of the far right in one of Europe’s most tolerant countries
Last week’s violent protests in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, were quite surprising: they were instigated and led by hundreds of far-right and anti-immigrant activists, in a country considered one of the most tolerant and open to migrants within the European Union. The protests began after a person stabbed four people in the center of Dublin on Friday last week, and spread as social media spoke of a terrorist attack by a foreigner: in reality, his identities and nationalities are currently not public and the Police expressed serious doubts about whether the attack had an ideological or religious motivation.
The serious clashes with police have highlighted the growing perception among many Irish people that foreigners are responsible for a rise in crime and other problems, a perception that was the subject of sporadic peaceful demonstrations, at least until last week.
The knife attack that sparked the protests happened around midday last Thursday outside a primary school in Parnell Square in central Dublin. Those stabbed were two girls aged 5 and 6, a 5-year-old boy and a woman aged around 30: the woman and one of the girls are currently in hospital. The man suspected of carrying out the attack was arrested injured. He is believed to be an Irish citizen who may be of foreign origin.
The protests began on the night of Thursday to Friday when hundreds of people stormed the center with anti-immigrant slogans and chants: There were violent clashes with the police, bottles being thrown, windows broken, fireworks and burning vehicles. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that around 500 people took part in the protest and 34 were arrested: they are now accused of various crimes against public order and some thefts.
The protest in central Dublin had been incited in recent hours by various reports on social media and online groups, some of which were openly racist and xenophobic and very explicitly incited violence. Among the most widely circulated content online is a series of messages that appeared in a chat called “Kill All Immigrants,” which urged members to protest by killing “every damn gypsy, every foreigner, everyone.” In the hours after the protest, police blamed “a faction of crazy right-wing hooligans” for the riots and the spread of fake news.
The protests did not actually affect foreigners and mostly resulted in the destruction of businesses and the burning of cars and vehicles. At the same time, the clashes have caused great concern among foreign communities living in Dublin and the rest of Ireland. The Muslim Sisters of Eire, an organization of Irish and Muslim women, has stopped distributing food to the homeless, one of its main activities. The Algerian embassy (one of the hypotheses about the stabbing suspect is that he is of Algerian origin) has instead asked Algerian citizens residing in Ireland not to leave their homes to avoid violence.
Last week’s anti-immigration protests are a relative first for Ireland, a country that has historically been more tolerant of migrants and where anti-immigration sentiment has become less evident in recent years and has so far been peaceful, sporadic and rather limited has expressed.
The Irish have a history of systematic emigration that is unique in contemporary history, which is also accompanied by a relatively recent history of discrimination and humiliation, which has made the Irish population very sensitive to this issue. To date, a fifth of the entire Irish population was born outside Ireland. Nevertheless, and in contrast to many other European countries, immigration has never become a particularly controversial issue in Irish domestic politics. This is also why Ireland has traditionally been seen as something of an exception and the Irish have a reputation for being a “naturally hospitable” people.
This attitude can be observed both in popular culture (a famous Gaelic saying that is very common in Ireland is céad míle fáilte, which means “welcome a hundred thousand times”) and in surveys: Ireland is almost always among the most hospitable countries and best countries , which are integrated into the European Union.
However, in recent years something has changed: groups of far-right activists have begun to exploit immigration more and more often, portraying it as the main cause of many problems, primarily related to the increase in the cost of living and the housing crisis, a problem that which affects thousands of people in Ireland. Peaceful protests against existing or under construction reception centers are quite common, and in 2019 a hotel in County Leitrim in northern Ireland that was on the list to accommodate asylum seekers was set on fire twice.
Anti-immigration activists have also exploited court cases involving foreigners to stoke alarmism and portray immigration as a security threat: one recent case was the 2022 conviction of a Slovakian, Jozef Puska, who was accused of killing a teacher, Ashling Murphy have. Ireland’s police chief Drew Harris told the Guardian that he believes the far right and its radicalization pose a danger to Irish society and that he expects there will be more violent protests like last week.
Last week’s protests were also strongly condemned by much of the Irish public, and a fundraiser was organized for a foreigner, a Brazilian citizen, Caio Benicio, who last Thursday stopped the attacker who stabbed the four people outside the primary school . The fundraising campaign entitled “Pay a beer to Caio Benicio” has already raised over 300,000 euros.
– Also read: Ireland is everywhere
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