Opinion: Ireland isn't 'full', but the far-right is full of hypocrites

At a whooping 70 million, Ireland has one of the largest diaspora of any nation in the world, and every family still here has loved ones abroad: children, siblings, cousins.

People have emigrated from Ireland to escape poverty, persecution and to provide for their families left behind for hundreds of years, which only make the appalling hypocrisy of anti-immigrant sentiment that’s burning its way across the country so much worse.

After barely a full week into 2024, two arson attacks have already occurred at sites rumoured to be earmarked for housing asylum seekers.

The Shipwright pub in Ringsend, Dublin, was burnt down on New Years Eve amid rumour and disinformation that it was to be used to house asylum seekers. 

In actual fact, it was to be used to house homeless families, the very people the far-right and racists claim should be prioritised over Ukrainian and other international protection applicants.

Gardaí have said they are investigating a fire at a former school in Fethard, county Tipperary on Wednesday, January 3, as "suspected criminal damage” - the latest building to be torched in an attempt to prevent its use to house asylum seekers.

However, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth, they “had neither considered or examined this property for use”.

Every unoccupied site in the country seems to be a potential site for housing migrants, and for targeting. 

A Kilkenny-based company was forced to release a statement on Friday, January 5, after a video was posted online claiming they would house asylum seekers in one of their properties.

Bernard Kavanagh & Sons Ltd issued a statement refuting 'falsified claims' surrounding the redevelopment of the former Josephine’s Restaurant site in Urlingford, and said that the site will be used to house Ukrainian families and accommodate staff. 

No doubt many sleepless nights are ahead for those business owners, as they wonder if they are next to be the target of an escalating pattern of arson or attempted arson attacks on properties in Ireland earmarked for asylum seeker accommodation.

In 2023, there were 10 arson attacks on properties around the country, all on properties either earmarked, or already in use, for accommodation of asylum seekers. Two of these occurred during the violence in Dublin on November 23, a further escalation in anti-migrant tensions that have been too long allowed to fester in Ireland.

It’s utterly shameful that we, so long persecuted and stereotyped abroad, would visit the same on those fleeing to Ireland.  ne would think the generations of experiencing migration would have induced compassion, particularly in those who emigrated in their youth for some years and then returned home to Ireland to settle down.

The blatant hypocrisy among the far-right is compounded even further considering some of its self-proclaimed leaders emigrated and worked abroad before returning to Ireland.

Such a double standard would be laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous. And therein lies a key problem in dealing with the far-right in Ireland, be they anti-migrant, anti-abortion or anti-LGBT. 

Their antics are often so utterly ridiculous, like the many tantrums of Enoch Burke and his family in the Court of Appeal or the “Sovereign Voyage to protect childhood on the Shannon river” organised by the far-right in August, that they distract from the real harm these people would wish upon some of the most vulnerable people in the State.

Ireland is not full, it’s just led by a government who are incapable of dealing quickly and effectively with rising migrant and asylum seeker numbers, or the housing crisis which they allowed to develop unchecked (and which is now compounding the problem).

It’s also full of hypocritical blowhards who are exploiting fear and genuine concerns for their own gain and profit, no matter the cost.