ROI and violence against migrants26 Jul 2025 16:55
Anti-immigrant protesters attacked police officers, threw petrol bombs and set vehicles alight at an old paint factory earmarked to house up to 550 asylum seekers in Dublin.
A protest camp has blockaded the north Dublin site. Violence erupted when a government-contracted provider attempted to begin renovating the old Crown Paint factory.
The Gardaí, Ireland’s police force, used pepper spray to disperse the crowd and made over a dozen arrests.
A rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland that’s increasing as people face a stretched healthcare service, housing shortages and a cost-of-living crisis.
Dublin - a man who stabbed three children outside an inner-city school was an Algerian migrant.
Dozens of smaller protests have been taking place across the country when locals in East Wall, Dublin, objected to a former office building being used to house 380 refugees.
In Tipperary, the town’s only hotel was closed down in January to house 160 refugees. The town, which had a population of 5,542, houses a further 491 Ukrainians and other refugees. “Our doctors are overburdened, our Garda station closes at 4:30 every day… how are we supposed to cope with more people?” a local publican told RTÉ.
In the first half of 2024, 10,604 people applied for asylum in Ireland; almost double the number that applied in the same period last year. Integration minister Roderic O’Gorman estimated last week that by the end of the year there could be between 21,000 and 22,000 applicants.
Momentum behind the anti-migrant movement has given fringe parties a foothold in Irish politics.
All going well in the ROI then STP?