The Republic of Ireland: An Outbreak of Far-Right Activity on the Western Fringes of Europe
Around midday in north-inner Dublin on 23 November 2023, an unnamed person, described shortly thereafter as a naturalised Irish citizen of Algerian origin, stabbed three children-two girls aged five and six, and a five-year-old boy- and a female school care assistant who came to their rescue. All victims survived their injuries, although two of them, the adult and a five-year-old girl, were seriously hurt. This assault took place outside Irish-language coeducational primary school, Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuir, at Parnell Square East. Three passers-by intervened to prevent the attacker from inflicting further damage. One of them was a Deliveroo fast-food courier, Caio Benicio, himself a 43-year-old Brazilian immigrant, who attacked the assailant with his motorcycle helmet.
The news spread rapidly on the WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal messaging apps, as far-right activists posted under hashtags such as “Ireland is Full” and “Ireland for the Irish”. Posts on the social media platform X emphasized the perpetrator’s Algerian background, thereby suggesting an Islamist terrorist attack. The Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) star Conor McGregor weighed in on the social media platform X, where he has 10.2 million followers, stating: “innocent children ruthlessly stabbed by a mentally deranged non-national in Dublin”.
Before long, Dublin city centre became the scene of one of the worst-ever riots in its history, in turn prompting the biggest-ever response by the Gardaí to a public order incident. The retail shopping district to the north of the River Liffey bore the brunt of the rioters’ fury. Shop windows were smashed, thirteen shops either damaged or looted, and eleven Garda vehicles, three buses, and a Luas tram were set alight. Hotels and hostels believed to be housing migrants were torched. Several police officers were injured, one of them seriously, by flying bottles and chairs propelled by rioters, some of whose faces were masked. Other rioters carried banners which proclaimed that “Irish Lives Matter”. Twenty-eight men and four women were arrested by the close of events. Calm was finally restored between 20: 30 and 21:00 PM. Those arrested appeared before the court the following morning, variously charged with public order offenses, weapons offences, and theft.
Drew Harris, commissioner of Ireland’s national police force, An Garda Síochána (“guardians of the peace”), blamed a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by a far-right ideology”. According to Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, the rioters “brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves”. Opposition politicians called for the resignations of Drew Harris and Helen McEntee, Minister for Justice, on the grounds that they had not been proactive enough in the face of rising far-right activity in Ireland and for their tardy response to the events on the day. On 27 November, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions held a rally on O’Connell Street to protest the riots and to support the victims of violence.
Until recently, Ireland was not an obvious destination for immigrants, and indeed had been depopulated by mass emigration over the past two centuries, losing approximately ten million people since 1800. The narrative of a prospering and welcoming Ireland, happy to accept small numbers of mainly professional immigrants, has been challenged by its recent transition into a secular, urbanised, and multi-ethnic society, with a growing population of foreign-born newcomers. In recent years, a combination of rising immigration, housing shortages, especially noticeable in inner cities, and pressures on social and health services, have fuelled the spread of far-right movements challenging the status quo. According to the Central Statistics Office, 141, 600 people arrived in Ireland in the year leading up to April 2023, representing a net inward migration of 77,600. This was the second successive 12-month period during which over 100, 000 people immigrated to Ireland. The numbers were bolstered by a mass influx of Ukrainians, under the EU Temporary Protection Directive, which followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. The majority of immigrants, however, come from the EU. Asylum seekers and refugees, particularly Muslims, are the particular focus of far-right anger. The brutal murder of 23-year-old primary schoolteacher Ashling Murphy on 12 January 2002 in Tullamore, County Offaly, on 12 January 2022, by Slovak Romani labourer Jozef Puska, has further galvanised anti-immigrant sentiments.
Changing demographic trends in Ireland have led to the emergence of a number of far-right micro-parties over the past decade. These include the National Party (An Páirtí Náisiúnta) (2016), the Irish Freedom Party (2018), Anti-Corruption Ireland (2019), and Ireland First (2023). Irish nationalism, traditionally the preserve of the left-wing, has now been appropriated by the far-right, who seek to preserve Irish nationality and protect the Irish language and culture within a united sovereign Ireland, preferably outside the EU.
The far-right is in the ascendancy across Europe, and the recent riots in Dublin are in keeping with continental trends. The counter-response to globalisation, economic liberalisation, and open borders is now manifesting itself in a resurgence of nationalism, protectionism, and anti-immigration sentiments. It seems an appropriate time for a measured dialogue in Ireland on the sustainability, costs, and long-term benefits of immigration.
Ashis Banerjee