Month: December 2023

On Thursday 23rd. of November, Dublin City centre erupted in a riot, the scale of which hadn’t been seen since the ‘troubles’. Headlines like Dublin riots: Roles reversing in one of world’s most welcoming cities, Sky News; Dublin riots: Damage to cost ‘ten of millions’ – The Telegraph; Dublin riot saw most riot police deployed in Irish state history BBC, Catholic bishops call on people to oppose racism and misinformation following Dublin riots Irish Times, are just a sample of the national and international reaction to the event. A week after the riot we are now in the familiar territory of finding someone to blame. Even as the first rioter put match to paper our propaganda machine, a.k.a. the legacy media, immediately went to the ‘go to’ villains of the far right. This gave the politicians time to organise their defence by promising tougher policing and a clampdown on ‘hate speech’. By the way, as part as the political theatre around the riots we have kicked the Police Commissioner and the Minister for Justice around in the Dial to show how seriously we take this breakdown of law and order. They have also promised to issue a new stronger brand of pepper spray and tasers for the Guardai and even more restriction on free speech, in the form of upgrading the Hate Speech legislation. I am absolutely confident that these measures will solve all of the problems. (Do I have to explain sarcasm these days?) Now I understand that there will be those who would interject at this point and ask that I adjust my tinfoil hat as it is letting through too many conspiracy theories. I would respond by saying that too many, so called, conspiracy theories have turned out to be true and ask that you bear with me as I am going somewhere with this train of thought.

If we look at the photograph to the left, we can see the identikit view of the ‘far right’ rioter familiar to the Irish Times reader. Having done this I wonder how many of the basic tenants of conservatism he could name. Would he start with market capitalism, free speech, small government, meritocracy, equality of opportunity over equity of outcome, for example. I would suggest that any of these ‘gentlemen’ would struggle to come up with any two basic principles of the right. If we added additional child support from absent fathers and increasing the audit of state benefits, I think that the number of real far right activists at the riot, will shrink to a very small percentage.

Why is it important to have this discussion? Quite simply, if we keep lumping together any opposition to the establishment view as being far right and promising ever more repressive legislation, we will have more violence in Ireland. Pat Leahy wrote an opinion piece in the Irish Times concerning the riots (25/11/23) and the sub title read, “Pretending that ‘this isn’t us’ is like pretending  that the city is adequately policed or that the streets aren’t frequently filthy. If you want to solve a problem, you have to face up to it.” Further on through the article he identifies law and order issues as rising to the top of peoples concerns and linked to this was concerns over the increase in immigration.

“This includes facing up to the fact that immigration has now become an issue in Irish politics. Every week now independent TDs use Dáil time to complain about the proposed accommodation of asylum seekers in their constituencies. Government TDs tend to raise their concerns in private, but they also see the public meetings in their constituencies and they hear the public concerns.” (Irish Times 25/11/23)

Bye the way, does anyone recognise the person in the photograph? Top marks to anyone who who identified him as Roderic O’Gorman, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Quite an impressive portfolio if only for the length of the title. In regard to the ‘integration’ part I would reference the 2017 Migrant Integration Strategy which says, in part, “Government to promote the integration of all migrants who are legally residing in the State. It envisages a whole-of-government approach to enhance diversity, inclusion and equity for migrants across all aspects of Irish society through increased focus on social inclusion measures, improved access to public services and targeted action to address racism and xenophobia..”  What I don’t immediately see in this ‘whole government approach’  is any attempt to be transparent with and to listen to the the existing Irish Public. What I also don’t see is any action to be taken in respect of illegal immigrants. The response to anyone asking about the effects of immigration on the health service, schools, social welfare, housing or law and order etc, seems to be covered in the last sentence. Any criticism about government policy on migrants is met with “targeted action to address racism and xenophobia..”  What we are beginning to see is the the ingredients of a volatile and unstable society where trust in democratic norms have been eroded by the lack of transparency and  social contract with citizens.

I recently conducted a very, unscientific, poll amongst a small group of friends. The question was, how many foreign immigrants came to the republic in the twelve months ending April 2023? The average answer given was around 50,000. The reason that I picked that time period was because the Central Statistics Office had published it’s report on migration for that period. The summary is shown below.

“An influx of 141,600 immigrants was a 14-year high, and the second successive 12-month period where over 100,000 people had immigrated to Ireland. Of those people, 29,600 were returning Irish citizens, 26,100 were other EU citizens, and 4,800 were UK citizens, and 81,100 were from other countries – including nearly 42,000 Ukrainians. “(ITV)

I think that it would have been a surprise to my friends to hear that, in one twelve month period, a net 77,600 non EU, UK and Irish citizens migrated to Ireland. To put that in perspective, that is more than the population of Drogheda and Dundalk combined. (CSO 2016. Population Distribution) What is disturbing about these numbers is the sudden escalation whereby two consecutive  twelve month periods have recorded over a total of 140,000 immigrants (CSO). More to the point, it is quite obvious that those supporting immigration at these levels have absolutely no idea how to deal  with it. If we take one headline, almost at random,  Ireland offering asylum seekers tents amid acute housing shortage. (the Guardian, 6/12/23) we can see a level of ineptitude and lack of common sense that typifies the whole immigration policy.

What I have  not said. I have not entered into the discussion of the rationale behind these numbers. As noted, 44,000 immigrants were refugees from the war in Ukraine and I would think that most people would support this, in principle, if not the numbers.

The problem I have with the immigration policy is that there is no actual policy.

We seem to be overwhelmed by the numbers and unable to get to grips with the inevitable outcomes. As Pat Leahy says, “If you want to solve a problem, you have to face up to it.” The government knows very well that the whole housing and welfare sector is on the edge of collapse and that throwing thousands of extra people into the mix is only adding fuel to the fire. What we see are more and more ad hoc reactions to a housing crisis, an invisible integration policy and a clampdown on any dissent.  Up until fairly recently the government has had an easy ride. Firstly, the numbers have only recently ramped up. Secondly, we believed in the brand of Ireland of a Thousand Welcomes  and remember the history of our emigration to other countries. However, we think that what happens in other countries will not happen in ours. Pat Leahy identifies this gene as,  “Pretending that ‘this isn’t us”. By believing that we are not like those nasty racist countries, enables us to pretend that the problems of France, Germany, Sweden, UK, Italy and so on will not be replicated hear.

And so to the riots. Do I think that the Gardai need to be reequipped? Probably. Do they need to be more aggressive against all violent crime? Yes. Do they need to rethink the use of resources and strategy on policing? Yes. Do we need to further restrict speech that is in opposition to the established creed? Not unless you want to drive opposition into the arms of nihilists, extremists left or right and the alienated. What is happening now is a ‘finger in the dyke’ policy of plugging leaks whenever they appear. What we are not dealing with is ordinary law abiding citizens who now distrust the organs of state and see a divide between the elites and themselves. They are frustrated by being labelled as far right racists whenever they ask how many immigrants the government is proposing to let into the country over the next five years? What is the integration policy that will accommodate the migrants, without negatively impacting on already overstretched public services?  How does the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth propose to deal with the cultural issues that plagued countries with large immigrant populations? The point is that there is no serious  discussion on these and similar issues. There is no contract between the establishment and the citizens on this matter. Questioning government migrant policy is seen as un-Irish and blemishing our image as a new progressive country. There is a kind of blindness which allows us to ignore  other peoples experience because we are better than them, ‘this isn’t us’. By a policy of treating the symptoms of the unrest and not dealing with the reality of a shift in public opinion, we are condemned to a repeat of last Thursdays riot.

Sources

James Hockaday, ITV, n.d., What led to the Dublin riots and what does it mean for Ireland?www.itv.com/news/2023-11-24/what-led-to-the-dublin-riots-and-what-does-it-mean-for-ireland

Stephen McDermott, The Guardian, 27/11/23, The Dublin riots shocked Ireland – but some of us saw this creep to the far right coming, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/27/dublin-riots-far-right-ireland-anti-immigrant