GESTURING at the old convent that may soon house refugees, Paddy Kavanagh insists the government is “dumping their problem here in rural Ireland”.
Many in his community agree.
Protesters send migrants a message in Dublin last July[/caption]
Migrants living in tents on the city streets of Ireland[/caption]
A stone is hurled at police during a rally in Coolock last summer[/caption]
In driving rain, some 500 locals marched through the streets of this picturesque town huddled under their brollies, insisting “Enniscorthy says no”.
Ireland was a nation that sent millions to start new lives in the UK, US and Australia, and talk of curbing immigration was once largely taboo.
Describing the march, local independent councillor Paddy told me: “It was an orderly protest.
“There was no chanting.
“People are angry that we haven’t been consulted.
“We’re well short of doctors here already.”
The recent demo by locals amid the green hills of County Wexford has been mirrored across Ireland, a nation that is now one of immigration not emigration.
And not all have been as peaceable as the marchers in Enniscorthy.
Across Ireland, more than two dozen proposed, or even rumoured, refugee centres have been deliberately set ablaze.
Often, the arsonists have not been caught.
Vigilante-style groups, stoked by online provocateurs, have posted images of themselves patrolling streets.
While a recent fatal stabbing of an asylum seeker — who had been charged with rape in Italy but was able to stay in two Irish refugee centres — has left vetting procedures under scrutiny.
Last month, a 50-strong flag-waving mob marched to the entrance of Rosslare Harbour with its sign bearing Ireland’s traditional greeting of “a hundred thousand welcomes”.
Among the anti-immigration protestors — in a green “Make Eire Great Again” baseball hat — was Fergus Power, named in the Irish parliament as an “inciter” of the 2023 Dublin riots that made headlines around the globe.
At the Rosslare demo, Fergus said Ireland’s police force — the Garda Siochana, meaning guardians of the peace — “should be called guardians of the people traffickers”.
So is the land of a thousand welcomes succumbing to the internet trolls’ far-right cry of “Irish lives matter” and “Ireland for the Irish”?
Polls have shown that two thirds of Irish people believe immigrants should be welcomed.
Yet two-thirds also want tougher immigration controls.
It was a key political issue at last November’s General Election and rhetoric on migration has hardened.
Listen to the tough talk from Ireland’s new Minister of Justice Jim O’Callaghan.
“I need to be straight with the Irish people,” he said earlier this month.
“Too many people are coming to Ireland seeking international protection who are not entitled to international protection.”
‘Continuous handouts’
A record 18,651 people claimed asylum — or international protection as it is known in Ireland — last year.
Nigeria was the most popular country of origin followed by Jordan, Pakistan, Somalia and Bangladesh.
Minister O’Callaghan — from the centre right Fianna Fail party — added: “If you come in and you’re refused international protection, you leave, you’re gone.”
At a hotel opposite Ireland’s parliament, I met Ken O’Flynn, an MP from a new party called Independent Ireland.
Commentators have described them as right wing, but Ken prefers “common sense”.
The party, which has four MPs, ran on a manifesto pledging tough immigration controls.
Ken, whose husband is from Spain, told me: “I think we’ve taken in far too many.
“I’m not saying Ireland is full, I’m saying Ireland is open to the right type of person.
“Of course you need immigration.
“Of course you need people entering the country that are contributing to the country.
Councillor Paddy Kavanagh wants more checks carried out on refugees[/caption]
Quham Babatunde denied a rape charge in Italy before he was stabbed to death in Dublin[/caption]
“What you don’t need is somebody continuously getting handouts.”
Last week Ireland’s asylum vetting processes came under question after it emerged a Nigerian asylum seeker, who was stabbed to death in Dublin, had previously been charged with rape in Italy.
Quham Babatunde, 34, who played football for Nigeria’s under-20s, was stabbed in the chest on South Anne Street in the early hours of February 15.
Five men have been charged in relation to the fatal attack.
He had denied the 2018 rape charge but was deported to his homeland before later arriving in Ireland and staying in two refugee centres.
Jim O’Callaghan said last week that it was “extremely difficult” to prevent an asylum seeker from entering the country if they have charges pending against them, but no convictions.
Today, around a million of Ireland’s 5.3million population was born abroad.
It has taken more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees — six times more per head of population than in Britain.
Stoking Ireland’s immigration debate are those using the deluded Irelandisfull hashtag.
Call me racist, Islamophobic or whatever else, I do not care. You will never convince me that mass immigration is good for Ireland.
Michael O’ Keeffe
Never mind that the island had around a million more people in 1841, at its population peak.
Videos have been uploaded on social media of migrants being heckled as they arrived at asylum centres with screams of “f*** off” and “you’re not welcome here, get out of our country”.
Waterford far-right activist Michael O’ Keeffe, is among the select few of around a thousand — including Donald Trump — who is followed on X by its billionaire owner Elon Musk.
On Thursday Michael tweeted: “Call me racist, Islamophobic or whatever else, I do not care.
“You will never convince me that mass immigration is good for Ireland.
“Foreigners are destroying our country.”
Arson attacks on refugee accommodation have also become depressingly commonplace.
Two weeks ago, arsonist Andy Donohue, 19, was jailed for five years for torching a building earmarked for asylum seekers in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght.
In his defence, his lawyer said he had come “under the influence of some extremely racist people”, who were not named in court.
Amid the gloomy headlines, I met Lucky Khambule — a former refugee from South Africa — who now helps those seeking asylum.
Ken O’Flynn, an MP from a new party called Independent Ireland[/caption]
Lucky Khambule, a former refugee from South Africa who now helps those seeking asylum[/caption]
Did he experience any racism when he arrived on Ireland’s shores 12 years ago?
“I found a very, very warm community in Cork,” he says.
When asylum seekers protested at his hostel over conditions he says locals provided them with food and other necessities.
Lucky, 58, who works in customer services for an insurance company, was left “twiddling his thumbs” for four years while his claim was processed.
“At that time we got a stipend of €19.10 per week.
“Could you survive on that?”
Now an Irish citizen, he is the co-ordinator for help group Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland.
The Durban native says the rise in refugee numbers in Ireland has coincided with a dire housing crisis.
Last year, a leaked government report suggested Ireland was lacking up to 256,000 homes.
It came as refugees were forced to sleep in a makeshift tented village in Dublin’s Mount Street and on the banks of the nearby Grand Canal as they had nowhere else to go.
Tented village
It left Waterways Ireland with a bill of more than £660,000 last year to clean up the canal banks and put up fences to stop tents being pitched again.
Lucky told of the pain far-right agitators caused by targeting a refugee centre for parents and children.
“They were rattling the door of the accommodation,” he explained forlornly.
“Children were crying to their parents, ‘Are they going to kill us?’
“It was very scary.”
Yet there is a rosier side to Ireland’s immigration story away from the misery and disinformation.
With full employment — and Bank of Ireland predictions that the economy will grow by 4.3 per cent this year — the country has issued a record number of work visas.
More than 38,000 work permits were handed out last year — 24 per cent up on 2023 — with most going to Indians, Brazilians and Filipinos working in health, engineering and tech.
And more than half of the visas were issued for skilled workers whose salaries averaged just under €60,000.
Back in Enniscorthy, where around 3,000 have signed a petition against the Mercy Convent becoming a refugee centre, Paddy Kavanagh insists Ireland is still a land of a hundred thousand welcomes.
The dad-of-three blames government mismanagement for tensions, insisting: “They’re allowing people to come in, dump them in areas like this, and then it’s the local people’s problem.
“We’re not all far right.
“We’re not all extremists.
“But if things were handled differently and people were properly vetted, I know the Irish people would be more than welcoming.”
