When you arrive at any airport in the Republic of Ireland, one of the first things you see is a sign in Gaelic with the inscription céad mile fáilte, which means something like “welcome a hundred thousand times.” For tourists, investors and businessmen and women it remains that way, but immigrants and political asylum seekers would do well not to take it literally.
Ireland is no longer what it used to be. Neither in social terms (overwhelming influence of the Church, resistance to abortion and divorce), nor in political terms (domination of two center parties and absence of the extreme right and the extreme left), nor in what refers to immigration. Before, the Irish emigrated. Now, of the five million there are, one was born outside the island.
Last November, Dublin experienced the biggest riots in a long time, following the attack by a native of Algeria on school children. Outside the capital, in recent months, twenty establishments contracted by the Government to house refugees have suffered arson attacks, from hotels to pubs to a nursing home and a former convent, both in rural areas and in poor neighborhoods in the cities. The authorities have run out of facilities in which to place asylum seekers, because the owners of premises capable of fulfilling that mission are threatened by angry citizens in a full-fledged intimidation campaign. Vandals throw bricks at the windows and cut off running water and electricity.
In Roscrea, County Tipperary, about 120 kilometers west of Dublin – a depressed town of 5,500 inhabitants – the only hotel in the town, where locals used to go to dinner, celebrate weddings and baptisms, was handed over by its owner to the Government to shelter immigrants. And all hell broke loose. For more than a month, hundreds of people have been camping in front of the establishment with banners such as “The island is full”, “Ireland first”, “IrishLivesMatter” or “Ireland for the Irish”, taking turns so that there is a twenty-four-hour presence. Local merchants donate blankets, they have set up a truck with free food and portable bathrooms.
Inside, seventeen refugees who arrived at the beginning of the protests, between barricades and with police protection (they were supposed to be followed by a hundred and a half more), feel – saving the distance – like the black children who were going for the first time. once to formerly segregated schools in 1950s Alabama or Mississippi, surrounded by a hostile crowd, if not against them as individuals, then against what they represent. In that climate, who dares to go out for a walk, go shopping, have a pint in the pub?
“The problem is not so much the immigrants as the Government, which encourages them to come with the argument that it has to comply with its international obligations, but without any sensitivity towards the locals,” says one of the participants in the protest, which has six months without work. He doesn't put them in residences or hotels in good, posh and expensive neighborhoods in Dublin, not that, of course, but rather he takes away the only thing we have from us, and brings them to towns where the school classrooms are already saturated, there is a lack of teachers and doctors to care for everyone. Before opening the doors of the country, public services and infrastructure would have to be put in order.”
It is the usual refrain of the anti-immigration ecosystem everywhere, but in Ireland it is more surprising because it is a country of emigrants and a huge diaspora, especially in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, which until now had not had an extreme right. visible (even today it lacks parliamentary representation), and nationalism, perhaps due to the past of colonization, has been associated more with the left. The dialectic of a people oppressed by England, which won its freedom after an epic and bloody fight between David and Goliath, is rooted in literature, music and cinema.
Some of those who have laid siege to the Racket Hall Hotel in Roscrea since early January themselves arrived in Ireland years ago from other countries. "It is curious the phenomenon of how emigrants or descendants of emigrants are often the most furious supporters of a country closing its doors to foreigners, they are convinced that they have made merits or have qualities that others do not have, ignoring that they They benefited from a generosity that they deny to others. It is like in the United Kingdom, where former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Priti Patel, of Asian origin, are the main advocates of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. Or the case of Derek Blighe, the founder of the xenophobic Ireland First party, a former construction worker from Cork who lived in Canada,” says sociologist Mary O’Connor.
In 2023, 140,000 immigrants settled in Ireland – 30% more than the previous year – and since the war the authorities have welcomed one hundred thousand Ukrainians who are spread throughout the country. “I feel very good, the people treat me wonderfully, I have no complaints, the Irish are very fun, talkative and friendly,” says Oleg, who has no intention of returning. But his experience is not that of everyone, and certainly not that of Syrian, Afghan, Sudanese, Somali or Yemeni refugees. Race has a lot to do with it.
Of all those arriving from abroad, the vast majority have done so with work permits, to study or do business, or to reunite with their families, with their papers perfectly in order, and only 14,000 have submitted applications for political asylum. The government has the legal obligation to shelter and maintain them until their demands are resolved, but an increasing sector of the native population sees them as “freeloaders” who contribute nothing to the economy and further saturate public services. “In my daughter's class – points out a Roscrea merchant – there are already 35 students, the only thing missing was for foreigners to arrive who do not speak English, who must be given special help and who will lower everyone's level. Because it always equalizes at the bottom.”
The growing Irish far-right has made its bible of a recent and controversial report on the Danish economy according to which only foreigners with a good educational and economic level, generally coming from rich countries, have a positive fiscal impact, contribute to growth and payment of pensions, while the rest (mostly originating from Africa and Asia) constitute a drag, barely pay taxes, retire early and receive much more in subsidies than they contribute.
“If we continue receiving immigrants at the current level, by 2050 there will be more foreigners than natives in Ireland and we will be unrecognizable as a country,” says Finlay Conan, a businessman who has come to Roscrea from Limerick and does not hide his sympathies for Vox, Meloni , Le Pen or Wilders–. The Irish pension fund has a deficit of €335 million. To maintain the current ratio of five active workers per retired person, within a quarter of a century we should have admitted four million more immigrants. The richest thirty percent of taxpayers contribute about 26,000 euros annually to the State, while the poorest thirty percent receive eight thousand euros in aid. For the system to work equitably, those who come from outside would have to earn the same as the nationals, but that is not the case.”
75% of Irish people believe that there are more immigrants than there should be, and 2 out of 3 would consider supporting a far-right party if it were a useful vote, that is, if they could have parliamentary representation (which does not happen now and It is very difficult due to the electoral system).
In the 17th century, England confiscated land from Gaelic tribal chiefs and sent Protestants to the island to control and “civilize” the natives, a phenomenon known as the Plantation. Some consider that the massive arrival of immigrants now is something similar, but this time the settlers are not British. Before, Irish was almost synonymous with emigrant. Now in Roscrea one thing is clear: no one greets refugees by wishing them “a thousand welcomes.”
