Cycling along the Liffey quays some time back I saw a crowd waving Tricolour and other flags and heard a roar of “Get them out!” No mystery about the origin: the far-Right racists that crawled out into the light in recent years, targeting migrants.1
The same cry has been heard outside proposed IPAS centres and in other demonstrations that can mostly be characterised as anti-immigrant and anti-refugee.
Scene with cars set alight by racist Loyalist mobs in Belfast on 6 June.At least three houses were also set ablaze. (Photo: Getty images)
But why should we be “getting them out”? In answer to that question all we get is lying propaganda. “They are getting housing instead of Irish people.” No, they are not. Some refugees are getting hostel accommodation and many are not, even though Ireland has signed up to accept some.
If refugees are getting such good treatment, why would so many be living in tents on streets, parks or along canal banks? And why are far-Right fascists threatening them and slashing their tents? Are they claiming that refugees are doing them out of living in tents themselves?
In fact we never had widespread affordable decent housing but high emigration made it less noticeable. All the same there were struggles in the 1960s and 70s led by the Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Housing Action Committees, involving occupations of houses and fighting evictions.
Another claim is that migrants are a threat to Irish women. Why would that be the case? Yet, every day in the mass media we read of cases of rape, sexual harassment and controlling behaviour of women — by Irish men!
The far-Right also claim that migrants are a threat to children (actually, they often claim that LGBT people are also, calling them ‘paedos’). Fact: the major threat to children in Ireland have been Irish institutions including the Catholic Church, which is strongly defended by the far-Right.
Sociological research shows that most sexual abuse of children happens in the family or friend circle and we regularly read in the media of those cases also – nearly always by Irish men.
Then there’s the “military-age single men” mantra – what does that even mean? Military age is usually understood to be between 17 and 45 years of age. It is in other words the age at which most men emigrate to work in other lands. The age at which most Irish emigrated!2
It’s also an age of most health and physical ability to travel, to work and to send money home, as hundreds of thousands of us Irish did, whether single or married, or the optimum age to risk the dangers of being a refugee trying to find somewhere safe for one’s family to follow.
Research shows that the “military-age single men” mantra is a recent addition to Irish far-Right discourse, some believing it an import from the far-Right in the USA, along with the racist “great white replacement” conspiracy theory, adapted here to “replacing the Irish” conspiracy theory).
Which reminds me that the arrival of migrants is often characterised as “an invasion.” Really? When we emigrated in the past or today for work or safety from persecution, were or are we invading England, Scotland, Wales, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand? Or other countries?
We are not being invaded by refugees or migrant workers. But we have been invaded by British troops and colonial police, foreign multinationals, and US and NATO flights.
The far-Right in Ireland hate foreigners and their imagined ‘invasion’, but not it seems the reality of British troops occupying one-sixth of our country and patrolling it with their colonial and sectarian police force. Nor the reality of the RAF and the USAF violating our airspace.
Nor the foreign multinationals and vulture funds controlling our housing market, taking over Irish firms and public infrastructure and plundering our national resources.
Get them out? Well if migrants and their contribution to Irish society were to be ‘got out’, there would be a massive task facing the far-Right.
We should then get rid of the Tricolour, as it was presented to us by foreigners: revolutionary Republican women in Paris in 1948. We should also reject the Irish Republic flag, which was created on domestic material in the home of Constance Markievicz, who was born in London.
Yes, and she delivered it in 1916 to the GPO so that it was raised on the Princes Street corner of the GPO by a man who was born in Argentina. Of course, inside the GPO were Thomas Clarke and James Connolly, the first born in England and the second in Edinburgh (where he was raised too).
I do recall a racist recently denouncing the Save Moore Street From Demolition campaign for pointing out the foreign origins of those two signatories of the 1916 Proclamation and insisting that it was where their parents came from that mattered.
What then of Patrick and Willie Pearse, whose father was English or Tomás McDonagh, whose mother was English too? Or Thomas Davis, whose father was Welsh? Clearly there’s a massive job ahead with “getting them out”, all these foreign connections in our resistance history.
Many of our martyrs and heroes, writers, song composers, musicians, flags, songs, poems, literature, documents “contaminated” by migrants will need to dumped if the far-Right are honest in their slogans. But they are not, of course – they only use them to fool the masses.
“But who is he writing this for? The organised fascists won’t care and their followers won’t read it.” A good question – to whom we speak and write is as important as what we speak and write. I don’t write it for the organised fascists of course, the debate with them will inevitably be a physical one.
Nor do I write it for their deluded followers, who would hardly be reading articles in the Rebel Breeze blog. I write it for you and you and you, to use in your discussions with the deluded followers, those who are willing to listen because you are neighbours, workmates or families.
And if you already knew all this or I have not written it well enough or you fail in using it and other arguments you use, I’m sorry, I and you did our best. In the end, the argument will be resolved in the street and on barricades. And we need to get ready for that too.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1I wrote this quite some time ago but it never got posted for some reason or other. After the racist riots in Belfast seems a good time to dig it out and post it.
Far from the declared aim to “close down this kip” in an online call for a rally against Peadar Brown’s pub in Dublin, not a single far-Right supporter of the call made even a token appearance at the appointed hour Saturday afternoon.
This was no huge surprise; these elements tend mostly to attack small groups of people or torch empty building and surely quickly came to the conclusion that neither of those things would they be facing in the case of Peadar Browne’s. No indeed. A full building of many people.
The on-line event poster for the far-Right rally was followed by a number of posts and comments vilifying the pub’s management for allegedly banning a customer over his racist remarks but went further to attack the pub’s history and general political ambience too.
Recently-elected fascist member of Dublin City Council Gavin Pepper had himself videoed outside the pub on Friday night after it was closed, issuing veiled threats.
Closer view of section of the crowd last Saturday outside the front of the pub. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Peadar Browne’s pub has built up a reputation over years as one of socialist Irish Republican outlook, with both external appearance in flags and mural along with the interior decorations unashamedly declaring the broad sympathies of both owners and clientele.
The venue has seen a number of events in keeping with that perspective held there, ranging from concerts to fund-raising events of various kinds, in addition to public and private meetings. The large mural of a Palestinian flag on the pub’s side also declares their internationalist sympathies.
Section of last Saturday’s crowd outside Peadar Brown’s, this one at the side of the pub. (Photo: R.Breeze)
For some time Saturday before the 3pm appointed for the rally, defenders were arriving, including Irish Republicans and Irish socialists of various organisations and none, Palestine supporters Irish and other, along with activists more specifically antifascist.
Soon both the inside and external areas of the pub were full, with extra banners and flags lining the external area facing the road. Occasionally the driver of a passing vehicle tooted its horn in solidarity, sometimes with extended clenched fist and encouraging roar from the passenger’s side.
Section of last Saturday’s crowd outside Peadar Brown’s, viewed from the middle of the road outside. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Near to the rally’s appointed hour it began to rain and continued for a while but the pub’s external area had been canopied over so few had to move – unless it were to use the toilet or refresh their glasses.
Conversations slowed on occasion as people checked their timepieces, looked outwards, shrugged and resumed talking. By 4pm most of those who hadn’t left decided they’d be staying, already in their evening weekend socialising venue, or at least for the first stage of the evening.
Section of last Saturday’s crowd outside Peadar Brown’s, this one at the top side of the pub. (Photo: R.Breeze)
In fairness, the absence of any uniformed Gardaí on the ground to protect the far-Right had been an indication that they were not expected to appear.
In Conclusion, drawing up The Balance:
The pub had one of its fullest Saturday afternoons and boosted its reputation among many who knew of it only vaguely, while online calls for a boycott were taken by many as recommendations for “a pub with no racists”. Fascists and racists in turn suffered a hit to their morale.
Some of the defenders on Saturday at the lower side with the mural behind them. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Socialists, communists, Irish Republicans and independent antifascists stood together in defence of a pub with an Irish Republican socialist ambience and strong pro-Palestine presence against a threat from far-Right and fascist elements.
Liberals, social democrats and former Republicans, usually prominent on anti-racist marches? Not so much.
Irish media on Thursday 9th reported that the authorities removed the tents of refugees and asylum-seekers from along the banks of the Grand Canal. These had set up there after being removed from the vicinity of the IPO1. Where could they go?
Apparently they are dispersed to Newmount Kennedy (where we’ve seen – if not fascist mobs, certainly mobs containing some fascists), Dundrum, Crooksling and City West. Hopefully they will get a roof, showers and food, though thrown out to outskirts without any plan of integration.
The tents were dismantled when Harris said they were unacceptable and that accommodation was now available. However, despite four dismantling actions by government, on each occasion many asylum seekers were not provided with accommodation, thus causing a new camp to be established each time.(Photo: SRI)
In the four months since January a thousand have applied to the International Protection Office. They get issued with a Temporary Residence Card2 (known as the “Blue book”) and not much else; if they lose that documentation (e.g during eviction) they are in trouble.
Photo ID is issued to them when they make their application for asylum at IPO. Finger prints are taken, statements recorded etc. All evidence is cross-checked with relevant authorities including Interpol. Hence, the notion that men are “unvetted” or “undocumented” is inaccurate.
They are told there is no accommodation available which is why they end up in tents, since clearly they cannot afford to rent, much less take out a mortgage to buy a property. But Róisín McAleer of Social Rights Ireland questions whether the IPO have been telling applicants the truth.
“We’ve got video showing empty beds inside Direct Provision Centres at City West and Dundrum” the activist says. The IPO admits that they have 5,000 empty beds but says that they have to keep those empty beds available in case they have to cater for women and children.
The response of the Irish Government has been to blame the refugees and remove their tents from their locations, while simultaneously funding NGOs who have recently supplied them with identical-type tents and “may provide access to meals, access to showers during the day.”3
“Taoiseach Simon Harris said that neither he, nor the Government, would accept tented encampments in the city” and “hundreds of tents were destroyed when two encampments were removed … in the capital in multi agency operations in the past week.”4
A slogan attacking the Green Party’s role in the Irish Coalition Government (Photo: SRI)(Photo: SRI)
A common line in discourse is that the refugees and asylum-seekers are “undocumented” apart from whatever documentation they are issued here, which they often are, of course.
What documentation would one expect to have when fleeing war, persecution or natural disaster, always on the move, crossing mountains, deserts, rivers, seas, national boundaries?
In some places, the ‘wrong’ documentation can get you killed, marking you as the ‘wrong’ religion, nationality, tribal group … Thousands of us emigrated undocumented too and what’s more, worked undocumented as well.
Yet Helen McEntee, Justice Minister of this Government, who will never have had anything like the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, throws around the “undocumented” word, straight from the playbook of the Far-Right, whipping up fears, hinting at some kind of menace.
“Everyone fleeing persecution or serious harm in their own country has the right to ask for international protection. Asylum is a fundamental right and granting it to people who comply with the criteria set in the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees.”5
It “is an international obligation for States parties, which include EU Member States.”6 While applicants are waiting for a decision on their application for international protection, according to EU legislation the Irish State is required to supply accommodation, food and medical care.7
Róisín McAleer for Social Rights Ireland stated that the Irish Government was in breach of its EU obligations which oblige all states to provide seekers of asylum with accommodation at the point of presentation. A number of agencies have pointed out this serious breach.
Protest outside Dublin City Council’s main offices. (Photo: SRI)
McAleer states that SRI had been trying to get solicitors to take a case against the Irish Government under EU law but had found difficulty in doing so, some saying that immigration law was not their forte. “This is a case of human rights, not immigration law,” stated the interviewee.
What about Lawyers for Palestine, have they contacted them? “Yes,” is the answer “but no reply.”
THE FAR-RIGHT’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST REFUGEES
Not only the Irish Government but the Far-Right also have been working to mobilise public opinion against these refugees and asylum seekers. And at times actually physically attacking them also, going as far as to burn an encampment area in South Dublin dockland not far from the IPO.
Masquerading as “patriots” who “want to put the Irish first”, they repeat foreign-origin racist stories and false conspiracy tales,8 spread lies, false news and misinformation. Chief among those is that “Ireland is full”, which is untrue as even a little knowledge of our history will show.
In fact, being far from “full”, Ireland is UNDER-populated. The population of the whole of Ireland in the mid 1800s was 8 million but now hovers just over 7 million.9 Do those pushing that false story care about the real facts? If they don’t, then what is their real agenda?
One of the nastiest calls to action has been to “get them out” – no, not the Government, nor the ruling Gombeen class, not the British colonial occupiers. No, not any of the justifiable targets (but which might involve risk). No, they mean refugees, asylum seekers and really any migrants at all.
And why? Who are these groups harming? Well, apparently it’s because the Government should “house the Irish first”. But … how would evicting refugees from tents, repurposed buildings or Direct Provision Centres get any Irish person housed any quicker?
It wouldn’t of course, nor be of even the slightest help to people struggling to pay high rents to landlord companies, or to pay their mortgages to banks, or about to be evicted by vulture funds.
(Photo: SRI)
But the fascists and racists manipulating their followers don’t care, that’s not what they are there for. If they really did want to get ‘the Irish’ housed, they could occupy empty buildings to pressure the system, like the Revolutionary Housing League have been doing and calling on others to do.
No, the Far-Right prefer to torch buildings, including one in the south docklands that was earmarked for general homeless people.
Ironically, near the tents’ location a national liberation battle was fought around Mount Street Bridge in 1916 and the Commandant of that garrison was a migrant, as were many others, including two of the 1916 Proclamation’s Seven Signatories — of which another two were sons of migrants.
Mount Street Battle Monument on the Bridge over the Grand Canal. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
In April, according to the Department of Housing, 13,866 people were in emergency accommodation in the Irish state, including 4,147 children, with many others sleeping on the streets, others in hotel rooms, hostels or sofa-surfing with friends and relations.10
But of course, the Far-Right don’t occupy empty buildings, having no intention of taking on the powerful financial interests that are making money out of all this misery. In fact, the Far-Right are helping those parasites, by diverting attention from them on to refugees and asylum seekers.
“SINGLE, MILITARY-AGE MEN”
Yes, the men are alone, whether they left a partner and children behind to find a way out for them or indeed are single. And yes, they are “military age” – 18-45 years of age, just like most male migrants that left Ireland for work in the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada …
That is the usual profile when the migrant is male. Because they can work and then send money back to family. And because in a risky endeavour they are generally less at risk and more willing to take the chance than females.11
(Photo: SRI)
But we never used that kind of description of our own emigrants, did we? We just said “young men” mostly. Where did that terminology come from, with its implied threat? From the USA, the hatchery of most Far-Right religious fundamentalism, conspiracy and racist theories and memes.12
We do have our own home-grown fascists of course with quite a high concentration of them among the Loyalists in the Six County colony. But also a few small crews this side of the British Border, well-linked to Loyalists and British fascists like Tommy “Robinson” and Nigel Farage.
The threat of sexual attack from foreigners is a version of that US fear propaganda, especially fear of black rape of white women — which is ironic since it was white slavers, slave-owners and plantation managers who raped black slaves and their children.
If we go through the media reports of court cases concerning rape, sexual assault and child sexual abuse, we find that by and large it’s the “indigenous Irish” who are the culprits. A minority of the population of course but Irish nevertheless.
How do volunteers working with the tent-living refugees experience them? “Respectful …. grateful” says one volunteer. “Quiet …. modest” is another description. “Some have high hopes of the values of western society but find themselves in shock and incomprehension at some of their treatment.”
Where have they come from? “Mostly Nigeria, Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria, Palestine …” Interestingly from an Irish point of view, all countries that the British have invaded at one time or another.
What causes waves of emigration from one area of the world and immigration to another? High on the list of causes are domestic unemployment, wars and natural disasters. Irish people have left Ireland pushed by all those factors.
Wars of occupation and ethnic cleansing, i.e plantations by England along with domestic resistance have sent Irish people outward from the 17th century onwards. In the mid-19th Century the natural disaster of the potato blight amongst imposed impoverishment flung out millions of migrants.
Throughout most of the decades of the Irish State’s existence, unemployment was the main driving force of emigration, so much so that until the years of the “Tiger economy”,13 Ireland remained underpopulated but with stable population figures despite a high birth and survival rate.
The factors that drive migrants to our shores are no different. When it comes to foreign wars of imperialism however, ironically the Far-Right deride socialist Republicans and socialists for protesting against those wars, going so far as to call them “traitors” for doing so.
When people are neglected, they often resent any focus on others. “What about me?” is their cry, whether voiced out loud or not. There is no doubt that many communities in Ireland have suffered government neglect, even been devastated by substance misuse and social crime.
Resolution of those social problems can only come about through organising against the culpable authorities and their pandering to the banks, property speculators and big landlords who benefit from the current situation – never by “punching down” on even more vulnerable people.
Homeless refugee tents along the Grand Canal, Dublin, before they were removed by the authorities. Simon Harris, Taoiseach (equivalent to Prime Minister) said that homeless tents in Dublin are not acceptable – however, homelessness apparently is. (Photo: SRI)
LIKE US
I called this article “emigrants and refugees like us” to make a number of points. One is that we too have been emigrants and refugees for centuries (and many still are). We went to Britain for seasonal work in the harvests and later for work on canals, roads and in factories.
We went to the USA too, Canada, Australia, New Zealand …
That’s about economic emigration. But we went as refugees too, fleeing religious and political persecution, fleeing ethnic cleansing, genocide and famine. Gaelic clans found asylum in Spain, Italy, France, Austria … Republicans found asylum in France and the USA …
Message in Irish to Roderic O’Gorman, Minister of Integration (and other social responsibilities). (Photo: SRI)
It wasn’t always easy. We faced racism, yes real anti-Irish racism14, slurs that we were dangerous, dirty, carrying disease, taking jobs of locals … And we had the cheek to organise ourselves and to make alliances with a number of other discriminated-against groups to win some power!
We fought racists like the “Know Nothings” and the Ku Kux Klan,15 Blackshirts and National Front16 on the streets. We fought rich mine, factory and railroad-owners, formed trade unions and associations and we were clubbed, shot, jailed and executed. And we clubbed and shot back too.17
There’s another reason I called this article “emigrants and refugees like us”: We are ALL descended from migrants or refugees. The Irish nation is composed, apart from the “native Irish”, of Viking, Norman, Scottish, English, Flemish, Dutch and Italian blood (remember, fish and chip shops, ice cream and cafés) before others came from further away.
And the “native indigenous Irish”? The Celts? Yes, migrants too, from central Europe, with iron tools and weapons. Before them? The bronze-metal people. And before them again? The Neolithic people who built the likes of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth in the Boyne Valley.
The human race did not evolve in Ireland. We are all descended from migrants.
The third reason I called this article “emigrants and refugees like us” is because, like us, they are human. The feel hunger and fear just like we do. They need safety and warmth just like we do. If we deny them those things we diminish our own humanity in doing so.
That might seem a bit wishy-washy but to me, our humanity in its best sense is worth everything and if need be, it’s worth fighting for.
End.
FOOTNOTES
1 International Protection Agency, the Irish State’s agency with responsibility for processing refugees and people seeking asylum in the state.
2 This is photo ID issued to them when they make their application for asylum at IPO. Fingerprints are taken, statements recorded etc. All evidence is cross-checked with relevant authorities including Interpol. Hence, the notion that men are “unvetted” or “undocumented” is inaccurate.
8 Such as the “white replacement” conspiracy theory from settler colonies like South Africa and Rhodesia, then via white supremacist groups in the USA and through social media to Ireland.
14 Not the rubbish “racism” of which the Far-Right claim they are the “victims” whenever anyone calls out their racism or homophobia.
15 The “Know Nothings” were mostly white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant settled nativists in the USA who organised against other European migrants such as the Irish and when brought to court for murder or riot, they would claim to “know nothing”. The Ku Klux Klan was set up primarily to suppress freed slaves and other black people in the USA but they also organised against the Irish. British fascist groups: Blackshirts (British Union of Fascists) in the 1930s and after WW2 and National Front in the 1960s and 1970s, later replaced by the British Movement.
16 Both British fascist organisations: the first from the 1930s and resurrected after WWII for a period; the second from the 1960s, later superseded by others (British Movement, EDL etc).
17 Not just in the Molly Maguires but also in the IWW and the Knights of Labor.
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