I am in Portugal, on a college campus in Leiria where I discussed how various European governments were handling immigration. Back in Ireland, “Pat Kenny keeps his cool as spluttering reporter is doused in pepper spray” at the site of a proposed migrant housing facility.
I enjoy the perspective of Henry McKean on Newstalk in Ireland. He gives raw accounts of “really ugly scenes” in Coolock. During live radio interviews, McKean captures how quickly an anti-immigration protests can spiral into chaos.
I was living in Pennsylvania in 1972 when Belfast was this chaotic. And just last week in my home state, a well-armed disenchanted young man expressed his political views through the shots he fired with his household AR-15.
Fortunately, protestors in Ireland don’t have home arsenals. But there has been a gravitational pull of events.
But in America, 20% of tbose surveyed believe political violence is appropriate. A third of those in the New York Times survey own guns.
I read reporting in The Irish Times that unpacks all this sentiment. The radio review section headline says, “Pat Kenny on the scenes in Coolock this week: ‘It’s like Belfast in 1972.′”
Here is a summary of the report by Mick Heaney.
The summer weather may be unseasonably cool, but as The Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk, weekdays) makes clear, another kind of heat is rising uncomfortably elsewhere.
The heat is of a more painfully physical variety for the show’s roving reporter Henry McKean, as he gets doused in pepper spray when gardaí clash with anti-immigration protesters in Coolock, north Dublin. “I feel like I’ve had something spicy, hot Chinese,” McKean splutters, struggling to speak between coughs. “This is not looking good for society, for community relations.”
Though the Trump shooting in my home state of Pennsylvania and the disturbances in Coolock are incidents of different magnitude, taken together they help create the impression of extremism and division growing ever greater. Certainly, McKean’s raw reportage of what he calls the “really ugly scenes” on Monday captures how quickly things descend into chaos. A woman is relating her concerns about the proposed refugee accommodation centre when a sudden outbreak of disorder prompts McKean to abandon the interview – “Sorry, madam” – and dive into the unfolding scene. “The guards have lost control,” he remarks as he gasps for breath.
Like Matt Cooper on The Last Word says, no matter how much consultation you give a local area, the “says no” or “is full” crowd wants to grab a headline by causing trouble. I do not believe the local people I see and hear posting their sentiment against resettling asylum seekers actually want to help improve community services. I see and hear people complaining about shortcomings in public services without offering specific ideas about how they would have the government attack those problems.
Do local protestors want to have the newly erected modular units designated as the model for social housing?
Do protestors who can’t get access to GP waiting lists want their government to pay GPs more so there can be extended clinic hours?
Do protestors who claim migrants are taking their jobs want the government to force Irish job seekers to take Deliveroo positions on e-bikes?
Should local councillors set up public meetings where local citizens can express their opinions about planned resettlements of asylum seekers?
From what I see onboard local public transportation, there are simmering problems with young teens who jump aboard buses and refuse to pay to travel. I reckon these teens and pre-teens who board the buses near well-known social housing estates want to claim their right to summertime free travel so they can meet up with friends around town to see what’s easy for the taking. I’ve watched these disenfranchised kids disembark at the local Lidl where they walk the aisles grabbing bread rolls to eat before getting a small item to buy on the way out. These kids probably feel left out so they’re taking things they believe should be given to them. And the shop staff and bus drivers feel they will be threatened if they disagree with this anti-social behaviour.
I work in the shadow of a new Sports Hub. If a staff member or security guard tells a teen to stop throwing rubbish on the ground or to stop yelling obsenities, they’re often pelted with stones or their cars are scratched.
I don’t think you can give public air time to many of the protestors because the language I have heard shouted at the guards could not be broadcast under existing Broadcast Authority rules.
Several Irish politicians have been hit with verbal abuse and bomb threats. Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe says it’s no malaise, “It’s violence,” he has told several broadcasters. Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar was told by the guards not to go home after the Dublin riots.
I wonder what it will take to reset Ireland as the country of 10,000 welcomes. There needs to be a better response from concerned citizens because the misinformation I read on TikTok has become adjudicated as truth. When that happens, the gurriers feel powered to cause trouble. Because in their world view, it is the lresence of migrants in their town that has made life more difficult for them.
It is easy to blame migration for every problem you face. And that is what I see in Ireland and in my Trump-Red State of Pennsylvania.