Not previously high on the agenda of voters more concerned with a crumbling, two-tier healthcare system and a chronic housing crisis, a recent poll found that a small majority (56%) of Irish respondents believe the country has accepted too many refugees over the past year.
Ooh, must be racism!
Ireland is currently housing about 74,000 asylum applicants, 49,227 of whom are Ukrainians.
Oh. OK, must be over-estimation of the true figures!
A year ago, the total number was 7,500.
Oh. Errr...? The mythical 'far right', then?
Now anti-refugee sentiment has exploded amid a devastating housing crisis, made worse by the destabilising effects of public sector cuts and stagnant wages.
These protests have drawn from the same rhetorical, tactical, and ideological energy as the recent anti-refugee riot in Knowsley, England.
Imported from Britain, no less!
Preying on these fears, Irish far-right activists are disseminating false information about criminal activities. Proliferating through social media on any given day are rumours of sexual assault or the harassment of women by migrants, or grainy, unverifiable video clips of the same.
Ah, so when you can't deny that incidents have actually happened because there's video evidence, just whine about the qaulity of the video instead. Genius!
In reality, the far-right menace remains small.
So why are you getting hot under the collar about it?
But the spread of the contagion could provide a challenge from the right as Sinn Féin feathers itself for power for the first time in the Irish republic . Growing anti-migrant sentiment could benefit the more hardline immigration policies of parties such as Fine Gael. Only time will tell, however, if the anti-immigration consensus seen in large parts of Britain can be replicated in Ireland.
If the issues you decry as 'nonsense' keep up, you'll see it all right.
