Blame Ireland’s migrant surge, not ‘right-wingers,’ for Dublin riots

Riot police stands guard near the scene of a suspected stabbing in Dublin. REUTERS

DUBLIN — In the 12 months leading up to April this year, 141,600 immigrants landed in Ireland.

The Irish population has increased by more than 2%. If the US had similar immigration, it would mean 9 million extra people.

This is the highest level since the prosperous “Celtic Tiger” era of the late ’90s.

Ireland’s non-nationals comprise a whopping 20% of the population.

The tinder box of immigration blew open Thursday with a mass riot in Dublin following the stabbing of a number of young children outside a school near the main street.

The alleged perpetrator is foreign-born but still a citizen.

The riots have, so far, led to more than 30 arrests and a number of stores destroyed.

Once a source of massive emigration to the United States, the Emerald Isle is now the destination of choice for Ukrainian refugees and other nationalities seeking a better life — and better welfare entitlements.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ireland had a surge of 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

Ukrainian refugees receive more than $200 a week from the Irish state — the most generous supplement provided by any European country.

Last year, more than 13,000 people from non-Ukrainian origin entered Ireland, a 400% spike over 2021.

A large portion of new applicants hail from Georgia, a country deemed “safe” by Georgia’s ambassador in Dublin.

This has turned an already explosive housing shortage into a catastrophe.

All these factors culminated in the horrific riots this week as hundreds of inner-city residents torched the streets in what the Prime Minister Leo Varadkar described as “huge destruction by a riotous mob.”

Buses, rail carriages and police cars were burned alongside an orgy of destruction and looting.

Dublin’s “fair city where the girls are so pretty” (as the famous Irish band the Dubliners proclaimed) was turned on its head as a Foot Locker and several other stores were burned and raided.

Rioters even hijacked a bus for reckless joyriding.

Police chiefs have been quick to blame “far right” anti-immigrant elements.

Yet public frustration with homelessness, joblessness, immigration, lack of law and order and anti-social behavior have been breeding a revolt by the urban underclass.

Ireland has seen a surge in anti-immigration protests in recent years as the large influx of migrants has sparked clashes with already deprived communities and rural enclaves.

That includes incidents of arson, such as the deliberate torching of centers used to house migrants.

Ireland’s authorities are now in panic about immigration, issuing last-minute promises about revoking generous welfare handouts for Ukrainians.

Their bigger problem: An election looms next year amid a dire shortage of houses for the young.

Irish youths are swinging to the Sinn Fein opposition political party, which was at one point the political wing of the terrorist Irish Republican Army.

Mainstream or center-led parties are in a panic about a Sinn Fein voting surge, as in 2020.

Commentary with vague but menacing tones about the “far right” masks the fact there is no political representation of serious conservative opinion in the Irish Parliament.

The divisions in Ireland’s conservative parties have prevented the emergence of a right-wing surge.

Smaller parties with various ideologies, from the European Union-hostile Irish Freedom Party to the Trump-inspired National Party, have struggled to garner sufficient support to even meet their election deposit requirements.

In a peculiar and laughable Irish tale dubbed the “Pot o’ Gold” scandal, the former leader of the National Party announced that $400,000 worth of the party’s gold had been stolen, not by left-wing agitators, but by other members seeking to rein him in.

These internal disputes cast doubt on the prospect of a successful right-leaning party emerging in the near future.

In the absence of such a political force, the question looms: How long before the Irish electorate follows the path of the United Kingdom and its continental European counterparts, shifting toward right-wing populism?

The emergence of street level anti-immigrant “far right” protests poses a double challenge to the ruling parties and Sinn Fein, which have refused to mention immigration.

Now, for the first time, immigration has been flung like a lit torch into the center of Irish politics.

The issue is now cutting across traditional political lines.

The speed with which the rioters took control of the main thoroughfare is bound to raise questions.

Irish police are afraid to use water cannons and tear gas, unlike other European countries and the United States; it took them more than four hours to subdue the rioters.

Plus, police morale is very low due to pointless virtue-signaling such as “hate speech” initiatives.

More than 90% of ordinary police officers recently voted “no confidence” in the country’s top law-enforcement officer.

They’re resigning in droves due to inadequate power, work pressure and malaise.

A high-profile assault this summer of an American tourist in Dublin led to an official security alert by the State Department for American tourists in the capital.

Ireland depends hugely on US dollar investment by tourists and big American corporations.

If nothing else, the sight of burning vehicles in Ireland’s Times Square will act as a wake-up call to the Irish government.

The image of Ireland as a safe place for both investors and tourists has been severely tarnished.

The social and political consequences of Thursday’s riots will fester in Ireland for years to come and shape its politics, stability and culture.

Theo McDonald is based in Dublin and writes about economic and social issues.