Many residents of East Wall took to the streets on Saturday night to protest the arrival of a busload of male asylum seekers into the old ESB building in East Wall the night before.
The news, which first broke via a video on Twitter, has sparked controversy both politically, and online.
Protesters are taking issue with the fact that no prior discussion took place and they were not made aware that they would be receiving a large number of male refugees.
However, many Twitter users have taken issue with the nature of these protests, condemning them as xenophobic attacks.
Panti Bliss, owner of thePantiBar on Capel Street and LGBTQ+ activist, said: “I live in an apartment building in ‘working class’ Dublin 1. Everyone who lives in my building is ‘unvetted’ including all the ‘single males’ and the ‘foreign’ ones. The protests in East Wall are racist.”
Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera pantibliss@mastodon.ie
@PantiBliss
I live in an apartment building in “working class” Dublin 1. Everyone who lives in my building is “unvetted” including all the “single males” and the “foreign” ones. The protests in East Wall are racist.
The protests which have now been taking place for over 5 days have been growing in size due to the volume of social media attention that they have received.
There have been concerns from Twitter users that certain individuals may be using these protests to further their own agenda and what may have started as a peaceful protest is now being used as a Trojan horse for certain individuals to promote racism.
The General
@Garbhannn
People are right to protest in East Wall at the moment. However it is being hijacked by far right grifters who have never been to the area and are not locals, only individuals that are trying to force their agenda on a working class community.
Many politicians and TDs have spoken out against the protests. Sinn Fein’s Eoin O’Brion spoke to RTE News in an attempt to redirect the protestors’ anger, “If you’re angry with the Government… get out and protest against Government policy, not against other vulnerable individuals”.
Many Twitter users seem to share this sentiment, that the issue lies with a lack of planning from the Government on immigration.
Twitter user @VinnyMourinho tweeted, ‘The piece you are missing here is the process. Your annoyance should be directed at the government’s lack of foresight on immigration. No plans- No
accommodation / poor facilities flimsy vetting – no transparency. Labelling people of East Wall as Racist is inconsiderate at best.”
Vincent Osborne
@VinnyMourinho
The piece you are missing here is the process. Your annoyance should be directed at the government’s lack of foresight on immigration. No plans- No accommodation / poor facilities, flimsy vetting – no transparency. Labelling people of East Wall as Racist is inconsiderate at best.