Plans have been dropped to move 80 asylum seekers into a disused hotel in Rooskey, Co Leitrim.

One resident said she was upset at the anti-racism protest taking place in the town.

Those objecting to asylum seeker accommodation will often claim not to be racist but to be expressing legitimate concerns about the background of the impending new arrivals, the strain they will place on local services and the impact they will have on the character of their adopted town.

A local TD has said that while a Roscommon community is opposed to the use of a hotel for asylum seekers there, they "do not condone" a second fire in the space of just over a month there.

When violence raises its head in society it dwarfs all else and requires a response that simply cannot be left open to be interpreted as equivocation, writes Michael Clifford.