Councillor Joe Costello verbally abused while addressing anti-immigration protesters

Joe Costello speaking to people at an anti-immigration protest. 

Veteran Labour Party politician Joe Costello, who was asked to provide information to local people protesting outside a refugee centre, had his microphone “violently” grabbed off him by a masked man and was verbally abused.

The councillor, and former junior minister, said many people in the crowd were “intimidatory” and that this particular grouping, who he suspected were mainly “outsiders”, did not want to hear him explain what the actual situation was.

The incident was covered, in part, on mobile phones and was circulated online.

Mr Costello lives in Stoneybatter, in Dublin's north west inner city, where groups of Ukrainian refugees have been temporarily housed in the Sports Centre on Aughrim Street over the last year.

The protest took place last Thursday evening, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I live on the street and I was asked by a number of locals what the actual situation was [with the Sports Centre] and to say a few words and that local people would be involved in the protest. That was context I went there.

“There was a large crowd, locals and people not local and people with faces covered.” 

Joe Costello. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

He said the group had marched around the area for over an hour, at times blocking the busy North Circular Road, before reassembling in front of the Sport Centre at around 7.30pm.

“They were excitable at that stage," Mr Costello said. "I asked for the mic and was given it. I tried to explain the situation, that I was talking to Dublin City Council and what was happening" 

He said he tried to explain that what was happening had been happening over the course of the last 12 months — that a number of Ukrainians had come in, and that was going to happen again in future, about 60 of them. 

"They had been welcome and there had been no problems.” 

As caught on the recording, one woman in the crowd shouted, “get the mic off him”.

Mr Costello is heard saying: “Tomorrow, is the anniversary of…” when a masked man with a cap moved in and forcibly grabbed the mic off him, telling him to “f**k off” with other men joining in.

A woman shouted that “no Ukrainians” were coming in and that they were all “unvetted men”.

A second woman, on a separate microphone, shouted at Mr Costello: “Are you happy with unvetted men coming into this community centre? Yes or No?” Mr Costello tried to explain with the crowd, but his voice is not heard on the recording – but he’s again told to “f**k off”.

He then tried to reason with two men confronting him, one of whom shouted at him: “Irish first, Irish f**king first. End of.” 

Commenting on what happened, Mr Costello told the Irish Examiner: “Social media had been full of rumours and scaremongering — that 150 Somalian men were coming in and up to no good. I was in the middle of explaining the truth, but that was not the type of message a lot of them wanted to hear and another mic started drowning me out and there were a couple of guys with masks and the mic was violently grabbed off me. 

"It was a large group of very noisy, very intimidatory people.” 

He believed outsiders, who were more “seasoned campaigners”, were spreading fear among locals, about their women and children not being safe.

In one of the videos circulated, taken while the protestors were marching around beforehand, a man facing the camera claimed the Government was bringing in unvetted men who were “raping our women and children”.

He said people were not going to take it anymore, before finishing with a threat: “Get them fucking out, simple as that, or else.” 

An ‘Ireland is Full’ rally took place on Saturday outside the GPO before marching along O’Connell Street. Over 100 people are estimated to have attended.

The previous week, up to 50,000 people are estimated to have attended an ‘Ireland For All’ protest.