Piaras MacEinrí: Anti-migrant sentiment is nothing new, but xenophobes are a tiny minority

There is understandable if ill-informed resentment among disadvantaged Irish because of the Government’s failure to address wider issues, writes Piaras MacEinrí

28/11/2022 Protestors pictured this evening on East Wall Road, where they marched to Dublin Port and blocked traffic in both directions for about 45 minutes. The group are protesting about Government policy on housing refugees in an unused in an usused office building.on East Wall Road.... Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

It didn’t start yesterday.

The year: 1938. The constituency: Meath East. The migrants were not, however, Ukrainian, Afghan, Syrian, or African. They were Irish.