Burning of Galway hotel exposes racist undercurrent in the land of a thousand welcomes

Arson has been a tactic deployed to keep 'undesirables' out long before the war in Ukraine or the uptick in International Protection applicants, writes Elaine Loughlin

The attack on the vacant Ross Lake House Hotel in Rosscahill is not the first time accommodation set aside for asylum seekers has been destroyed. Picture: Twitter/X

The land of a thousand welcomes would now rather burn accommodation to the ground than make room at the inn.

Fears of pressure on public services and even threats to local communities have been raised, but the latest burning of a hotel in Galway is simply another example of a racist undercurrent that has always been there—a bubbling hostility towards any group that is seen as different.