Cormac O'Keeffe: 'We didn’t start the fire' a pointed musical choice at anti-migrant protest
Anti-immigration protestors marching past a counter-demonstration of anti-racism activists on O'Connell St in Dublin on the public holiday Monday. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins
Shortly before the anti-immigrant protest started, a song blasted out from a speaker in the crowd.
It was the Billy Joel hit, .
On the back of a spate of suspected arson attacks on supposed accommodation centres for asylum seekers — the most recent one at Brittas on Sunday — it was a pointed choice of music.
Those closest to the speaker sang with gusto and delight at the chorus.
Elsewhere in the crowd was a large group of around 30 men, many masked with hoods and snoods over their faces, from the National Party and various groups belonging to fellow far-right grouping, the Irish Freedom Party, and a bunch belonging to Ireland First, many up from Cork.
Malachy Steenson, of the East Wall anti-immigration group, was the organiser of what he had described as a “national mobilisation”.
What had just been a few hundred people quickly swelled, and, by the time they started walking to O’Connell St, numbers had pushed to more than a 1,000, maybe as high as 1,500.
A Muslim woman, who said she was from Somalia, looked startled and ushered her two children on ahead of the march. Asked was she scared, the mother replied: “Yes, scared”.
The shouting from the crowd was deafening as they approached the Parnell Monument, but from here the scale of the garda presence hit home.
Outside the Ambassador were three public order unit vans and, at each of the wide junctions, there were solid lines of uniformed gardai.
Ahead, at the Spire, was what garda sources said was the “potential flashpoint”, where between 200-300 anti-racism campaigners had gathered.
As the marchers approached, bemused, smiling foreign tourists, of various ethnicities, held their phones up to record, perhaps thinking, on seeing all Irish flags flapping, it was some kind of Irish festival.
Gardaí had clearly planned their positions, with a line of uniform and two lines of gardaí in 'soft cap' public order gear, as well as parked garda vans, providing a strong barrier between the marchers and the counter-protesters.
There were tense scenes, as some marchers hurled verbal abuse and the two sides chanted at each other.
One senior garda said that if the barrier had not been put in place it would have been a “recipe for disaster”, one which O’Connell St had already experienced last November.
In all, 300 gardaí were on duty, including uniform, public order, mounted police, dog unit and plain clothes, assisted by air support.
Most of the marchers, up to a 1,000 in number, headed for the Custom House for music and speeches.
Those speaking included Mr Steenson and the leaders of the Irish Freedom Party, the National Party, and Ireland First, with the two parties urging people to join them and stand in elections.
The speeches were peppered with talk of 'colonisation', 'plantation', 'Pádraig Pearse', 'Ireland belonging to the Irish' and the 'Irish are rising up’.
After the speeches, a small group of around 30 wanted to go "walk about", but gardaí blocked off their routes and directed them to leave.
When they became agitated, 11 were arrested for public order offences.
"It was a bit of a marker, today, in terms of policing," commented one garda.
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