The Irish Minister for Justice has greenlighted the use of anti-terror legislation against growing protests against asylum centres after altercations between protestors and police outside the Irish Parliament (Dáil Éireann) marked the return of politicians from their summer recess.
Thirteen arrests were made and the parliamentary grounds were temporarily locked down after hundreds of protesters gathered the morning of Wednesday, September 21st, with one independent politician, Michael Healy-Rae, accosted by protestors and forced to vacate the premises under police protection.
Particular media attention has been paid to the use of a life-sized mock gallows featuring pictures of leading Irish politicians by protesters as other parliamentarians struggled to enter the gates of Parliament due to the assembled mob.
Consequently, a review has been launched into ramping up security at the relatively unprotected parliamentary building in time for next month’s budget day for fear of further protests.
While no political party or group organised Wednesday’s protests, the media has been quick to cast blame on the emergent populist right in Ireland with the country and its political establishment transfixed by the rapid rise of anti-asylum protests since late last year.
There is now an expectation that the Irish government will shortly tap into existing anti-terror legislation, traditionally used against militant republicans, to prevent future protests outside parliament grounds. One such law is a 1939 law that prohibits demonstrations that directly disrupt government business and even allows for internment without trial.
The acceptance of just under 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and a surge in non-European asylum applicants over the past year has prompted a major social crisis in the Republic, already grappling with a systemic housing crisis and 13,000 homeless citizens, with blockades emerging in some rural communities against new asylum centres.
This is not the first time violence has erupted around the asylum issue in Ireland. An attempt at establishing an outdoor migrant squat recently in inner city Dublin was met with arson by disgruntled locals, while 75% of the Irish public agrees that the country has taken in too many refugees.
