How Anti-Immigrant Anger Has Divided a Small Irish Town
A continuing protest in the town of Roscrea symbolizes a surge in hostility toward migrants in Ireland that is fueled by a housing crisis and far-right influencers.
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On a cold January afternoon in Roscrea, a market town of around 5,500 people in rural Ireland, news began to spread that the town’s only remaining hotel would close temporarily — to provide housing for 160 asylum seekers.
Almost immediately, speculation and anger began to swirl online.
Posts to a local Facebook group blamed the closure on the government and on “non-nationals” moving in. Someone called for people to gather outside the hotel, Racket Hall, to demand answers.
That night, dozens of people showed up for an improvised protest that has divided the town and become a monthslong symbol of growing anti-immigration sentiment across Ireland. A small group of locals have kept a constant presence in the hotel parking lot since then, using a tent as protection from the rain and a metal drum as a firepit.
Similar demonstrations have sprung up in pockets across Ireland over the past year, fueled by nativist rhetoric online, a housing shortage and a cost-of-living crisis. Occasionally, they have erupted in violence: There was a riot in Dublin last year, and a series of arson attacks have targeted accommodations intended for asylum seekers.
Last month, protesters congregated outside the Custom House in Dublin during an anti-immigration march.Credit...Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The New York Times
While the Roscrea protest has been small and mostly peaceful, it echoes a well-defined playbook. “It’s not like this is all centrally planned,” said Mark Malone, a researcher at the Hope and Courage Collective, which monitors the far right in Ireland. “But there becomes a kind of repertoire of tactics that people replicate because they see it happening elsewhere.”
Roscrea grew up around a seventh-century monastery in a valley in County Tipperary, and its population peaked before the 1840s famine and dwindled over the next 150 years. Its sleepy streets are lined with a few pubs and shops, while on the fringes, roads are dotted with abandoned buildings and derelict houses. Nearly 73 percent of the dwindling population identified as “white Irish” in the most recent census.
It’s a place people have long emigrated from. By 2020, a community study recorded a lack of investment, poor job opportunities and “a general sense that the town has been forgotten about.”
For some locals, the hotel closure felt like the last straw. “Some people in Roscrea already feel like we’re not being served well by the government, and then the government wants to come down and plant people in our town,” said Justin Phelan, 34, one of the demonstrators.
The protesters harbor various grievances — like worries about housing and jobs, and fears that the local population is being “replaced.” The uniting theme is a sense that their hardships are linked to immigrants.
Despite the protest, some in Roscrea have tried to welcome asylum seekers. Margo O’Donnell-Roche, in the colorful dress, a community development worker, chatted with Ukrainian refugees during a weekly coffee gathering. Credit...Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The New York Times
On Jan. 15, when the first asylum seekers were set to move in, around 60 protesters tried to halt their arrival. Footage posted online showed a scuffle and protesters yelling at the police, there to ensure the immigrants’ safety. As some locals shouted “Ireland is full” and “We don’t have room,” 17 people, including children, were led into the hotel.
By mid-February, a dozen protesters were still milling about the site under banners declaring “Ireland Is Full” and “Justice for Roscrea People.” Each morning, someone made breakfast in a van hooked up to a generator. Cups of tea flowed freely.
