Around 200 protesters gather in solidarity with migrants living in Dublin’s tent camp after an attack by a far-right group

Hundreds of residents, unions and social activists demonstrated in north-west Dublin tonight to denounce what organizers described as a racist attack by the far-right on a nearby migrant camp over the weekend.

Around 200 protesters gathered outside Ashtown railway station in solidarity with a group of migrants who have been living rough in a tented camp on the banks of the Tolka River on River Road and were attacked by a group of men on Saturday.

The group came with four dogs, including a German shepherd and an American pit bull terrier, and armed with sticks and a baseball bat, threatened residents.

One of the men is said to have attacked a young Pole with a baseball bat who has been camping on the site since last year.

He is among a group of about eight people living in the camp after becoming homeless for various reasons.

The attack was witnessed by a journalist who asked why they were there and was told that one of the residents had been involved in an attack on a local woman.

But former Dublin West TD Ruth Coppinger, who was one of the organizers of the protest, said such narrative was classic scaremongering and disinformation that far-right thugs have been spreading on social media lately to stir up trouble.

“These men did nothing to anyone. They didn’t take our houses, they lived in tents,” she said.

“I just want to say that the housing crisis is the reason and the root of all this is creating a perfect storm for fascists, neo-nazis, racists, far-right to foment and try to win support in a society in which You have a cost of living crisis where you have a housing crisis where people just got through the pandemic,” she added.

Leisha McDonald, 49, who has lived in Ashtown for 15 years, said local residents are aware of the camp and have no problems with the men being forced to live there.

“We were absolutely horrified, everyone. People were horrified,” she said upon learning of the attack.

“These people don’t represent the area,” she said of the thugs who attacked the camp.

She said the migrants are “just trying to get through” and that many have lost their housing through no fault of their own and are going to work from their camp.

“Her heart went out to her, there are a lot of people in this area who live in rented apartments who are facing exactly the same pressures; Landlords who are reselling apartments and can’t get accommodation in this area, they all can relate to these men and how easily that can happen to them,” she said.

Vicky Adetutu, a 22-year-old student from Clonsilla and a political activist with the socialist-feminist movement Rosa, said the fringe right-wing groups stirring up trouble represent only a fraction of the Irish population and do not speak for most Irish people.

As a black woman, she said she faces many forms of racism, some unintentional, but “they add up,” she said.

Dublin City Councilor Ciaran Perry, who represents the nearby Cabra-Glasnevin constituency, said the housing crisis was at the root of various anti-immigration protests outside refugee shelters in recent times.

“We need to direct anger at the government to force them into a position where they are building houses. The simple solution is to build houses.

Stop building houses and building houses and get people out of shelters, then we have shelters for Ukrainians coming in, for refugees, for people seeking international protection,” he told Independent.ie.

Organizers, meanwhile, hoped to stage a mass demonstration in Dublin city center on Saturday to show solidarity with people who are being harassed by far-right fringe elements and to denounce the lies and misinformation they continue to spread on social media.