“This is the epicentre of the nationalist movement, since November 2022 when the immigration issue came to the fore,” Independent Cllr. Malachy Steenson told Gript, as he canvassed the East Wall area of the Dublin Central constituency this week.
He said that with just hours to go until the polls opened for the general election, “right across the constituency,” the main issue coming up on doors was immigration, followed by housing.
“[The media] tell you that immigration’s not an issue, but every door we knock on, or the vast majority of them, it’s being raised as an issue,” he said.
He added: “You can’t separate housing from immigration. We can never solve the housing crisis if we keep increasing the population. You have to solve the housing problem first.”
Flanked by his team of about a dozen volunteer canvassers in yellow hi-vis vests – a number which he said was about the average he’d had most days for the duration of the campaign – Steenson said that all political parties seemed to be receiving harsh criticism on the doors in the area.
“It seems to be ‘a plague on all your houses’,” he said.
“People say they’re voting in large numbers for Independents. They see that the political parties will say one thing, and then when they’re in power they’ll do the complete opposite.”
Asked if he felt that any local TDs seats were in danger, he said that he thought Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon may be in electoral danger, but that Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald was “certainly not in trouble in terms of her own seat.” However, he said that he would expect her to get far less votes than she did in 2020, and that she hadn’t a hope of getting her running mate, Councillor Janice Boylan, over the line.
“The working class areas see Sinn Féin as having abandoned them, when people thought they had their backs,” he said.
“People thought they were different from the other political parties. But in fact, they’ve supported every controversial piece of legislation, nearly, that this government has brought forward. In fact, in terms of the hate speech bill, they wanted even stronger legislation to silence people like me.”
This assessment seemed to shared by at least one local man on the doors, who said he used to be a member of the party, but became disillusioned with them around the time of the 2018 abortion referendum.
“Yeah, they’re not getting a vote – I’ve been there, done that, but never again,” he said.
Another local woman told Gript that she was giving her number 1 vote to Steenson.
Asked if there were any parties she would particularly not like to see get elected, she replied: “Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, SocDems – the Left, really.” She added that some local Leftwing politicians “care more about Palestine and all than our local communities.”
“A lot of people around here are just fed up, really,” she said.
“They get in, they do nothing for us, and we just feel we have a better chance with Independents now. They fight for their communities more. We’re forgotten about – we definitely are.”
Asked for her top electoral issue, she shot back without hesitation, saying: “Immigration,” and said she felt hard done by regarding how the media portrayed her community during the East Wall immigration protests.
“They kind of labelled us far-right racists, and talked about how terrible we were to protest that [ESB] building, but they never asked how we feel in our homes when it gets dark at night,” she said.
“We don’t go out anymore, you know? Sometimes you see people walking through here and you don’t know if they’re alright – and [the asylum centre] is like a revolving door, so they’re not even getting to integrate into the community because they’re constantly getting moved on. So every couple of weeks you see new people.
“The women and children are grand and all, but the men that come through…it’s not safe, it just doesn’t feel safe here. And that building’s not fit for purpose, people shouldn’t be living there. It’s not fair on them either.”
Asked if she was planning to give anyone a second preference after Malachy Steenson, she replied “Yeah, Gerard Hutch 100%,” referring to the alleged crime boss known as ‘The Monk’, who made waves after announcing his candidacy in the constituency.
“He’d fight for us as well – I know Gerard. He will fight. I know he will. And we’re after being left behind – they don’t care about us.”
However, one other local man said he’d be voting exclusively for Independent candidates like Steenson, except for The Monk.
“Where has he been for the past 20 years?” he said, adding: “I saw a clip where another journalist asked him if he had any regrets in his life, if he could do anything differently. He said he would have ran for politics 20 years ago. If that’s his biggest regret in life…”
Several houses in the constituency had Gerry Hutch posters in the front window, and Steenson lamented the fact that the alleged gangland boss had hoovered up “all the publicity” in the election – though he said that he didn’t think it would damage his own electoral chances.
“He will certainly take some votes, but I hope most of those votes will come back to me on transfers,” Steenson said.
“Any of the houses we go to that have a poster for him, we’re getting number twos there. So I’m not really concerned about it – it’s a distraction, really.”
On the issue of immigration, one local man said that “mass uncontrolled immigration” was “absolutely” his top election issue, and that his brother works in the airport, and had seen many abuses of the immigration system.
“Day after day after day, there are torn up passports being flushed down toilets in airplanes,” he said, emphasising that this was the main issue that would inform his vote.
Steenson said that he hoped other like minded Independents were elected alongside him, so that he could form “alliances” in the Dáil should he manage to secure election.