Thousands of people have taken part in large protests expressing concerns about the effects of immigration in both Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan and Letterkenny in Co Donegal.
Yesterday afternoon, Letterkenny was “brought to a standstill” by the protest march according to Donegal Live. Organiser Kim McMenamin told Gript that they estimated more than 1500 had taken part, and said that the “massive” turnout showed that people “had enough of mass immigration and of Irish people being pushed aside.”
Addressing criticisms said that the protest was opposing migrants, Mr McMenamin said that “no-one was opposed to hard-working, decent people”, but that mass migration was being facilitated and imposed by the government on Irish communities while “our own people are being forced to emigrate”. He said, as an example, that nurses had been forced abroad to work elsewhere by recruitment freezes and government failure to meet housing and other needs, and said that a small section of Irish society was using mass migration to avail of cheaper labour and profit ftom asylum accommodation while drastically changing the make-up of Irish society.
In common with the huge crowds attending a match in Dublin last week, protesting the government’s policies on immigration and housing, the Letterkenny march was a sea of tricolour.
“We own this country, it does not belong to the government,” Mr McMenamin told the crowd. “Our energy must be directed at the government, not the people.”
As was also expressed in Carrickmacross, speakers were strongly critical of those who were seen to be profitting from the provision of asylum accommodation.
Mr Mc Menamin said that “in every town across the country, people had had enough of the government and of how Irish people were being treated like second class citizens”.
Donegal Live reported that in excess of 1,200 people had taken part in the rally opposing the states’s immigration policies while an opposing protest, billed as an anti-racism event and supported by several TDs, including Thomas Pringle who attended, gathered several hundred.
CARRICKMACROSS
The Carrickamcross Community Watch group said that they had called the protest in response to an increase in criminal activity in the area, and urged politicians and Gardaí to listen to their concerns.
Local radio station Northern Sound said that “over 800 people gathered at Cloughvalley Park in the town for the peaceful assembly prior to marching a number of streets including the main street”, while local Councillor Séamus Treanor told Gript said that the crowd had swelled to more than a thousand as more people joined in.
The crowd chanted “Whose town?” Our town” as the march moved through the town, as well as “get them out”, a chant, organisers told Gript was aimed at the government who were “not listening”.
“It was a fantastic turnout for Carrickmacross,” Cllr Treanor said, saying that people were upset and angry and felt the government were not listening to them. He said a small number of people were profitting from the current situation regarding immigration while Irish people couldn’t get housing.
Prior to the march, local man Paul Carvill told Northern Sound that he felt certain landlords were “bringing in people from all over the world” and that had caused a “dramatic shift” in the town, with “a lot more crime” leaving people in the town “very angry”.
He said that women won’t walk alone in the town and parents are fearful to allow their children outside. “Social cohesion in Carrick is gone,” he said, adding that this was a pattern he had noticed in small towns across the country.
A poster advertising the protest on Friday said that it sought to make the town safe.