South Mayo episode was revealing in so many respects
The extremists just wanted to prolong the agony
by Caoimhín Rowland
A gross generalisation of any demographic, or group of people, is always wrong.
I was aghast to see Brendan Ogle, a prominent trade unionist, state that he now has a mental map of places where he will never spend his money in Ireland and he has added Ballinrobe to the list.
His reasoning is due to the peaceful protests that brought about a U-turn in the Department of Integration’s plans to house 50 male asylum seekers in JJ Gannon’s Hotel.
The group led by Road Bowls tik toker Michelle Smith initially stated they would have no qualms with women and children being housed in the south Mayo town.
News broke on Monday afternoon of last week and Smith announced to the crowd that there was victory, a commitment from the department that women and children would be housed, instead of what protesters described as ‘unvetted’ men, which was welcomed by the community, and the blockade ceased.
That was until the extremists landed, caught wind of the protest dwindling and decided they knew what was best for the people of Ballinrobe. No asylum seekers should be in the town, which is one of the most derelict in the country, not even women, children and their families, they claimed.
They should perish in tents in the capital, evoking recollections of the recent burning of tents on Marlborough Street.
Live streamers landed in Ballinrobe from Dublin - a gentleman who left court that morning for trespassing on the grounds of a creche in Dublin and decided to make the 280km trip to Mayo to protest outside of another crèche.
The fact is Ireland is weighted down with red tape. A person cannot have an involvement with sports teams unless they are vetted.
It’s hard to fathom that it’s a uniquely Irish and modern thing, garda vetting.
But it seems that it is now the most important thing to many people's identities.
No other European or Western nations require as much bureaucracy and ‘vetting’ to be a member of the community.
For a country that historically delays national ID cards and where politicians cite an EU directive on biometric fingerprints for our passports as too politically sensitive, why now do so many demand knowing the ins and outs of every person's history? Like a Black Mirror episode.
The same brigade will look at Xi Jinping's communist government with disdain when it comes to its relationship with privacy.
They may well be the very ones who walk us down this path, all due to their fear and wicked generalisation of a group of people.
There is a word for that but it’s lost on me.
The mob turned on the people of Ballinrobe and lambasted them online, a sad turn of events for a successful peaceful protest for its organisers to be tarred by the same brush by outsiders.
A staggering 21,000 Irish people applied for an Australian visa in 2023.
A colossal figure - that is the size of two Ballinas - have decided to opt for a stint down under.
Many will return, but to lose young people, who spend the most in local economies via consuming goods and are full of energy to create businesses and learn, is a damning indictment of government policy.
Housing is a major reason, the quality of life in Oz is much better. Housing is expensive but achievable and with so many Irish people there, it makes sense to join that community.
It's an Irish rite of passage to be an economic migrant, return home hopefully and create a life here.
The online far-right trolls will say they are at least ‘vetted’. Hell yes, they’re checked to have €5,000 in the bank, no major criminal convictions, and of course they have their passport too.
There are no refugees from Erris claiming asylum on Bondi Beach.
As it was historically, a brush with the thin blue line may be a reason to expedite immigration.
Many go before sentencing and you can visit the courts and read the papers to see the numbers who return to court here in Ireland and then fly back down under.
Solicitors, judges and gardaí seem to believe if you get in trouble here with the law, a spell in sunnier climes is the best of all parties, at least while the heat dies down at home.
Of course, a relatively small minority of the 21,000 or so are in that boat.
It’d be horrible to generalise such a swathe of the population when there are many other factors at play, including the ones mentioned above.
There’s a nuance missing, one that I believe the Ballinrobe protests captured, while others prefer a scorched earth approach or a childish name-calling blame game.
Neither party will ever seek a solution and only succeed in dividing communities.