PUBLISHED 07.09.2023
READING TIME 8

Just before Christmas 2022 a group seeking asylum were moved into the Travelodge Motel on Shangan Road Ballymun. This wasn’t the first movement of people seeking protection into the local community. The Sentinel Building, a couple of hundred metres up the road was already an operational accommodation centre and community tensions around this had been minimal. However after Christmas when videos of people arriving on buses into the Travelodge were shared on local community Facebook pages rumours began to circulate and tensions started to mount. By the first weekend in January groups were gathering outside of the Travelodge. Initial mobilisation numbered a few hundred and included many identifiable far right agitators amoungst local people.  

Commentators were quick to condemn the mobilisations which saw Dublin buses being rerouted on a few occasions, some anti-social behaviour and distressing scenes of folk shouting “get them out” on the street outside the hotel. Amidst rising tensions a broad and experienced group of local people came together in Ballymun and organised a swift and effective response identifying the tactics of the far right and attempting to separate this out from local concerns.  

The community context as always is critical. The manner in which people seeking asylum were brought into the community did not inspire confidence locally. Little to no community engagement and buses full of people arriving on a dark Winter’s night. The Travelodge itself was a point of contention for many. Originally a hub for homeless families, it had been the site of a local community campaign in 2021 after the residents “ were given two days’ notice that they’d have to leave and would be moved to the four corners of the city”. The memory was alive for many and an easy point of reference for the far right to exploit.

Ballymun a unique increasingly diverse working class community is also highly disadvantaged where people have had to fight for many years to be heard and secure resources. “It’s fairly accurate to say many people in Ballymun would be frustrated and disillusioned with mainstream politics and that the Water Charges movement was the last time many had had the opportunity to collectively organise to be heard”.

Ballymun has consistently been one of the most deprived communities in the country and I think it’s a tinderbox for this sort of stuff [far right organising]. There is a lot of frustration pent up in the community and its very easy to tap into that. That’s the pattern or the Playbook that we’ve seen with the far right. Going into areas where there are high levels of frustration, deprivation and maybe disillusionment as well”. 

Community Interview

Far Right Involvement 

  • The videos of people seeking asylum arriving in Ballymun were uploaded and shared by local people but also by known members of the organised far right. The commentary online became polarised and divisive immediately contributing to tensions locally 

  • The mobilisations were angry affairs with many prominent and non local far right agitators. These individuals live streamed from the mobilisation and called in for outside supporters to join them on their Telegram channels 

  • Within days of the video the National Party had glossy leaflets in the homes of many families living near one of the accommodation centres“One was house the Irish not the world. And then there was another that said something about safety, I can’t remember exactly what, but it talked about military age men, unvetted”

  • The divisive polarised language of the organised far right was immediately identifiable at mobilisations, on flyers and being quoted back in conversations with local people frustrated about the way the government had found a solution for ‘them’ and ‘what about us’. 

“ People seeking asylum are othered by the far right, as ‘foreigners’, as not being ‘one of our own’ and so people then ask why aren’t we minding our own” 

In addition to this othering of people arriving into the community language was purposefully used to stoke up fear and hate towards people seeking asylum. 

“Your survival instincts are real in a working class community. Hyper vigilance as default so when someone presents a threat to you that you need to ‘protect your woman and children’, it activates an already activated system”. 

How the community responded

The community response to the organised far right in Ballymun was quick to get off the ground. Mobilisations first hit media headlines Monday 9th of January. Concerned community people were already in communication at that point. A community leaders meeting was called for Monday the 9th and by the 12th Ballymun for All (BFA) was set up and a powerful joint statement released. 

Initial organising was very informal with a number of experienced local people along with community services reaching out to each other with the organised far right very much in mind as well as the reputation of their beloved Ballymun. “ The protests were feeding into the worst possible stereotype of the community that’s already been stigmatised”.

“We definitely didn’t scramble in Ballymun. We were on it from the moment it [organised far right] showed its face. There is a lot of organising experience in the local community and previous experience in other big nationals campaigns. People who could just get on it and respond quickly were only a WhatsApp away. Have you seen this? What do you think? Lets organise!” 

Community Interview

One of the individuals involved in early community communications included Dublin’s Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy who herself comes from Ballymun. The Lord Mayor had been quick to put out a public statement condemning local mobilisations and “ on the back of that public statement called a meeting in the axis in Ballymun. All the local voluntary groups, all of the local services, including schools, community workers and also all of the local political reps were there. So quite a broad coalition from the start”. 

At this first meeting there was complete agreement on the need for both a collective statement and some type of coalition or ‘front’ for the community based response. Ballymun For All was set up and a joint statement was circulated widely within 24 hours of being established. 

Ballymun for All became a useful container for local services, schools, community and youth workers to stay abreast of developments in relation to the far right and communicate about their own work as it related to countering hate. Efforts were stepped up in every corner of the community to “quickly humbling and humorously tackle the tactics of the far right”. 

Who Led

This was the essence of a community based response with people stepping up and continuing to do so in a variety of ways only some of which is captured here. 

The Lord Mayor Catherine Conroy and the role she played was highlighted by everyone I spoke directly with. “She’s played an important role. It instilled strength, trust, confidence [chairing Ballymun for All]”. Her swift and public response to the mobilisations as a native of Ballymun was also seen as important leadership at a time when many political leaders have been slow or unhelpful in their response. 

The entire community infrastructure was activated to some extent through the Ballymun for All coalition. Reading through the list of organisations who signed up to the joint statement gives some sense of the diversity of community groups and services stepping up from tidy towns to community sports clubs,  schools and local charities.

“ In terms of leading, the most vital people there every single day of the week are the community workers. When they are working with people locally this [far right organising] is part of their conversations always”

Community Interview

It also emerged that key individuals working on the ground with years of experience in activism, youth work or community organising played an important leadership role. These people were trusted and also had the capacity to respond. “ [naming a well known local activist] he was one of the first people I saw putting stuff on his Instagram story, challenging the narrative that was being pushed out there. And that would have been heard”. 

People from Ballymun with public profiles such as Dublin footballer Philly McMahon and rapper Adam Muhammad also led by publicly supporting the Ballymun for All coalition and message. “ They played an important role by immediately coming out of the traps on this. They took a lot of flack for it but it was really important they did it. People listened. It had an impact” 

What helped  

 

  • Ballymun for All as a container for a broad based community response was imperative to its success 
  • An opt out approach i.e. assuming individuals were onboard or supportive unless they requested to opt out 
  • The Ballymun for All joint statement really helped set a vastly different tone locally and nationally.” When everyone you know in a community is saying the same thing from community leaders to organisations and various political reps it gets noticed”
  • Very conscious engagement with language whether it was reclaiming the Irish Céad míle fáilte (borrowed from Tallaght for All) or purposefully naming the validity of community concerns as well as being unequivocal in values of inclusivity and respect [see Ballymun for All public statement] 
  • Having people in the community with the capacity, skills and relationships to organise a resistance to the far right. Some of the knowledge and skills that stood out here include; class and power analysis, organising skills, clarity around values, deep and far reaching trusted relationships in the community
  • Understanding why people were listening to the far right and joining the mobilisations stood out as being really important in moving people away from the right. Having a lived understanding of the community’s struggle and power analysis stood out here. “We acknowledged their anger, their pain, their hate, their hurt, and said you have, you have the right to protest. Absolutely. But we we draw the line at intimidation and Racism”
  • Some familiarity with and experience of the organised far-right in terms of their tactics. Several of those involved in BFA had plenty of understanding of what they were dealing with. This undoubtedly helped the response; 

“ The far right coming into working class communities seeing it as a recruitment ground I akin it to heroin dealers. People are disenfranchised. Dealers get up the blood lust. So too do the far right. Fear is like paraffin. These guys pour paraffin on a community and will light it up if you let them”. 

  • Taking the time to connect and talk to local people and go on a journey with them really helped turn the tide in Ballymun 

[Referring to a local community leader] “ some of the conversations he’s had with people who were at the protests and he’s brought them back from the edge to a place where they can understand more fully what’s going on. When your trusted and speak in a language that’s understood and you do this it’s quite powerful” 

[Community leader] “If we alienate them and villainise them, they’re just going to have a more groomable mindset”

Direct engagement with young people through inclusion work in the local primary schools that had an increasingly diverse student population. And in more informal youth work situations was also identified as a factor that is contributing to the success of the community response.

 

“Because there’s kids in the local schools that live in the travel lodge and obviously these protests have an effect. So that’s been great. There’s been some inclusion work done in the schools too where like people have written postcards to people in in the accommodation centres

Community Interview

Referring to a youth work project locally “They took time to speak to young people who might have joined some of the protests asking them what they thought, how much they understood and worked with them to develop and understand the protests and an opposition to them” 

  • The ongoing inclusion and integration efforts in Ballymun are helping inoculate the community against the far right and their tactics of division and fear. Ballymun for All allowed for better shared communications on these efforts and has no doubt invigorated them. 

“ the community garden has invited residents from the accommodation centres. And residents joined the Sanctuary runners group in the Ballymun Park run. All these local efforts have been really effective in breaking down barriers of fear and are making a difference locally”. 

  • A genuine love for and belief in “the brilliance of the local community of Ballymun” clearly helped. And this is a conscious practice with one community activist describing how he aims “in every interaction to remind people how amazing they are and that has helped” along with “a no bullshit approach to their expertise” i.e. valuing the community expertise and experience. These values are in direct opposition of the far right. 

A unified response from across the local political spectrum was seen as a strength in the community response; “It’s not political. It’s community. It’s community first, political second. So you play your political games outside”. 

One person I interviewed felt some of the mainstream political party representatives spoke to people in a way that ‘got their backs up’ kind of castigation sort of shaming people about the protests. And that doesn’t work especially when they are seen as part of the problem in terms of being in government”. 

What hindered or posed a challenge to the community response was members of the organised far right attempted to recruit people in Ballymun targeting local people actively involved in the community and “pouring honey in their ears”. 

“When you got talking to people [example of local street charity] you knew the organised far right had gotten to them. They targeted some people locally that had I guess a degree of recognition and clout within the community” and the argument here was that this gave the arguments and lies of the far right more legitimacy for a time. 

The fact that some of those associated with the far right locally had a reputation or history of “being involved in drugs or violence” meant some local people “were not comfortable voicing their opposition to the protests publicly” which got articulated on the doorsteps to some local respresentatives.

Outcomes

The community response is ongoing in Ballymun but success was identified at an early stage as numbers of local people mobilisaing dropped significantly. People I spoke with are hearing directly that the concerns about homelessness, poverty, community services etc. are still there but people are “actively choosing not to protest seeing the far right tactics for what they are” and that “they are not offering any solutions to the problems the community are facing”. 

Ballymun for All continues to meet. “There is always diversity work going on in every project. What’s happening now is that we are more aware of it because we’ve come together in response to the far right under this umbrella” . 

The Ballymun for All (BFA) group has gone from strength to strength in that it has grown to Dublin for All (Dublin /city Council) and led to a broader coalition Ireland For All (IFA). As part of this coalition a national demonstration was organised on Feb 18th at customs house (outside Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage where an estimated thirty five thousand people marched in solidarity. Members of IFA and BFA spoke in the Dail on the issue.

On the ground in Ballymun there are more invitations to those seeking refuge to participate in activities, groups and events with an emphasis on celebrating diversity, connecting with people directly impacted by far right organising and breaking down barriers. 

*A sincere thank you to the three community people interviewed from Ballymun For All and several other individuals who made themselves available for fact checking and contextual conversations.

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