PUBLISHED | 07.09.2023 |
READING TIME | 8 |
On two occasions in 2022 people seeking asylum were accommodated in repurposed buildings in Fermoy, east Cork. In July approximately thirty people from Ukraine were moved into the recently closed Grand Hotel at Ashe Quay. The Blackwater Ukrainian Solidarity Group and the Fermoy Welcome Centre spoke positively about the community response to people arriving in the town at the time. Five months later St Joseph’s Convent on the outskirts of the town was opened as temporary emergency accommodation for people seeking asylum.
A prominent member of the organised far right had been active occasionally in the area in the preceding two years, particularly concerning Covid restrictions. Despite increasing his online presence, he had yet to gain much traction in the area.
However there was a different reaction to the arrival of people seeking asylum in November of that year when a local person on Facebook live streamed their arrival by bus to ‘the old convent’ in Fermoy. This sparked a heated and divisive online discussion. From there, it did not take long for a mobilisation to convene at the convent. An even larger mobilisation took place the following night, with escalating tensions and organised far right involvement identifiable early on.
Within hours of the first mobilisation a relatively dormant Fermoy and Mallow Against Racism (FMAR) working group kicked into action. They disentangled local concerns from an organised effort by the far right to stir up fear and hate.
Far right involvement
The initial live stream and online conversation was instigated by local people curious and concerned about local developments. However the polarising language of ‘us and them’ was evident from the beginning, some of it veering towards identifiable far right discourse.
“and the whole town more or less got involved with a few individuals commenting underneath that post about, you know, oh my God, who’s going in there are our women safe, you know, are our children safe? It’s located next to a secondary school, a girl school. And you know, it was really ridiculous”.
“ and he [the same person calling for prominent far individuals to be invited to Fermoy ] pointed out how they didn’t look Ukrainian”.
It emerged later that some involved in the online chat had links with the far right. “ We subsequently figured out two individuals who were calling for him to come are in his Telegram channel, so they are already fans of his and watching his content, not on you tube but in Telegram, which you very purposefully have to go into. And those two people and their families now have kind of become the Fermoy link [with the far right]”
A number of mobilisations followed starting with a small number on the night of the live stream. An estimated 60-70 joined a mobilisation outside the convent the following night, many of them local residents. Interviewees were clear about the outside agitation naming the presence of the Cork based far right agitator who had announced the mobilisation on his Telegram account and called his ‘followers’ to support. “ He had his megaphone, he was shouting out, out, out. So I think at that point a lot of people started to shy away……..said, whoa we’re not having this, you know, this is not why we’re here”.
At this point misinformation and lies had been shared in the online discussions with locals focusing on “how unsafe women and children would be” because of the arrival of people seeking asylum and people seeking refuge. Highlighting the proximity of the convent to a number of local pre and national schools.
“ I think local people were there because of lack of knowledge, fear that their kids were going to the playschool… a lot of that. The original group of people, many of whom didn’t come back the next night, were from what I saw, people who had children in the local schools”
During our focus group people were crystal clear about the tactics the far right used while they reflected on their collective experience of navigating it all. The examples above were attributed to a clear tactic of spreading lies, using fear and anger to ‘other’ people seeking asylum. This was initiated online and was continued offline.
The manner in which the organised far right operate was described in great detail in the focus group (see chapter on far right playbook).
- Live streaming as a tactic and escalating online conversations by inserting misinformation, lies and very divisive comments resulting in “the heat being turned up really quickly”. Life streaming people freely admitted “ it’s quite addictive, but for all the wrong reasons if that make sense… that your drawn to it and kind of watching it with your fingers nearly over your eyes”
- That far right figures have ‘followers’ and at different times call on them to show up for certain mobilisations attempting to orchestrate from a far bolster numbers and these were often ‘the same small number of individuals’
- How toxic the online space is where the far right are active. Group members had experiences of being targeted on twitter
“well I tweeted a picture from the rally saying a beautiful day in Fermoy for people seeking refuge welcome event. Oh Jesus. My tweet was retweeted over 2000 times. Fake profiles with two followers or no followers. ”. Personal highly abusive messages followed.
- Far right use language strongly prejudiced against women including the threat of sexual violence. Suggestions ‘women and children [girls] would not be safe’ with the arrival of people seeking refuge into the town and that sexual violence would increase locally. Sinister threats were also made on line to one of the focus group members involved in community response. “But I got personal like messages [fake profiles], you know, and oh we’re gonna send them all down to you and they’re all going to ride ya”
At a community rally weeks later a well known far right agitator “got into peoples faces and spaces” in what was described as “a very aggressive manner”. He again live streamed to his followers magnifying his presence and putting racist bigoted material online “in the midst of a positive joyful well attended community event welcoming people seeking refuge to Fermoy”.
How community responded
In the earliest stages as the online conversation became divisive some local people instinctively responded by appealing for calm and rational thinking.
“ Some of the interventions online were really thoughtful, really de-escalating the situation. One local woman was kind of taking the lead and she was even doing it with family….. She was like ‘look we really need to be thinking about this and whatever’….. And then all of us were kind of following her lead to kind try and de-escalate”.
Some community members had accurate information about the resettlement of families (gleaned from a local TD) and where possible shared some of these facts. The concern at the outset was to separate anger with government policy from families arriving into the area.
Like minded people reached out to each other and within a period of 24 hours basically jumped on a call. The Fermoy Mallow against Racism working group was reignited and membership updated. Contact was made with the Hope and Courage Collective (HCC) and an immediate focus was put on communications. HCC recommended using de-escalating language “ to take the heat out of it all as soon as possible”.
The working group drafted a carefully worded statement with some input from the HCC. They appealed for calm and suggested that if people wanted to mobilise that they take it away from the convent because children were residing there. The group didn’t want to engage in an online ‘facts and information tick for tack with the far right’ and nor did they want to “sail single men down the river” but they were at pains to point out young children were residing in the convent on the other side of mobilisations.
This statement went out far and wide in community networks (online, whats app tree and via local media) with the sole purpose of “just trying to calm everything down”. It had some impact in that the number of people participating in the mobilisations outside the convent significantly reduced and became characterised by a much smaller ‘outsider presence’.
Plans for an alternative community event got underway. Whilst there was not full consensus in the group on this course of action it was agreed a rally would be organised to welcome people seeking refuge to the town.
“And I think that one of the real reasons we did this is because they [mobilisation participants] stood outside St. Joseph shouting at small children…… you know, we were just sickened really, weren’t we? Yeah”
To get the community onboard for this rally the working group called a closed community leaders meeting in the days running up to the event.
“Our definition of a leader was anyone who can bring people….. There were about 24 people at that community leaders meeting. And we agreed then that we were all gonna try to bring as many people as we could. And we ended up with like 200 – 300 people on the day”
The Fermoy and Mallow Against Racism Solidarity Rally went ahead with widespread media coverage locally and nationally. Some of the coverage highlighted local families who had a very positive experience of hosting Ukraineans living in their home. Families, young people, local services, community groups and some political representatives were all present at the rally. And despite the arrival of some far right agitators it was felt that the rally was a success.
The number of people at mobilisations had already started to dwindle locally and generally speaking it would appear the community based response to tackle the far right organising in Fermoy was very successful.
Who led
Ordinary local people from a cross section of community life led in this response, some in a concerted effort to thwart the efforts of the far right, and all in a desire to make newly arrived people seeking refuge feel welcome in the Fermoy community.
Gatheringing outside the convent was a hard no for many from the outset. Even on the night of the livestream and subsequent mobilisation called by the far right, one woman working next door took it upon herself to try and break up the mobilisation; “one lone soldier telling everyone to f*ck off. She was brilliant! “
From my observations those involved in the FMAR working group shared similar values of inclusiveness equality and anti racism. Some had direct experience of community work and anti racism activism which undoubtedly benefited the local response. Others were youth workers, had taught or volunteered with children and young people and were very motivated by the fact children from diverse backgrounds were being resettled in the town. A few had been active in previous referendums together. All lived locally and were active in the community.
The FMAR working group linked up with a vast network of local people and community groups actively supporting the integration of people seeking refuge locally through Fermoy For All. “These two spaces operated separately” and “came together for the rally”. Interviewees were clear that whilst local integration efforts were not purposefully organised to tackle the far right or even racism the local infrastructure and level of organisation (and goodwill) really helped.
“So they already had a massive network of like knitting groups and tidy towns was involved there.The international choir, sanctuary, sanctuary runners”
“was a certain teacher who blew my mind. One who had retired. Concentrating on kids who couldn’t get places in the local school. FIghting for them but quietly”
The community leaders meeting characterises the Fermoy response at that point in time; a broad cross section with deep roots and far reaching connections in the community.
“So there were people there because they belonged to big families in the town, influential families, active in with the GAA. Tidy towns were there, SVP were there, you know, lot, lots of people. And then a lot of people from the Ukrainian solidarity group and the centre helping people had a lot of expertise”.
Political leadership wasn’t mentioned at all in the focus group. One TD made information available about the resettlement of families. Two political parties were represented at the march. But they simply did not feature in the community response as described by local people.
What helped
The conversation had started locally around inoculating the community against hate and racism well before the far right attempted to organise in the community. Whilst the group was inactive there was a whats app group – “ it just took the far right to kick us into action”.
Contact with and support from outside in the form of the Hope and Courage Collective gave the community group confidence to act and valuable support.
There was organising experience and anti racism/far right knowledge in the FMAR working group. In addition strong shared values, personal experiences of emigrating and insights into the impact of being discriminated against.
Tackling the far right was undoubtedly helped by the fact that Fermoy For All and integration efforts were already well under way in the town deepening relationships and facilitating community to activate values of kindness, inclusivity and a celebration for diversity.
What hindered
The arrival of people seeking asylum under “ the cloak of darkness “ with little to no community engagement aided the far right’s intention of creating fear and distrust.
Having a prominent member of the Far Right in your own county with geographical proximity would appear to be both a hindrance but also sharpened the response. Whilst this person had the capacity to physically show up and magnify their presence by live streaming I got the overall impression of a community on their guard and “wise to his antics”.
Upon reflection the working group would not have named themselves Fermoy Mallow Against Racism. “We never called anybody racist. We never talked about the protest being racist. But simply by the fact of Fermoy Mallow against Racism being the vehicle through which the media messages go out, it has gotten people’s back up. So in hindsight, we wouldn’t have called it this”.
The welcome event was not without its challenges. Fermoy’s far right agitator arrived and was very vocal and aggressive at the event. This was hard to manage in terms of his direct impact on families there particularly people with special needs’. Whilst the media coverage was positive his presence and reaction to him was depicted in one national outlet as “as two lunatic fringe groups shouting at each other”.
Outcomes
The community based response to tackle the far right surfaced people’s values and ideological positions hard to escape living in a small town. “But you still say hello to people who attended the protest [outside the protest]. It’s like you kind of see them online and your view of them will never be the same again ”.
Another outcome articulated was the impact of getting active on people directly. On one level it can “take a toll on your mental health”. People found it intense and were genuinely concerned about where it was all going; “The town actually went mental for a while didn’t it?”.
Whilst it was laughed off a bit there were at times concerns for personal safety especially being on the receiving end of an online onslaught. The benefits here appeared to outweigh the negative with people having tapped into personal resilience and clearly built up their own analysis and skills to act. “ You have to laugh. If you don’t laugh it can get a bit scary. And we really did laugh our heads off sometimes”.
The far right attempting to organise and “stir up hate in our community” and “treat migrants in this way” propelled people who cared about their community to respond. On a positive note the community based response galvanised the local community and gave local integration efforts a huge boost. “It has brought the community together, it has really made organisations as well step up and say Yeah, you know, bring people seeking asylum down [to access a service or get help] or we’d love to get them involved and things like that”.
**A sincere thank you to the people who participated in a focus group for this case study.
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