PUBLISHED | 07.09.2023 |
READING TIME | 8 |
Towards the end of Summer 2022 the local community of Lakeside, Highfield and Dara Park in Newbridge learned of plans to build 50 units of modular accommodation for Ukrainian families . In August local residents gathered at what was described by local media and interviewees as a very heated public meeting. “Was apparent this was a very divisive issue from the get go”.
Coming out of this public meeting a group was set up by some residents; Lakeside park/Highfield/Dara Park (LHD) action group. Mobilisations were planned, demands were made for more accurate timely information from the council and State. Communities’ concerns about the site chosen and general lack of consultation were shared publicly and online via social media and in general things heated up locally. The heat in the local response made national media.
Bigger picture worth mentioning is that the area being proposed was a zoned open space, a floodplain and a precious green area tended to by the local Tidy Towns over the years. This was also a community and area of the town that had “been very much neglected over the years”.
“ There is no poorer place in Newbridge with any worse built public housing”
Context really matters when it comes to tackling the far right organising in a local community. Against a challenging national backdrop (cost of living and housing crises, increasing in number with a war closer to home) here was a community historically disadvantaged finding out about the repurposing of a precious green space for accommodation. Conversation with those involved in responding painted a powerful image of a tinder box that only needed a lighted match to ignite. Once the information landed clumsily into community life it would appear the situation kicked off very quickly.
“ And then once it got to that point [local mobilisations and Ireland First march advertised] it got toxic very quickly”
Far Right involvement
Similar to other communities, very valid reasons fueled people’s concerns with a big emphasis put on the fact that the area was wholly unsuitable for a modular home development in the first instance. This was compounded by a genuine concern for stretched resources being able to respond to the needs of more vulnerable people in addition to local realities. Many locals were at pains to point out they sympathised with people seeking refuge and this wasn’t about ‘them coming into the community”. At the same time language and rhetoric from some had “racist overtones nevermind racist undertones, horrible things said and delivered in a very aggressive way at the very first public meeting”.
“There were two people (who are now the most connected to the far right locally) who from the very beginning were in the centre of that committee opposing the modular homes. And I think there’s a consistency of language that comes through from the very beginning that they were likely already in that [far right] space getting that information. It was so evident problematic terms being used from the get go”.
It was noted how quickly valid community concerns were mixed up with far right polarising rhetoric pushing people to take sides. The local LHD action group organised weekly mobilisations. Whilst an estimated 60 people might have participated at the first march by the second this number had dwindled significantly. Having joined the first mobilisation to better understand what was happening and knowing some of the families living in the area one of the respondents said;
“ I saw other local people who had been involved in anti vax stuff anti COVID stuff, some handing out some catholic newspapers anti LGBTQI, anti Covid and I asked people do you really want to be getting into all that?” .
External far right figures were not a feature at these initial marches. However not long after initial local marches a flyer was obtained about an upcoming mobilisation being organised by Ireland First. And it then became apparent that they had indeed made contact with the local action group as the time of a pre scheduled mobilisation by LHD was changed to coincide with the Ireland Irish First march. As the discourse and language around the issue became more toxic this upcoming march became a cause of great concern.
“ Nationally at that time it wasnt really kicking off elsewhere (organised anti migrant sentiment). I got the chills when I saw that flyer. I was like sh*t, I could see the signs, could feel it, didn’t think it could be ramped up like that”.
The Ireland First mobilisation went ahead on the first of October. Well known far right actors were present on the day.
“They spoke at the march, live streamed and made sure to have the local people and action group banner in their footage. I noticed that”
“ They were active in their own telegram accounts I believe – asking people who support them to support the Newbridge march. Bused people in possibly from Cork”
However by this point the numbers of local people participating were small enough; “ at this stage the community were having none of it”.
What became apparent in terms of far right speakers on the day was that they didn’t speak about the issues facing the local community at all. No reference to green spaces, housing needs.“ Their message was what you would expect it to be; a ‘them and us’ sentiment – anti migrant. Clear to those hanging around they weren’t there to support their campaign”.
How community responded
A number of weeks after the first public meeting and a couple of small local mobilisations later a number of people with plenty of community experience and connections sought each other out and began speaking about the issue and response.
“ Mary [name changed] and I were talking and I was lamenting the fact that we hadn’t been able to get ahead of it and I thought we had lost the opportunity. There were weekly protests at this point and I suppose I was hoping it would fizzle out but I was very conscious we needed to be more equipped the next time it happened”.
One of the women with knowledge of the Hope and Courage Collective (H&CC) shared their information. A resource publication with Community Work Ireland on responding to the far right was found to be really useful and an email was sent to the HCC looking for help.
“ I just sent an email and said we are a community group of busy bodies and we want to equip ourselves to get ahead of this the next time it happens conscious ourselves of a Direct Provision in the town and potential plans for another one to be opened on the outskirts and thought maybe we could host a workshop with H&CC for community groups….. that would be proactive at least”.
Within a week H&CC shared a flyer of the Ireland First march being advertised for Newbridge online on organised Far Right channels. H&CC offered support with a rapid response suggesting they brought together a small group of like-minded people representative of the community to work together in the ten days leading up to the planned march. Which is what they did. An original core number reached out to ‘trusted partners’ (12-14 people) from a broad base (media, community agencies, political representatives, experienced community people) and established a response group. In a very short period of time a number of actions were taken;
- Whats app group set up to keep in regular communications on developments leading up to march
- Regularly checked in with each other, coordinated a communications plan, engaged in some training with H&CC (specifically around messaging and in general how to or how not to respond to FR mobilising around this divisive local issue)
- Connected with the local community making time for one to one conversations armed with FR profile information and a well written script “ we started ringing around talking to people with a script H&CC practically wrote for us”
- Ensured human stories were shared in popular local media week preceding the march. Focus on local families feeling enriched and positive hosting people seeking refuge in their homes locally.
Who led
Those involved from the very beginning who engaged the H&CC and went about setting up the local response group were its fair to say experienced community people, some politically active and all fairly familiar with the community sector and general area of community development. Members of the response group all lived in the town, came from different sectors and were active at a community level.
The devisenss of the issue also caught funded organisations locally off guard. Whilst some organisations were noted for their responsiveness this sounded very limited in nature and it appeared the vast majority of paid professionals involved were there in a personal capacity. Those individuals were noted for their personal leadership. The lack of resources, leadership and support from the sector at large was noted and this was put down to the fact that community organising was not recognised or sufficiently funded and the erosion of the community development sector.
Whilst the group named the fact they had a “progressive family resource centre locally” and “good leadership in the development company” the erosion of the community development space in Ireland was named “ Community development space is gone, there is a layer missing”.
Everyone felt the response was landing heavily on community folk already stretched in terms of their own community commitments.
“Trying to do it all on the fly as volunteers keeping the family alive and trying to eke out a career for myself [laughter]. It’s all so adhoc and unstructured. So dependent on us as volunteers. Paid people in the room were there on a voluntary basis. Nobody bar H&CC could support us on a professional basis”
What helped
- H&CC provided a ‘profile document’ on two key far right individuals and what they were saying about Newbridge online “ so we could use their own words against them effectively. These were not people that really cared about our community and this was another tool we could use”.
- One to one conversations were deemed key. Being responsive and reaching out immediately and broadly into the community and having purposeful conversations that “ accentuate the positive stories that we knew were happening. We spoke to everyone from the local parish priest, to local businesses and media”. These conversations aimed to engage people who were either not tuned into what was happening locally at all because they weren’t online or those who were accessing most of their information in an online bubble. H&CC profile information and a well written script meant members of the response group could “take people on a very long journey in a short conversation “ – some of those conversations were harder work than others”. To a lesser degree perhaps but importantly conversations were had directly with people who were being manipulated or targeted by the far right. Conversations that ‘didn’t shame people’ had an impact and “helped turn the tide”.
- A communications strategy brought human stories to the fore rather than responding to far right agenda and tactics. Local knowledge meant that local media (in this instance local radio, an important medium in rural Ireland) could be directed to those stories. Stories of local families and the positive and transformative impact taking in is having on their lives were lifted up in the week preceding the march. “It was humanising the stories of who actually is coming to the country, why they’re coming here, you know”
- Clear guidance and support from experienced people in the H&CC and their tools was helpful to the community based response. “Tools we could immediately use and a sanity check at times – this gave us the confidence to be proactive without that we would have floundered and wouldn’t have been as proactive”.
- At a very basic level having something practical to do seemed really important; it encouraged proactivity and positivity and appeared to bring energy and confidence to local efforts. This was especially important given organisers thought they had missed the boat and “the horse had bolted from the stable”
- People involved in the response had vast connections into the community; connections the far right dont have. And were people who had the capacity to respond quickly
- From the focus group it was clear that the community based response was enhanced by the shared values, community development expertise, community engagement skills and life/work experience of those involved.
What hindered
A number of realities and challenges that hindered their response to tackling far right organising in their community were named in the focus group.
- The first being the communications or lack thereof from Kildare County Council and the Department around the modular home initiative. And the overall lack of engagement initially as the information became available. “I think that one of the reasons why they [the far right] were able to fill that gap was because there was a serious information gap. I think there was a failure of politics and a failure of the state”
- People with the knowledge and experience to support people seeking refuge and capacity to organise in the face of far right tactics were on the back foot because of the lack of accurate information and also the general approach and policy around communicating accommodation decisions. “ It emasculated us as community people. It’s very important to me in taking a position of something that I have a good understanding of the facts impacts our ability as people on the ground to speak to it – made it really difficult to take any proactive approach at all”
- Political leadership was also identified as an issue in terms of being absent or a lack of capacity to deal with the divisiveness of the issue and Far Right tactics therein. It was felt political representatives responded to the agitators but did not seek out local community people despite being made aware of their organised presence. “Most local politicians wouldn’t engage once they heard the far right rhetoric. We exhorted them to work collectively and although I think there was a motion to Council, there was no public collective statement that we were aware of”.
“Some of the politicians who could have shown leadership absented themselves. Some of those present lacked capacity. Very individual cautious response by politicians. They didn’t act collectively”
Interviewees were also disappointed by the manner in which once the Department had made a decision that Newbridge was not on the list for the first wave of modular homes they moved on. “ so they just left it, seemingly not caring they had left a trail of destruction”
- Timing was a factor. As news broke of the modular housing, many people were on holidays. Some of the interviewees came back feeling like “the horse had already bolted from the stable” and they were rapidly responding to an agenda set by others.
- Those involved felt the effort to tackle the far right organising locally landed on the shoulders of community people already stretched in terms of capacity. The lack of a funded backup to the work did not help the community response; “Left to someone diligent and who has the wherewithal to respond to the far right when there are structures that have greater resources to do things – organisations with budgets including council of TU’s should have this on their radar”
Outcomes
On the balance of it it would appear the rapid response was successful. The Ireland First march went ahead but “it didn’t resonate afterwards, it didn’t fuel the fire in the week following the march and in fact died down”. People I spoke with were quick to add the community had caught on and attendance at the weekly protests was dwindling. It was felt that the community response avoided things becoming too polarised at a community level. A general sense that the far right failed to gain ground or take a hold in what were clearly challenging circumstances.
An added bonus is that when the nearby community of Kill came under pressure in similar circumstances (local equestrian centre to be made available for refugee accommodation) Newbridge response group were on hand to support.
“ And because we were fully trained up [laughter], we then started trying to identify the people in Kill who were, I guess leading out the community response over there and trying to find a way to equip them with our experience and what we had learned with the H&CC”.
Kildare County Council have since taken more ownership around providing accommodation for people seeking refuge which was noted and welcome by those interviewed. Two political parties were actively pursuing training regarding responding to the far right at time of writing this, one of those as a direct result of the experience in Newbridge.
**A sincere thank you to the people who participated in a focus group for this case study.
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