{"id":474704,"date":"2026-05-30T12:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T12:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/474704\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T12:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T12:36:14","slug":"very-disturbing-how-irelands-far-right-has-opened-new-front-by-targeting-dublins-council-homes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/474704\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Very disturbing\u2019: How Ireland\u2019s far right has opened new front by targeting Dublin\u2019s council homes \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The messages spray-painted across two boarded-up council houses in Finglas, north Dublin<\/a>, leave no room for ambiguity: \u201cIrish only or it burns\u201d and \u201cMuslims will be shot\u201d. <\/p>\n

In other Dublin suburbs \u2013 Coolock, Ballymun and Ballyfermot \u2013 similar graffiti is daubed on houses: \u201cIrish familys [sic] first\u201d and \u201chouse our own\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is the new frontline of hate crime in the Republic. <\/p>\n

Anti-immigrant<\/a> agitators are moving in marginalised communities to exploit rumours that vacant local authority houses have been allocated to families from ethnic minority backgrounds.<\/p>\n

They attack houses, usually smash windows and paint racist and xenophobic graffiti, vandalising in the name of \u201cIrish only\u201d motives.<\/p>\n

Some properties visited by The Irish Times had been extensively renovated, often at great cost, before the vandals struck. Many houses have been so badly damaged the council has boarded them up and they have been left vacant for months.<\/p>\n

This issue has become worse since offers for accommodation centres run by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) have been paused and arson attacks against these centres have declined, leading agitators to redirect their protests to local authority houses believed to be earmarked for ethnic minority families. <\/p>\n

\"ItIt has become more common in some parts of Dublin for Tricolours to be placed around vacant council houses. Photograph: Conor Lally <\/p>\n

Dublin City Council<\/a> started collecting data late last year on the number of vacant properties vandalised in suspected racist attacks as the trend became more pronounced. It is the first Irish council to compile such information. <\/p>\n

Some 24 attacks have been recorded. The incidents appear in working-class suburbs where, in recent times, territory has been marked out by Tricolour flags, which also festoon some of the damaged houses. <\/p>\n

Garda sources say council workers now often fear going into certain areas to perform routine tasks and, in the absence of a Garda escort, council workers or contractors are at times reluctant to repair the houses for fear of reprisals.<\/p>\n

Gavin Pepper, the Dublin councillor who represents the Ballymun-Finglas local electoral area, says the houses are being targeted at a time of deep frustration about how local authority properties are allocated and intense competition for homes amid the housing crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At times labelled far right, Pepper insists he is not anti-immigration but is \u201canti-illegal immigration\u201d. He says he has close Nigerian friends who are neighbours in Finglas, coaches children from a local direct provision centre and has worked alongside Lithuanians who became friends when he was a plasterer. <\/p>\n

Asked whether some of those behind the vandalism simply do not want ethnic minority neighbours, Pepper says he does not believe that is the case. He condemns the vandalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I see a house damaged or sprayed on, that is horrible to see. I don\u2019t want to see that in my community. But I can understand why people are doing it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The lack of transparency in house allocation, as he sees it, leads some to believe that ethnic minority families are \u201cskipping\u201d the housing waiting list, getting ahead of others waiting a decade or more. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not got the supply to house people, to house our own people. So how can we house people from everywhere else? It\u2019s just common sense,\u201d says Pepper, a first-time councillor.<\/p>\n

Though he condemns the attacks, he says he can see how anger could arise when residents see a local family, years on the housing list, missing out on a home to people with no roots locally who may be prioritised for council housing because they are classified as homeless.<\/p>\n

\"GraffitiGraffiti on a boarded-up council house in Dublin. Photograph: Conor Lally <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are saying \u2018well, she\u2019s number three on the list, why is she still waiting?\u2019 or \u2018that [house] should go to a family like hers\u2019. And they\u2019ve every right to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reply to queries, the Garda and Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan described the attacks as \u201chate crimes\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan said he was \u201cconcerned\u201d about the attacks, but welcomed that the council was now recording hate-based attacks on properties, saying it would aid the State\u2019s response and Garda policing policies at local level. <\/p>\n

Rory Hearne, the Social Democrats TD for the Dublin North-West constituency where many incidents have occurred, says the attacks are \u201cconcerning\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hearne, his party\u2019s housing spokesman, says in areas such as Finglas and Ballymun there is \u201cmassive overcrowding, people living with mould and damp\u201d and communities feel abandoned. There is clear evidence they are not getting the proper resources they need from Government, especially around housing, he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the context in which people trying to foment an anti-immigration agenda can grow, and this is the problem,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is part of the far-right organising and it\u2019s becoming a tactic to target these homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearne expresses concern that the far right\u2019s tactics might work: that houses might, in response, be allocated to white Irish families out of fear that ethnic minority families could be targeted in a property previously vandalised. <\/p>\n

\u201cBehind the organising of this is a white ethnonationalism that being Irish is white, but that\u2019s not the case, it\u2019s not the reality. We are an Ireland of different colours and backgrounds,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Gemma, a mother of four from north Dublin who didn\u2019t want to give her real name, has been on the housing list 12 years. She met The Irish Times outside a house she hoped she would be allocated. <\/p>\n

\"DaubingDaubing on a vacant council house in Dublin. Photograph: Conor Lally <\/p>\n

Her family still lives in the area and the property she longed for was recently renovated for new tenants. But then a rumour spread that a Romanian family had been allocated the property. It was soon vandalised and is now boarded up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very frustrating, seeing other people getting a house before you,\u201d she says, adding that her mother was born and raised nearby. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single day I rang them … eventually they told me to stop ringing the office,\u201d she says of her repeated inquiries about the house. <\/p>\n

She later heard the local rumour about a Romanian family viewing the property.<\/p>\n

She believes people coming from abroad \u201care getting places handed to them left, right and centre\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gemma is living in private rented two-bed accommodation. One of her children, who has profound special needs, is in a bedroom on his own, with the rest of the family sleeping in the other room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m living in torture,\u201d she says, adding the property is so damp and mouldy that her children have been repeatedly admitted to hospital, one dozens of times, with respiratory issues.<\/p>\n

Crosscare, which helps vulnerable people struggling to access accommodation, including migrants and IPAS residents, says the attacks on council properties are \u201cvery disturbing\u201d for residents \u201cand those hoping to join these communities\u201d. Some of its recent clients have been affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne family were waiting five years in homeless accommodation, were offered social housing only to have it daubed with graffiti, leaving them incredibly fearful. With a lot of support, they eventually moved in,\u201d says Crosscare chief executive Conor Hickey.<\/p>\n

To complicate matters, if families refuse the offer of a property, and another suitable house is not available, they could \u201cfall down the housing list\u201d and into years of homelessness because anyone who refuses two offers is removed from the list.<\/p>\n

In another case, an ethnic minority family with four children, including two with special needs, were offered a property in Dublin 5. They were put under \u201csignificant pressure\u201d to make a decision very quickly and were fearful of taking a house in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore they moved in, anti-immigrant graffiti was sprayed on the front of this newly renovated home,\u201d Hickey says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe local [council] office was quick to remove it. The family were even more fearful but took the house. They understood that it was a great house and they knew the repercussions of not taking this offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, their experience has been \u201cvery positive\u201d and they say \u201ctheir neighbours are very nice\u201d. However, they regularly see \u201canti-immigrant posting on a local Facebook page and this is difficult for them\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome local residents believe some immigrants are being allowed to ‘skip’ waiting lists for council housing in Dublin, councillor Gavin Pepper says. Photograph: Photograph: Conor Lally <\/p>\n

Overall, Hickey says the attacks stem from \u201cIreland\u2019s poor performance on housing and immigration\u201d and many communities becoming \u201cincreasingly marginalised\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0David McWilliams: Ireland needs immigrants. But our economy can\u2019t accommodate an infinite numberOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has allowed a very small number of disenfranchised individuals, fuelled by misinformation and far-right propaganda, to take these types of criminal and racist actions,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

The solution is for the Government to formulate \u201ca fair and just immigration system\u201d and \u201can urgent ramp-up\u201d of local authority-built social and affordable housing, he says.<\/p>\n

Dr James Carr, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Limerick, has been researching racism \u2013 much of it in the context of housing \u2013 against Muslims in Ireland for 16 years.<\/p>\n

For his most recent study, with postdoctoral researcher Tiba Bonya, published last December, they spoke to 69 council workers and 193 members of the Muslim community in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.<\/p>\n

Carr found council staff trying to shield Muslim families from being housed where they would be more likely to face racist violence. While a prospective tenant would be invited to view a property, \u201cthere may be an intimation that they \u2018might not fit in this area\u2019\u201d, his research found.<\/p>\n

One council worker referenced deliberately housing \u201cfour or five Muslim families\u201d in a scheme of 15 houses as it was near a mosque. Despite efforts to house them together, they were still targeted with \u201cantisocial\u201d behaviour.<\/p>\n

Carr\u2019s research concludes that, however well-intentioned, these ad-hoc efforts by council workers to protect ethnic minority tenants lead to segregation. <\/p>\n

Some areas will be predominantly white Irish because the councils believe ethnic minorities cannot be housed there. And other areas will have an over-representation of ethnic minority tenants because the councils perceive them as safer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have actors seeking to lay the blame for housing shortages … at the feet of minority communities. And they are de facto directing who goes to live where,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Absolutely traumatising\u2019: Ireland sees surge in arson attacks on council homesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A narrative around \u201cwho is getting what\u201d has grown strong on social media, generated by a \u201csmall but very loud\u201d Irish far right, feeding claims that foreign nationals are receiving significant help from the State that is not being extended to white Irish people, he says.<\/p>\n

Even though unfounded, those tropes \u2013 which Carr described as \u201cgutter politics, importing the Farage politics\u201d \u2013 are so widely accepted in Ireland that, for some, targeting houses has \u201cbecome legitimised\u201d, he says. <\/p>\n

This narrative is \u201calso nudging the centre parties towards the right and then you\u2019re in a downward spiral, lowest-common-denominator stuff\u201d, Carr says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what we\u2019re not doing is having a serious conversation about Government failures to deal with the housing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is no surprise to him that vandalism attacks on vacant local authority houses have taken place in areas where Tricolour flags have been set out to create \u201cbordering\u201d and convey a message about \u201cwho really belongs\u201d there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat idea of who really belongs is a very narrow, reductive idea of Irishness as being white, and maybe being from that area as well,\u201d says Carr.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an exclusionary use of the flag, it\u2019s being used as a means to intimidate people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The messages spray-painted across two boarded-up council houses in Finglas, north Dublin, leave no room for ambiguity: \u201cIrish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[615,13288,3663,3662,61,1629,32652,60,18573,34147,43,1419],"class_list":["post-474704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dublin","tag-dublin-city-council","tag-homeless-crisis","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas","tag-ireland","tag-jim-ocallaghan","tag-migrant-crisis","tag-news","tag-social-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}