{"id":610545,"date":"2026-08-31T21:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/610545\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T21:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:30:12","slug":"i-thought-this-was-a-cost-of-living-protest-migrants-and-chemtrails-criticised-at-dublin-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/610545\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I thought this was a cost-of-living protest’: Migrants and chemtrails criticised at Dublin protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of around 100 protesters who gathered on O\u2019Connell Street for what was billed as a cost-of-living<\/a> protest heard speakers criticise immigration and the EU.<\/p>\n

The demonstration, organised by Kerry<\/a> woman Michelle Keane, an unsuccessful candidate in the 2024 local elections, also heard criticism of safety in taxis, vaccines and chemtrails from various speakers.<\/p>\n

Ms Keane called on Ireland\u2019s borders to be closed, said there was \u201cno room for Islam in Ireland\u201d, and called on people to use Catholic churches more often.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to close the borders now,\u201d she told the crowd at the Daniel O\u2019Connell monument. \u201cWe want all the Muslims gone out of this country, we\u2019re not racist, we\u2019re not far-right, we\u2019re Irish people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may never unite in Ireland north and south, but we do agree on one thing, there is no room for Islam north and south of this island.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One woman interjected to say \u201cshame on the priests telling us to welcome everybody\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Keane also criticised James Geoghegan and John Dallon, spokesmen for the fuel protest blockade in Dublin in April, for not supporting the protest organised on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not bow to Simon Harris, we will not bow to Miche\u00e1l Martin and the message to the unelected, globalist bureaucrats in Europe: we want out of Europe, 90% of the Irish people want to be out of Europe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Polls have estimated a high level of support among Irish people for the EU since Brexit; a Eurobarometer report<\/a> estimated that 75% have a positive image of the EU.<\/p>\n

After calling the GAA \u201ccomplicit in everything\u201d and criticising the jihadist militant group Boko Haram, Kildare councillor Tom McDonnell said: \u201cOur problems here at the minute is feeding our children, driving to work, the cost of living is outrageous and we\u2019re contributing to our invasion.”<\/p>\n

Mr McDonnell, who drew criticism for saying women needed to \u201cbreed\u201d more after being elected in 2024, compared criticism of Ms Keane to “misogyny”.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to the women of this country we need more babies, we don\u2019t need to be outnumbered by Islam,\u201d he told the crowd.<\/p>\n

He also accused Dublin City Council of \u201cworking against the people of this country\u201d and said \u201cyou\u2019ll see pride flags you won\u2019t see any Irish flags\u201d in the O\u2019Connell Street area.<\/p>\n

Some protesters carried tricolour and \u2018Erin go Bragh\u2019 flags, wore camouflage vests and hats, and wore clothes bearing \u2018Ireland\u2019 and shamrock emblems.<\/p>\n

One man attending the protest said, while a speaker voiced concerns about safety in taxis for several minutes, \u201cI thought this was a cost-of-living protest, this is ridiculous\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of around 100 protesters who gathered on O\u2019Connell Street for what was billed as a cost-of-living…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[943,61,60,43,15151],"class_list":["post-610545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cost-of-living","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-racism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610545","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=610545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}