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A week dominated by tensions over immigration

A wider focus on migration policy, perhaps more so than at any point in Ireland’s 25-year history as a country of net inward migration, is now clearly shaping politics

Gathering belongings during a multi-agency operation to move asylum seekers from tents in Mount Street in Dublin earlier this week. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic's face
Ruadhán Mac Cormaic
Sun May 5 2024 - 09:12

“Seven days that shook the Government”. There’s little exaggeration in the headline on Political Correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones’s sweeping account of a week dominated by tensions over immigration. An Anglo-Irish rift over the movement of asylum seekers between Britain and Ireland may have more to do with looming elections on both sides of the Irish Sea. But the wider focus on migration policy, perhaps more so than at any point in Ireland’s 25-year history as a country of net inward migration, is now clearly shaping the country’s politics. For how long and, ultimately, to what effect? The answers to those two questions could tell us a great deal about the direction of Irish society over the coming period.

This week it was Taoiseach Simon Harris and Minister for Justice Helen McEntee who found themselves tested by the issue, but current tensions over immigration pose questions for all political parties. Analysing the recent decline in Sinn Féin’s opinion poll ratings, Political Editor Pat Leahy posits migration as part of the explanation. Polls in recent times showed that Sinn Féin’s base was more sceptical about immigration than were supporters of other parties. “But at the same time, many of the party’s newer, younger, more liberal and urban supporters were concerned about migrants’ rights,” according to Pat. “Sinn Féin was getting caught between its populist wing and its progressive wing.”

Too often in debate on these issues, migrants’ own voices and perspectives are absent. We have tried to keep them in the foreground. In her conversations with asylum seekers who struggled to find a bed in Dublin this week, Social Affairs Correspondent Kitty Holland heard of the arduous, often dangerous journeys taken by several men from Afghanistan and Pakistan, some of whom said they had travelled to Ireland with the help of smugglers.

Meanwhile, as pro-Palestinian protests convulse US universities, Education Editor Carl O’Brien talks to students, academics and university officials in Ireland about how the Israel-Hamas war is playing out on Irish campuses.

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David McWilliams points out a harsh reality of the Irish property market: that the houses built in the 20th century for the benefit of the country’s poor are now largely in the possession of its rich and middle classes.

Also in Opinion, our new columnist Mark O’Connell muses on monomaniacal venture capitalist Bryan Johnson, who is using every technology available to him to achieve immortality. He’s 46 years old and hopes to turn 18 in a few years.

Elaine Maguire writes about a paradox of high fashion. If the Peruvian farmer who provides the wool for a luxury jumper earns nothing, then what exactly is the consumer paying for?

In her news feature on divorce cases going through the Irish courts, Legal Affairs Correspondent Mary Carolan describes the sad, sombre process of formalising the end of a marriage. Some cases are concluded in 15 minutes; others can take years, all while the legal costs pile up.

Elsewhere, Barry Roche pieces together the mysterious life of American conman Randolph Kirk Parker, whose under-the-radar existence came to light in 2023 when he tried to obtain an Irish passport using the names of children who had died.

We have lots of strong interviews across the site this weekend, including with Bryan Dobson, Deirdre O’Kane, John Connolly, Bambie Thug and Elaine Feeney.

It’s still a little cold in Irish waters, but in anticipation of the warmer weather that (surely) will be with us soon, Maureen McCoy and Paul McCambridge have selected some of the best outdoor swimming locations around Ireland.

Finally, the day after Leinster defeated Northampton in front of 82,000 fans at Croke Park, you’ll find some of the best writing on rugby on the site today, including John O’Sullivan’s match report, player ratings from Johnny Watterson and Malachy Clerkin’s match analysis.

Enjoy the weekend,

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic

Editor

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