Ezra Levant examines Ireland’s rapid influx of 1 million migrants in recent years, many from "safe" countries like the UK, who bypass documentation and claim asylum. Locals in Dublin’s Kulak protest military-age men housed nearby after incidents—including a two-year-old’s attempted abduction and sexual assaults on children—while Suzanne Delaney warns her daughter is the sole Irish child in a class dominated by non-native speakers. Protesters, like those opposing Jeff Leo’s Dundrum House Hotel refugee camp in Tipperary, cite government secrecy and fossil fuel spending over migrant aid, arguing their concerns stem from unchecked policies, not racism. The episode questions whether Ireland’s historic resistance to foreign domination now clashes with its modern immigration approach, exposing tensions between hospitality and safety ahead of elections. [Automatically generated summary]
I've been to Ireland three times in the last year.
The reason I'm interested in it is because they have an extreme immigration approach, not just as a percentage of their population, but the way they house these migrants is so strange.
They just dump them in small villages and towns, immediately swamping the local community.
It is so irritating to the locals.
It destroys the culture and the cohesion.
It's so weird.
Anyhow, I find it fascinating and I find it a terrifying warning of what Canada could become.
So I want you to get the video version because I'm going to show you the best of our Irish coverage today.
You'll be able to hear it, but I really think you have to see it with your own eyes.
Go to RebelNewsPlus.com to get a subscription to what we call Rebel News Plus.
It's the video version of this podcast.
It's eight bucks a month, which might not sound like a ton of dough to you, but boy, it sure adds up for us.
Please go to RebelNewsPlus.com.
And hey, I want to mention one more thing.
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Did they allow you to express all your concerns or did they dismiss them out of hand and give you the head office talking points?
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Ireland's Immigration Dilemma00:13:13
Tonight, the best of our coverage from Ireland, the immigration experiment of the West.
It's November 22nd, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
shame on you you sensorious bug i love going to ireland It's such an interesting place.
I only first went there a few months ago.
The reason I find it interesting is it's a very small country, only about 5 million people, but they've taken about a million people into their country over the last few years.
And an extraordinary number of people are being moved there in the name of being refugees, even though they're coming from safe third countries, even the UK.
The United Kingdom, of course, shares a border with Ireland.
Northern Ireland is part of the UK.
Ireland proper is the Republic.
And people just walk right across.
They burn or destroy their records and they say, I'm a refugee.
There's no such thing as a refugee from the UK or any other country that goes directly to Ireland.
But the government, for some reason, is insistent on taking them.
And Ireland has a history of rejecting what they call plantations, including from the Brits who wanted to colonize Ireland.
And that's one perspective.
That's the Irish perspective.
Ireland rebelled against foreign domination.
It's really weird to me to see mass immigration and the way that they're doing it, putting hundreds of migrants in tiny little villages, immediately turning the indigenous Irish into minorities in their own towns.
Never seen anything like it.
Most astonishing.
And it's interesting to see the grassroots rebellion against that.
Sometimes it even gets a little bit violent.
We've seen some arson and some scuffles with police.
What's heartbreaking is that none of the political parties there represent the stop immigration side of the story, even though the vast majority of Irish have had enough.
I find it interesting, and I find it a premonition of what could happen in Canada if we keep going down the path we're on.
I was in Ireland a few weeks ago, and I heard about this beautiful boardwalk area right in the heart of Dublin, and someone said it's so full of foreigners, there's not a single Irish citizen there.
It was just an interesting tweet I thought.
I said, is that true?
Are there parts of Dublin where there's not a single native Irish?
And I went there and found out, and indeed it was true.
So I want to show you that video, which we haven't aired before, and a collection of what we call the best of our Irish reporting.
I think we're going to go one more time because they have their election coming up very soon.
And I want to see how they handle mass protest against immigration in a democracy and an election where there is no anti-immigration party.
I like the Irish, and I like the fact that they've got a certain fighting spirit.
It'll be interesting to see how they fight against this globalist project, which it absolutely is.
All right, without further ado, here's the best of our Irish coverage, including that chat I had with people on the boardwalk in central Dublin.
You know, the center of the city of Dublin is absolutely beautiful.
Who wouldn't want to go to these pubs and restaurants along the river?
And they built this boardwalk along the river for people to sit and just enjoy and watch things go by.
I saw a tweet, though, that got my interest that the boardwalk, there are some Irish who like to come and sit, but really it's a meeting place for foreigners who are here as temporary workers or asylum seekers or the unemployed.
And I thought, is that true?
So I spent some time just going down the boardwalk talking to literally every single person I met.
And my first question was always the same.
Where are you from?
Let me show you the answers.
We're asking folks where they're from.
Are you from Ireland yourself?
Yeah, from Dublin.
And you too?
Yeah.
Moldova.
Moldova.
And how about you?
Moldova.
India.
India.
I'm from the Philippines.
You too?
Yes.
Why am I?
Where are you from?
I'm from Pakistan.
Romania.
Romania.
Egypt.
Hi, guys.
Where are you guys from?
I'm from Chan.
You're from China?
Are you from China also?
Yeah.
Are you from China also?
No.
I'm from Nepal.
You're from Nepal.
I'm Irish.
I'm Gola.
Romania.
Romania.
You know English, okay.
Are you guys all from Romania?
Yeah, from Prague.
Oh, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Okay, yeah.
Where are you from?
Holland.
I'm from Argentina.
Yeah, I like Irish people.
One is the loveliest people in the world.
Friendly, nice, can make jokes.
Very nice people, like Latin people.
And where are you from originally?
Romania.
We're asking folks about immigration because we're from Canada and it's a big issue over in Canada.
Do you think immigration is a political issue in Ireland?
Well, I don't think that the views of people right now should be against immigration like Ireland have always been people that immigrate.
So I don't think it's an issue.
I think it's more of a housing issue that people are worried about.
Are you here as a student?
Are you working?
Walking.
What are you doing for work?
I work as a data on the list.
And how long have you been in Ireland?
Eight years.
Eight years?
And how's it treating you?
Do you like Ireland?
Yeah, yeah, it's good.
Sand, and how long you been here in Ireland?
I'm in the Prussian case.
How long ago?
Four or five days ago.
And what do you do here in Ireland?
Do you work?
No, no, no.
So are you an asylum seeker?
I'm an asylum seeker.
And how long have you been here in Ireland?
2019.
2019, and are you working or are you disabled for the moment?
On disability?
And how long have you been here in Ireland?
Long time.
Long time?
Five years, ten years?
Twenty.
Twenty years.
And why did you come to Ireland from Egypt?
To work.
And how's that going?
Very good.
Are you working now?
Not now, not the moment.
It sounds like you have an accent though.
Where did you come from?
Actually from Latvia.
Oh, from Latvia.
How long have you been here in Ireland?
19 years.
And how do you like it?
Obviously, you like it.
Have you been here?
Of course I like that.
Is your family here?
No, I'm alone.
And do you work or are you...
At the moment I not work.
Are you an Irish citizen?
Yeah, of course.
And how long have you been here in Ireland?
26 years.
26 years?
Well, you're an old-timer then?
Yes, yes, sir.
Are you an Irish citizen?
Yes.
You've applied for citizenship and you've received it?
Oh, yeah.
Are you here as a tourist as well?
Are you studying here?
I came to work.
You came to work and how's that going?
Very nice.
Yeah, I find a job right away, so I was very lucky.
What do you do for a living, if I may ask?
I am a traffic controller.
My area is always under Dekop Taliban and Pakistani Taliban and Abbani Taliban as well.
Do you think that's related though?
If you bring in hundreds of thousands of folks, you know, it's going to drive up the supply and demand?
No, it's already been an issue in Ireland before immigration, so it's more of a landlord issue and current government issue, I'd say.
It's not non-service immigrants.
It's the lack of resources.
It doesn't come from immigration, it's for government.
How are the Irish?
Are they friendly towards immigrants?
Yeah, they are.
They are, yeah.
Do you think some people come here and take advantage though?
Do you think there's some fake refugees, fake asylum seekers that take advantage of the Irish?
I don't know, I'm not sure about that.
How are Irish towards immigrants?
Are they friendly and welcoming?
Yes.
How long has it been since you've been working?
A year.
What do you do with your days?
Are you allowed to work here in Dublin?
Do you work or do you just sort of wait?
No, I'm basically a clinical psychologist.
I have done my MS in clinical psychology.
Are you allowed to practice as a psychologist?
I want to contribute to mental health here, so that's why.
Do you have a family?
I have a family, but here's what they were there.
They are where, sorry?
They are there in Parachinar and...
So why is your family there and you are here?
Because I'm not come here by plight.
So I come here by sea in containers, so it's not, my family is not able to.
You came in a container ship, you say?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Are you applying to move here permanently?
Do you have permanent status here in Ireland?
I have an application from the Council for the House.
I'm waiting for the house.
And for the moment, I stay in the hostel.
And who pays for that?
Does the government pay for that?
The government is paying for that because it's normal.
I don't have just 230 euro by the week.
If you had your way, would you stay here in Ireland or would you go back to Argentina afterwards?
Oh, that's a tough question.
I don't even know myself.
What do you like best about the Irish people?
Because Irish people are very friendly people.
You know, there are German people, there are Slavic people, and there are Latin people.
Irish people is like Latin people.
Friendly, nice, easygoing.
I go to a pub.
They like to speak with me.
I like to speak with them.
We are very good friends.
They can make jokes.
We can make jokes together.
Very easygoing people.
Well, let me ask you about that because sometimes you can be too friendly and people take advantage.
Do you think some people are coming to Ireland claiming to be asylum seekers, but really they're not?
They're just here to take advantage of Irish hospitality.
That's a long term, that's a long-term scam.
It's been going on a long time, you say?
That's a long time scam over the world.
People coming from somewhere, claiming asylum seeker.
Okay, give me free food, give me free accommodation, that's it.
I agree with that.
You're right.
Some of them, they make a scam from that.
A lot of people are worried about their resources getting taken away when it's like something.
That's again a government issue.
It's nothing to do with the people are receiving it.
And what do you do for a living?
Me?
Yeah.
I used to be a web designer.
Oh, and what do you do now?
Target I'm unemployed.
And how long have you been unemployed?
A few years now.
Are you getting social assistance?
Are you getting some help?
Kind of, yeah.
Kind of, yeah.
So you came by ship, but your family's back home?
Yeah, my family is back to home, so I came here by ship.
Is it safe for your family at home?
No, it's not safe for my family as well.
With all respect, if you search on Net, so you will be fine according to the situation of Parachinara.
So why did you come here?
Or Mani?
And how's it working out?
Are you glad you came?
I'm glad, but 80%.
I mean, Ireland's taken an enormous number of people in the last few years.
Is there a limit?
I don't know there is a limit, but it's a normal reaction of Irish people when they react that so many, so many foreigners are coming.
Any county will do the same.
Some folks would say, well, we're giving housing to migrants, but what about the Irish homeless?
What do you think of that argument?
Again, the government have a surplus of money that are not using to create housing, so they're not exactly giving it emergency accommodation.
It's just given to immigrants, it's also given to people, you're Irish people.
So again, the surplus of money that the government had, they should be building housing.
It's not immigration people coming into the country's fault.
It's the government.
That's it.
Can I ask you a question?
If it's not safe, why are you here, but your family there?
Shouldn't you be taking care of your wife and children?
Yeah, I'll try my best if I got documents from here, I learned.
So I will be definitely bringing my family here.
But have you been back to visit them since you came here?
No, they'll come from Iran because my wife is in Iran.
So they'll come from here, from there to here.
They put too much tax.
Too much tax?
Irish Flags Divide Community00:02:43
Yeah, my thoughts.
Behind me, the counter-protesters, a line of guard eyes.
That's what they call their police.
You can see that they're quite worried about the two sides coming into contact.
There's one Guard Eye officer filming things, I think, for souvenir purposes.
I think the numbers on the other side, if I had to estimate, I'd say there's about 110 people.
Nah, more than, shy of 100, I'd say there's about 90 people.
There's more police than counter protesters.
Most of the signs on the other side are prefabricated signs, as opposed to many of the homemade signs on this side.
And I'll tell you one other thing I just noticed.
On this side, hundreds of Irish flags.
On that side, I don't see a single Irish flag.
I see three Palestinian flags, and I see a mysterious flag that I cannot identify, but there's not a single Irish flag on the other side.
And doesn't that tell you something?
i'm gonna step about a foot away from these big cops because i don't need to get caught in the crossfire gum chanting ngo scum That's a very interesting thing to say.
The people in this anti-migration march think that their opponents are the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, NGOs, as much as any domestic political party.
And I think they're right.
Thank you very much.
Very friendly here.
Lots of rebel news fans, even here in Ireland.
I correct myself.
I see a single Irish flag on the other side on which is written Black Lives Matter.
As I mentioned before, this side has co-opted the phrase and says, Irish Lives Matter.
I think both lives matter.
As Levant here in a neighborhood in Dublin called Kulak.
Standing outside of Burger King, there's lots of kids in there.
Kulak Concerns00:08:35
Behind me, the leisure plex.
As you can see, it's all about family fun.
Different ages, they even have a ballroom.
You know what I mean?
A room of all those little balls where kids go in.
There's the Odeon Theater.
This is a place for kids and for families.
But right across the street there is a abandoned or empty warehouse factory.
Used to be a paint company, but the government has decided to put hundreds of migrant men in there.
Just men.
Hundreds of them.
I've heard 250.
I've heard 500.
I've even heard 1,000.
And they're just plunking them down in this residential area, an area that's actually low income, where they don't have services enough already.
That has led to opposition amongst the locals.
And there's no process, there's no process of objection or consultation.
If they were going to build a big apartment block there, there would be all sorts of hearings and is there enough parking?
What does it do for traffic?
None of that applies here.
The government has announced they are putting hundreds of migrant men here and the local community can like it or lump it.
Well, yesterday things came to a head.
There was a protest there and hundreds of people marched.
Some of them got violent.
They wore black balaclabbas.
They hurled bricks.
They hurled Molotov cocktails.
They torched a police car, torched some machinery.
Police responded in kind.
80 riot cops wearing exoskeletons.
It was a melee.
Well, that is the news that absolutely dominated today.
When we landed at the airport in Dublin, we saw nine newspapers.
The front page of each one was about the arrests.
It wasn't about the underlying politics or the underlying grievance.
It was about the 15 people who were arrested.
And in a way, that's a double shame.
Of course, violence is not a solution to public policy problems, but it also took all the oxygen and all the attention away from the underlying grievance in the community.
Well, this is new.
I think this was put up last night after the fiery, riotous protests.
Enormous concrete blocks making it very impassable.
You really would have difficulty climbing over those.
You wouldn't want to.
I mean, that certainly wouldn't be for anyone other than a young athletic person.
You wouldn't have the kind of mass protests that 90% of the protesters were yesterday.
Obviously, there are people undeterred.
I see 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15 people here with Irish flags.
You can see they have some signs, concerned parents for Kulak, protect our children.
Belina says no supports Kulak.
People honking as they go by.
Imagine putting 500 single military-age migrant men there and saying, suck it up.
We're the government.
We're telling you how it is.
Shut up, they explained.
Let's go across the street and see if anyone will talk to us.
My guess is they hate the media.
So yesterday was a big conflagration.
We can see some of the charge.
Oh, so major.
It was a big, big thing for Kulak, and it's what we've been trying to prevent.
We didn't want this.
We wanted a peaceful, kept peaceful.
We've been here for 116 days, day and night.
We've given up so much and sacrificed so much to be here.
We tried to find a better way, but unfortunately, they didn't listen.
The government is letting us down once again.
They will not listen to the people.
people do not want this they don't know where they're from or who they are or record what you know like if they're running from crime or not So most of them are coming from the UK, is that right?
Well, there's a lot coming from the UK.
Do any come by boat to here?
Not that I know of.
They come across from France to the UK and make their way through England.
Everybody is ignoring us.
We've tried to reach out to everybody.
We're falling on their first.
We're being called uneducated, jobless.
You name it.
We've been called the far-right, racist, bigots.
No one is listening to us.
It's a small country.
We can't take all these people coming in.
We can understand there is people that's coming from war-torn countries, but the majority...
But France and the UK are not war-torn countries.
No, no.
Well, they're coming to France.
You know, some of them are coming to France from wartime.
But others are from Africa.
They're just jumping on the bandwagon.
They're going to France, get the ludies over to England, boating over to England, and then coming through here.
Not one local councillor from around here wants to know.
They've ignored us and ridiculed us from day one.
They don't want to know.
When I think of refugees, I think of women and children.
I think of maybe old people or babies.
I don't think a military edge is single men.
Any park, you see Jonathan's with the best of runners on the jeans with cans.
All younglers, you know, in the early teens, 1920s.
You know, yeah.
With our with the label design closes and all that.
After the riot last night, riot protest, it was both.
These enormous blocks were placed here.
I don't know how heavy they are.
It wouldn't surprise me if they're a ton or more each.
You'd have to be pretty slender to slip through here.
I don't know if any person could.
you'd have to be pretty ambitious to climb over it.
How are you, mate?
Edgeworth Levant from Rebel News in Canada.
What's your name?
Brian Garrigan, representing the Irish people and all good people all over the world.
This is a peaceful protest.
We're concerned citizens, concerned fathers and mothers about undocumented men coming into our country.
Yes, Ireland has to help genuine refugees, and we do.
But we need to vet them.
We don't know what's coming into our country, and we need to look after our own.
Now, remember, the Irish went all over the world, everywhere and built it.
But the thing is, we went and we slept on couches.
We got digs, we got jobs, we paid our way, we paid our own health care, we got none for free.
But we are for genuine, genuine refugees.
This is not an anti-refugee protest.
And are you from Newtown, Mount Kennedy?
Where are you from?
Dublin.
And what's going on in some of the smaller places like Newtown, Mount Kennedy?
They're getting planted with people who are undocumented in such a small town.
Kulak, we believe, is going to get between 1,000 to 1,500 undocumented men.
There's enough problems in Kulak with drugs and with unemployment.
We don't need the house to rule people who don't belong here.
There's no direct flight from here to Nigeria or from here to Pakistan.
Let me ask you two more questions.
The mainstream media denounces people here as far-right or racist.
What's your response to the mainstream media?
Just because you stand up with a flag or say you're concerned, citizens, straight away you're far right.
So I have nothing to say to the main media because they're never here.
They won't listen to us.
But we're here as a peaceful protest as concerned parents.
Remember, we have people like Paul McGrath, Phil Lynn who claim Irish hood, Muhammad Ali who claimed Irish hood.
We're not anti-anywood.
We just want to look after our own people and house our own force.
That's all.
Let me ask you, do you think anything will change?
Because I'm an outsider, but it seems to me that all the parties in Ireland are for open borders immigration.
Do you think that will change?
In June of next month, there's new local elections all over Ireland, okay?
So I'm running in the Dublin inner C, vote number one, Brian Garrigan, and we're going to make a change.
We're slowly waking the people up.
85% of people's concerns are about illegal immigration.
And remember, we have to help genuine immigrants.
Genuine.
You know, it's still early in the morning.
We got here on the overnight flight from Canada.
We just threw our stuff down at the hotel and then we came straight here.
It was sort of interesting that this was on the front page of the Irish Independent.
I just bumped into a cameraman from the state broadcaster here called RTE.
As you can imagine, being the state broadcaster in a left-wing government, they are like Canada's CBC.
But they know this is a news story.
It's still early and everyone here seems to be sleeping in, but I see someone, looks like he's just getting up now.
Waking Up Concerns00:06:30
I don't want to interrupt people.
I don't want to wake people up.
But if people are up and at them and getting started with their day and want to talk to us, I'm happy to talk to them.
Would you like to talk on camera or you're still, you don't speak English?
Where are you from?
You're from Falestine?
When did you get here?
No, no, speak English.
He says he's from Palestine or Falestine, and he says he doesn't speak English.
Let's continue walking.
By the way, I should say, I don't think there's any direct flights from the West Bank or Gaza to Ireland.
So obviously the folks here came through a second country.
One of the rules about refugee status that the United Nations has resolved is that if you're a refugee, you have to present in the first safe country you arrive at.
You can't sort of go shopping around and island hopping, so to speak.
Hi, how are you guys?
Do you guys live around here?
Are you in these tents?
Don't film me.
Okay.
Excuse me, please.
gonna help these guys or no well i wanted to the point of filming them please I want to know who they are and what they're doing.
It's all your business, bro.
If you're going to give them some help, give them some help.
Don't film me, man.
I already told you that, yeah.
Don't film me, brothers.
Don't film me.
Yeah, public place, but don't film me, man.
I'm telling you, yeah.
I'm telling you, yeah.
I'm telling you, yeah?
Don't fucking film me, yeah?
My love, let's go.
Fucking can't.
What's your name?
I'm talking to this guy, yeah.
What's your name?
Where are you from?
It's all your fucking business, man.
Well, why do you come up and talk to us?
Why are you filming people?
Are you going to give him help?
Are you going to help them?
Yeah?
Maybe.
Maybe, yeah, not maybe.
You're just making like what is it?
You just want to get your widgets, man, you know?
And you're filming, yeah?
We want to know what's going on.
Get a burger, yeah?
Hi there.
Can we talk to you a little bit about what's going on around here?
Sure.
No?
Where are you from?
Well, where are you from?
It's not your fucking business.
Why is it?
Well, why is it not my business?
I'm from Dublin.
You're from Dublin?
Yeah.
All right.
Very good for you.
Sure.
Okay.
Fuck off, man.
How you know?
We see the filming people.
Go to jail, man.
You know, you feel me?
You feel me?
Fuck up, yeah.
Fuck off, you motherfucker.
Here's the guard.
So they've rang the guards to tell them that we're here.
And by guards, you mean the guard eye, the official police?
Well, maybe they'll have a word.
I mean, I'm a very curious person.
I like to talk.
Tell me a little bit about Newtown, Manken.
It's basically a town not far from Dublin.
Small population, about 2,800 people.
And, you know, until this happened, of course, peaceful.
There's only a few shops in it, a few pubs in it.
There's not enough facilities even for the people that are here.
People that are moving in here, of which they're all races and all creeds and colours.
We've no problem with that.
What we do have a problem with is this, as you can see.
Now, I can't see because there's a big corrugated metal fence all around.
They've erected here.
It's like something you'd see in 1970s Belfast when you're seeing the soldier forts, as we called them then.
That's what they were.
This is exactly what they look like.
What's behind this corrugated metal?
Before this was all erected, it was a big convent house and it used to be a normal nuns were in there and school, yeah.
And the walls would have only been about four feet high, and you could see into the grounds quite clearly.
Am I hearing voices over there?
Is there activity behind that?
There are a hundred and so men.
We don't know.
Nobody has ever told us.
It's indeterminate.
So why is there a wall around here?
They say it's to protect them from us scary people.
You're not very scary to me.
No, the working class people of Newtown are very scary people, apparently.
And so anyway, Newtown, this road here, as you see, there's no lighting on it, no footpath, no nothing else.
But still, it was a great facility for people who would be out cycling, running, walking, that kind of thing.
And now nobody does that anymore because we feel unsafe with unknown men in there.
No matter where they're from.
So it's not just being constructed now.
It's done and there's people there.
Behind there, there's large marquee style tents.
Tents?
Tents.
Apparently, there's eight in each tent, but we don't know.
Again, we're told nothing.
It's Angelovan from Canada.
I might seek asylum also.
Hello!
Can I borrow a cup of sugar?
They're wearing balaclavas.
They're wearing masks over their faces.
Wow.
Now who would those people be wearing a balaclavas?
They're probably out of the Grand Chapel.
They're probably Martins themselves.
Hello?
Are you throwing things at us?
That's not very neighbourly.
That's not very nice of you.
They threw a rock at our camera.
That's not very friendly.
It's trying to recall who we are.
The crowd, the power is up.
Now we have a strong spiritual connection to them and it frightens them because our legends, poetry and song tell time and again how we rose up against oppressors who tried to banish us.
We simply must win.
And if we don't, our children will fall just like the children on that statue of Garden of Remembrance who are trapped there and stone making their downward descent towards the ground.
Ireland's Crucial Role00:14:01
I wonder now would that statue even be here in 100 years?
And with that I am, and ensure the survival of not just your children, but also Irishness, and all that it means to be so.
Outside St. John's house between 6 and 8, and the protest is actually tomorrow because of the protest today.
Between 6 and 8 outside St. John's house.
Thanks very much for listening.
I've been following politics for 35 years and I've listened to maybe a thousand speeches.
I have to say your speech up there today was the most authentic, passionate, powerful and moving speech I can remember.
It was astonishing to me.
Who are you?
Who am I?
It's odd to be asked that question but I because I'm a very introverted sort of a person but because of what's happening in our country I've had to come out and stand up.
My name is Suzanne Delaney and otherwise known as Susie D online which makes me sound like a bad rap artist but the name was picked because there's you know there's a lot of targeting of you if you have the views I do in this country and I was trying to protect my child but I've decided to run for election so I've put my name out there.
I run the Irish Inquiry with my partner Stephen Kerr and he's running for Castle Barr and Mayo.
We're running as independent candidates.
But let's talk about what you said.
You talked about your daughter who's obviously young and I think the most terrifying thing you said was that in a way you don't want her to grow up because you don't want her to go out because you're worried about her in the streets of Ireland.
Tell me that again.
Tell me more about that.
Yeah so when I grew up in when I would have been when I was her age I that was the 80s and life was different here and I used to play outside all day long and if I graced my knees and came back in my mother would wipe my knees and she'd send me back out the door and my daughter has never played outside alone.
Never.
And where I live, I'm not running where I live because where I live is gone.
There's no way.
And why doesn't she play that?
So explain to me the missing piece of this story.
Why?
It's not safe.
Why is it not safe?
So this year, sorry, sorry, this week, a man, a foreign national who was led into the country without checks, tried to take a two-year-old child out of a buggy here just up the road.
And a 12-year-old boy in County Cork was in the toilets.
And when he was coming back out, he was pushed back into a cubicle and he was sexually assaulted.
So that is what we're dealing with.
And three children were stabbed up the road here in Parnell Square.
I don't feel at all like my daughter is safe.
And when people ask for her to go and do things with them, like I have a friend who wanted to take her to a show, I say no because I'm so afraid that there might be a terror attack or something else.
So where I live is not safe.
And I've spoken before publicly about the fact that my daughter is the only Irish child in her class at school.
And I have nothing against these other children.
But that's not normal.
My daughter is the foreign national in her own country and she doesn't understand what her school friends say.
I don't want to leave.
It's so rustic and hearing the sound of the little waterfalls on the locks and it's so peaceful.
This is one of the best places in Dublin.
And yet along the sides, there were hundreds of tents with military-age migrant men.
So you can see they put these fences to keep them out.
They've come back and then they shoot away, come back, shoot away about five times.
Anyway, I talked to a couple of people because there's so many people just going for a walk or a bike ride.
It's the kind of place where you might go for a date and then sit down on a little park bench.
And it's notable how many young women are along this path.
And I mention that because when you have hundreds of military-age migrant men camping out here, it changes the safety dynamic.
And yeah, here's Irish people who stopped to talk to me as they were walking their dogs.
Hi.
It looks like you're collecting some leaves.
Yeah, because my six-year-old friend is coming for pizza later, so she's very artistic.
So just to play with her.
Yeah.
But it also makes me notice the beauty.
Yeah.
It's absolutely beautiful here.
The sound of the rushing water.
You've got some doggies with you.
Can I ask you about these fences around here?
We were here a few months ago and there were lots of tents with migrants.
And I understand that they come and then they're kicked out and then they come back and they're kicked out.
What do you make of that whole thing?
I guess it's complicated.
My understanding is our government decided to stop providing housing for male refugees.
So the council gives them a tent.
But then the council blocks anywhere that they could put the tent.
Do you think they're real refugees or do you think some of them might be taking advantage of Irish hospitality?
I don't think anybody would do that for a laugh or to take advantage of.
I mean, we know they're coming from areas of the world that are either wartone or have civil conflict or else they're, I guess some of them now even, if they are economic migrants, it's because the global north has caused climate chaos and people can't make a living where they are.
So you think climate change is why they're here?
No, I think that, but that's, I think we're playing out because of the reality that we put up six, eight Hiroshima bombs worth of energy per second into our atmosphere.
It's big changes coming, like that will lead to civil unrest and about a third of humanity outside livable zones.
And so I think Fortress Europe is preparing itself to make sacrifice zones.
So we're like we're just closing our closing our doors, I guess.
But what's Ireland got to do with any of this?
Ireland's never had a colony.
Ireland's never oppressed anyone.
So why is Ireland, a tiny country, the only place for, there are no other Irelands for the Irish.
If Ireland's not there, I don't know.
Like it's the only place where Irel for the Irish.
And why is Ireland the place where so many migrants can come?
And some of them burn their or throw out their documents when they arrive.
That doesn't seem like a good faith move.
I just wonder if you're being a little bit, I don't mean to criticize, but you sound credulous.
What was credulous means believable.
Sounds like perhaps you're the kind of person that someone from a low trust society might take advantage of.
You look like a lovely high trust society, a wonderful woman who's collecting beautiful things.
I don't mean to be mean, but I think someone might take advantage of you.
Well, I'm not, I guess I consider myself to have a lot of privilege.
I'm not worried about being taken advantage of.
I'd happily pay more tax if the tax went to not funding fossil fuels and arms, but to creating a safe haven from people fleeing justice, injustice.
But there's 8 billion people in the world, and my guess is that half of them would love to come to this beautiful place if they could.
But you can't fit 4 billion people in Ireland.
You can't fit 4 million more.
You can.
Ireland had 8 million before the Great Hunger Famine.
So do you think maybe we could take a few million more people from Pakistan and Somalia?
I think the narrative around migration is incorrect.
People aren't made aware that there's always been a movement of migration.
We migrated out of Africa to fill the planet.
I thought Ireland.
Yes, and then only since the nation state has there been some notion of, which is only like a 19th century phenomenon, has there been some notion of like us and them.
Well, the Irish have had us and them.
The Irish have been throwing off occupiers and oppressors for centuries.
So the Irish have had to take refuge.
There are about 40 million people around the globe who claimed of Irish origin.
And they were people to leave because of oppression.
So I think that's why you find many people identify so well with the Palestinians.
And we're the only white nation in Europe who haven't been a colonial power.
Dublin is a modern metropolitan city, but in the small town of Dundrum, which is in the county called Tipperary, well, there's about 175, 200 people who live there.
And although they're modern, progressive, fully high-tech Irish like anyone else, it's a small community where everyone knows each other.
And in some ways, it's how Ireland, I expect, has been for centuries.
It's a small place, but there is a local community center, namely the hotel, which now also has a golf course and a country club.
It's a place where locals would go for meals to play golf.
It was a meeting place for the community.
Many weddings were held there.
The hub of the community and a source of economic opportunity for the community, making tourism part of the local economy.
But then the hotel was sold to an American investor and then the Irish government came with a massive contract for this American investor, offering him untold millions of dollars if he were to transform this hotel, which itself is over a hundred years old, into a refugee camp.
I say again, this four-star hotel with a gorgeous, immaculate golf course being transformed in the heart, heart of Celtic Ireland into a refugee camp is astonishing.
But this decision to turn this local hotel into a refugee camp is not made locally, it's a national decision and it is being imposed on the local community.
I asked repeatedly the protesters about town hall meetings or information sessions.
They say that there have been none.
There is no political process and there is no legal process open to them to ask questions and get information, let alone challenge and feedback.
There is no back and forth, there is no debate.
It is being opposed in an authoritarian manner from the top down.
My name is Fiona Kennedy, i'm a very ordinary uh mother um, I live here locally in Dundrum and uh, i'm here with a group of people we're the most ordinary people that you could possibly meet, and we find ourselves in an extraordinary situation and um really, we're, we're standing to protect our hotel, our beautiful hotel here, Dundrum House hotel, our golf club and our community.
Now, I had never heard of Dundrum until yesterday.
I looked it up and it only has about 200 people, and I understand that this facility, this gorgeous, beautiful hotel and country club, could theoretically sleep up to 500 people.
What do you know about the contract that the owner of this facility has to house asylum seekers and refugees?
What information do you have?
Well unfortunately, we have very little um information.
Now we have submitted a request for information under the freedom of information act and i'm not sure if the time on that is up, but we've had no information back yet.
We would like to get sight of the contract, but nobody is forthcoming on that.
And and have you had?
Has the owner of the hotel been communicative at all?
Not, not in the slightest.
No, he hasn't.
He hasn't engaged with us at all.
And what is the government entity that's involved?
Is it just the national government or are there any local governments involved?
Well really, it's.
This has been driven by national government, the Department OF Integration, AND um, there are.
We do have local government here in Tipperary in Ireland as well, and we have some local councillors who are working on our behalf, working with us.
We have um one uh local uh, Tipperary TD.
Member of, member of our parliament um, just to translate it to Canadian, and here, here is actually the owner is just about to pass.
The owner is just passing the owner.
I'll have to go and talk to him.
What's his name?
His name is Jeff, Jeff Leo.
Yeah.
And I understand he's from away, is that right?
Yeah, I understand he's American.
I've actually never met Jeff.
So that's my first time seeing him.
That hasn't been a photograph.
He's certainly sped by.
Yeah, that has been...
He hasn't had any community town halls.
He hasn't sat, has he sat down with the media at all?
Not to my knowledge.
He hasn't.
I'm guessing you would know.
We would know.
And he hasn't engaged with the community at all.
We've had two public meetings, both very heavily attended.
Did he send anyone to those?
Huge Event, Minimal Engagement00:01:08
No, he didn't.
I find that astonishing.
Yeah, he was invited.
How was he invited?
By email, by letter?
I'm not sure because I wasn't involved.
He must have known about it.
I mean, he's the center of this whole project.
100% he knew about it, you know, but he didn't come.
But yeah, the only time we see him actually is when he's speeding in or out of the gates.
You told me last week that you thought this would be a very large event, and it did turn out to be that.
Do you think this will make a dent?
Do you think this will move the needle?
Or do you think this will just be demonized by the media, like RTE?
Do you think they'll demonize it as far-right?
Like, will anything change?
I'm impressed with what I saw, but will Ireland be any different after today?
It's hard to say.
I think that's up to the people.
I mean, if the people are expressing that they want change, and it seems that huge numbers are, it's up to them, really, isn't it?
Like, I can only really speak about what I've observed reporting on this over the last two years.
But there is huge anger out there.
People are extremely angry about being called names like far-right and racist when, you know, they want, you know, as you said earlier, that you don't think it's an anti-immigration sentiment.