The left-wing government of Ireland is set to introduce a ban on balaclavas and other masks at protests amid the rise of anti-mass migration action in the country.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee is drawing up plans to initiate a ban on masks at protests as local communities have risen up against plans to house migrants within their midst at taxpayer expense.
A a spokeswoman for Ms McEntee said per the Irish Times that the government “intends to introduce a ban on wearing masks at protests in circumstances where the wearing of a mask is intended to intimidate”.
The use of face coverings and balaclavas, in particular, have long been used as a means of concealing identities from authorities in the island of Ireland, notably by the paramilitary terrorist Irish Republican Army (IRA) during decades-long sectarian conflict known as The Troubles.
While sectarian divisions remain, over the weekend observers were shocked to see anti-migration protesters from Dublin waving the Irish Tricolour flag joined forces with protesters in Belfast waving the British Union Jack, an occurrence which GB News Northern Ireland reporter Dougie Beattie said that he had never seen before in his life.
In addition to the planned ban on face coverings at protests, the government has spent an additional €3.2 million on riot police gear, including body armour, shields, and more powerful pepper sprays. The number of riot police vehicles in use is set to rise from 27 to 42 by the end of the year.
As has been seen over the past week in the United Kingdom, anger against mass migration has often boiled over into violence in Ireland, including arson attacks on buildings slated to house migrants, who in practice so often turn out to be young men.
In a strikingly similar situation to the UK over the past week, Dublin also saw anti-immigration protests turn into riots last November after three young children were stabbed by a reportedly homeless migrant.
Rather than meaningfully address the root cause of the anger, the Irish political establishment has placed a heavy emphasis on confronting the protests and violence in response to the issues of mass migration.
Following the riots in November, Limerick Councilman Abul Kalam Azad Talukder said that those involved in the riots should be “shot in the head” or brought into pubic and beaten “until they die”.
Irish Senator Seán Kyne shared a similar sentiment, saying that “the only response that people involved in this sort of criminality and rioting understand is a good, honest, decent beating.”
Yet, there has been comparatively little passion directed at the issues of mass migration, which has resulted in 20 per cent of the country now being foreign-born, more than double the migrant population of just twenty years ago. The migrant population boom has driven the country’s population to climb above five million for the first time since 1851.
The massive and sudden artificial population boom has not only radically transformed communities, but has also been a contributing factor in increasing the economic hardship faced by the native population through soaring rents and stagnant wages.
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