Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Local sources to Al Mayadeen: More than 10 violent explosions rocked region in Latakia Countryside, reasons still unknown.
Local sources to Al Mayadeen: Explosions targeted Agriculture Battalion, known as the Drone Battalion, near al-Sinn River.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent: Loud explosions in foreign regiment facilities operated by Syrian Defense Ministry in Latakia countryside.
Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan: Coup plot by senior cleric foiled
Iranian MP Alireza Salimi: The Shura Council has approved a resolution to suspend Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Political aide to the governor of Gilan Province in northern Iran: Air defenses in Rasht shot down a small hostile drone flying over the city
Israeli media: The presence of General Qaani at the “victory celebrations” in Tehran puts an end to the rumors and earlier reports claiming he had been assassinated
Israeli media: There is division within the US administration itself over the extent of what the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities actually achieved
Israeli media: US intelligence also says Iran’s centrifuges remained largely intact
Israeli media: Netanyahu and Trump celebrated too soon, as US intelligence says Iran’s uranium stockpile was not damaged

Ireland’s protests – will Varadkar go full Trudeau?

  • Gavin O'Reilly Gavin O'Reilly
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 14 Feb 2023 00:51
  • 5 Shares
5 Min Read

It must also be asked that if Leinster House genuinely cared about the plight of refugees fleeing conflict, then why contribute to the conflicts that created those refugees in the first place by allowing US warplanes to land at Shannon Airport over the past 20 years? 

  • x
  • Ireland’s protests – will Varadkar go full Trudeau?
    Despite this slaughter, No mainstream campaign existed in Ireland during the same period intended to expel Ukrainian diplomats or to welcome those fleeing conflict in the Donbass.

Since Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine almost a year ago, one of the key features of the collective West’s response, alongside sanctions and the expulsion of Russian diplomats, has been the accommodation of refugees fleeing the conflict, with millions of Ukrainians being housed across Europe since last February, including 70,000+ in the 26-County Irish State.

The first question that springs to mind regarding this approach however, is that if it is being done out of genuine concern for those fleeing conflict in Ukraine, then why was it not implemented in 2014 when that war first began?

In April of that year, following five months of Western-instigated violence in response to then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to suspend an EU-trade deal in order to pursue closer ties with neighbouring Russia, the ethnic Russian Donbass region in the east of the country would break away to form the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, their residents having little choice lest they face genocide and ethnic cleansing at the hands of the anti-Russian neo-Nazi elements which composed the new Western-backed Kiev government.

A war on both Republics would follow, involving neo-Nazi paramilitaries such as Azov Battalion and Right Sector, which despite efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully via the federalization solution offered by the Minsk Accords, would ultimately result in 14,000 deaths over the space of 8 years.

Despite this slaughter, no mainstream campaign existed in Ireland during the same period intended to expel Ukrainian diplomats or to welcome those fleeing conflict in the Donbass.

Likewise, no similar campaign has existed for those fleeing other conflicts such as that in Yemen, classed as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis by the United Nations, with a paltry 70 Yemenis being granted access to social services in the 26 Counties in the past year, in comparison to 72,609 Ukrainians in the same period following Russia’s intervention.

Related News

News from Nowhere: Asylum

The Invisible People

It must also be asked that if Leinster House genuinely cared about the plight of refugees fleeing conflict, then why contribute to the conflicts that created those refugees in the first place by allowing US warplanes to land at Shannon Airport over the past 20 years? 

Since the Russian operation began in Ukraine last February, talks of the 26 County State joining an EU army have increased amongst establishment voices also, with the stated aim of such an alliance being to ‘act in complementarity’ with NATO, the coalition having been a key contributor to the refugee crisis over the past two decades by laying waste to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

With these facts established, it can safely be concluded that Leinster House’s ‘concern’ for refugees has little to do with helping those fleeing war, and much like the wider West’s support of Ukrainian ‘freedom fighters’ being a cover to use Ukraine as a proxy to tie Russia down in an Afghan-style military quagmire, the Fine Gael /Fianna Fáil coalition is using emotive media coverage of the Ukrainian conflict as a means to swell the labour market and to keep wages stagnant on behalf of the corporate class.

Indeed, protests related to the effects of such a move would arise in late November, when upwards of 300 migrants were suddenly moved into a disused office block in East Wall, a working-class area of inner-city Dublin. Residents would begin what would go on to become weekly demonstrations over the move, citing the lack of consultation with community officials beforehand, the suitability of the office block for accommodation, and the lack of transparency on whether those who had been moved into the office block had been vetted. 

Despite these protests receiving support from residents of the office block themselves, the Irish mainstream media would, in lockstep, decry them as being ‘anti-refugee protests’ and ‘organised by the far-right’, a label that would also be applied to similar protests that emerged around Dublin and other locations in response to other wildly unsuitable locations chosen by Leinster House to accommodate adult migrants, including a school in Drimnagh, like East Wall, another working-class area of Dublin.

This dismissal of ordinary working-class people’s concerns as ‘far-right’ bears a stark similarity to mainstream media descriptions of last year’s Freedom Convoy in Canada when in response to a government mandate requiring all truck drivers re-entering from the US having to be vaccinated, a nationwide protest would begin in the second-largest country in the world.

The government of Justin Trudeau – like Leo Varadkar, another ‘Young Global leader’ of the World Economic Forum – would respond in an authoritarian fashion, freezing the bank accounts of protest organizers and attacking demonstrators with mounted Horses and teargas. An approach, that with the head of the 26-County police force condemning the current protests and secretive police units monitoring organizers, may soon become a reality on the other side of the Atlantic.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Refugee crisis
  • Russia
  • Ireland
  • Ukraine
Gavin O'Reilly

Gavin O'Reilly

Irish Republican activist

Most Read

All
At the time of Vanunu’s whistleblowing, Western governments and intelligence agencies had been aware of "Israel’s" development of nuclear weapons for almost three decades. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Mahdi Rtail)

Hidden history: How 'Israel' acquired nukes

  • Opinion
  • 13 Jun 2025
The wheels fall off of 'Gideon’s Chariots' in Gaza

The wheels fall off of 'Gideon’s Chariots' in Gaza

  • Opinion
  • 11 Jun 2025
Absent a full-scale American war on the Islamic Republic, Netanyahu has set up his regime and himself for a historic humiliation. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

The clock is ticking down to 'Israel’s' capitulation

  • Opinion
  • 18 Jun 2025
Trump's failures, 'Israel's' impasse and Iran's apocalyptic trump card

Trump's failures, 'Israel's' impasse and Iran's apocalyptic trump card

  • Opinion
  • 12 Jun 2025

Coverage

All
War on Iran

More from this writer

All
Despite the geographical distance between Ireland and Palestine, a natural affinity rooted in history developed between both countries. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

'Israel’s' embassy closure in Dublin and the interlinked history between Ireland and Palestine

Pearl Harbor: Gulf Edition – coming soon?

Pearl Harbor: Gulf Edition – coming soon?

Ireland's 'hate speech' laws – censoring Ukraine truth?

Ireland's 'hate speech' laws – censoring Ukraine truth?

China and Honduras; coup attempt on the way again?

China and Honduras; coup attempt on the way again?

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS