‘handled badly’ | 

Department’s ‘dishonesty’ allowed far-right to hijack Wicklow asylum protest, councillor says

FG politician blames outside ‘actors’ and says there’s no place for disorder that saw protestors battle with gardai

Today at 19:57

Dishonesty from the Department of Integration opened the door for far-right agitators to infiltrate the Newtownmountkennedy protest, a Fine Gael councillor said yesterday.

Councillor Shay Cullen, who lives in the area, became involved with the protest six weeks ago after IPAS, the Department’s International Protection Accommodation Service, sent heavy machinery in to clear the site.

Cllr Cullen said he withdrew after three weeks when extremist actors, who came from outside the community, began escalating the fears of local people about the arrival of asylum seekers.

Several hundred people attended yesterday’s protest, which was was livestreamed by far-right agitator Philip Dwyer who is before the courts for allegedly engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour outside a creche.

There is no suggestion that anyone attending today’s peaceful march is involved with the far-right.

“I live in the area and I had been on that protest myself,” said Cllr Cullen. “I had genuine concerns up to the point that the far-right people came in from the outside and antagonised the situation.

“I had enough of it at that point.

“You see, what happened at the very start was diggers arrived on the site. And the first statement that came out from the Department was that there was no worry here…they were just clearing up and assessing the site.

“That was a blatant lie – they wouldn’t have just put machinery in there unless they had a plan.

“And that’s what I am saying about communication, it’s been handled very badly in my view.”