RIALTO RACIST GRAFFITI & NEW IRISH FAR RIGHT?

RIALTO RACIST GRAFFITI & NEW IRISH FAR RIGHT?

Local residents have covered over racist graffiti daubed along hoardings at James walk Rialto.  The graffiti was several feet high and was painted at several points along the length of the hoardings. Similar graffiti appeared over the Easter weekend at Kilmainam jail and around St James Church of Ireland.
The racist messages were from a group calling itself “Phoenix Rising” and appeared just before the Easter weekend on the hoarding that divides James hospital from the Luas line. The graffiti claimed that immigration was killing Ireland and that the native population would be a minority by 2050.
It appears the same group behind the graffiti were responsible for a number of similar recent acts. These include construction hoardings at Newlands Cross, anti-Semitic messages daubed along the front of the Bank of Ireland on College Green and hoardings on Andrew Street just opposite the offices of the Immigrant Council of Ireland.
Responding to the later action Jerry O Connor the communications manager for the Immigrant Council said “After verbal abuse graffiti is the most common form of racism in Ireland.”
Some of the graffiti includes a version of the Saint Bridget cross widely used by white supremacist groups. These groups often use graffiti as a way to normalize their extreme views, to mark territory and to intimidate.
Online commentary that followed reports of these incidents has shown a great deal of sympathy for the extreme views of the vandals and seem to point to a rise in far right thinking as the recession continues to bite.
Local councillor Tina Mac Veigh who helped organise the paint party said “The downturn has seen the emergence of a small but worrying far right movement,” she believes that much of which centers around a group that calls itself ‘Identity Ireland’ which formally went under title of ‘the Irish National Party’.’ They’re feeding into an antiqued belief that foreign nationals are taking jobs and stealing our women. We also suspect their behind the recent anti- Islamic protest outside Clonskeagh Mosque.”
Local residents gathered for a paint party on Easter Sunday and covered all the offending graffiti with messages such as “Yes to equity “.

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