[continued from previous message]   
      
   protest. The now-closed online GoFundMe Page for Dundrum referred to   
   Ireland’s “indigenous” population fighting “for our very existence” and   
   the government “flooding communities with asylum seekers”.   
      
   The page - which raised more than €3,000 (£2,500) - was set up by a local   
   businessman. He turns out to have posted antisemitic, Islamophobic and   
   anti-vaccine conspiracist material on social media.   
      
   We ask Andrea Crowe, one of the prominent voices of the Dundrum protest,   
   if she is comfortable with such a person being involved? Ms Crowe says she   
   does not “follow social media much” and it is not up to her to manage   
   other people’s reactions. But she says she’s “not comfortable with it”.   
      
   Others in County Tipperary welcome asylum seekers. Some 17 groups came   
   together under the slogan “Tipperary Welcomes” after the Dundrum protest   
   began.   
      
   John Browne, a member of the community council, says the issue divides   
   people. “I don’t have a problem with it because we're relatively wealthy,   
   and the situation is pretty bad in parts of Africa and where most of these   
   people are coming from.”   
      
   But he disagrees strongly with the numbers involved in small places like   
   Dundrum. “It imbalances the community. And it's no good for the people   
   coming in, because there's nothing here for them.”   
      
   We caught up with Ireland’s Minister for Integration, Roderic O’Gorman,   
   while he was campaigning in Dublin for the General Election, due to be   
   held on 29 November. He now canvasses votes with two police guards after   
   being assaulted by a man protesting against immigration.   
      
   Mr O’Connor says many areas welcome asylum seekers.   
      
   “There are communities all over the place who are actually embracing and   
   supporting,” he says.   
      
   But he accepts some failures. “I recognise in the initial parts of our   
   response, there were times where there wasn't that level of engagement   
   that we need,” he says.   
      
   There are now Community Engagement Teams responsible for liaising with   
   residents, although the protesters we spoke to in Dundrum say they have   
   had only one meeting with a team and are still no wiser about the long-   
   term plans for the hotel.   
      
   Official policy is hardening. Ukrainian asylum seekers who arrived amid   
   widespread public sympathy and were given special benefits, recently saw   
   these slashed from €232 (£190) to €38.80 (£32) per week - a cut of 83%.   
      
   South Africans now need visas to enter the country. A visa loophole which   
   allowed Jordanians - at one point the largest group of asylum seekers in   
   Ireland - to enter from the UK has been closed.   
      
   Concern over immigration has so far not translated into electoral support   
   for far-right parties. Nick Henderson at the Refugee Council believes this   
   need not be inevitable in Ireland. “Communities want to welcome people,   
   but they need resources. They need communication.”   
      
   The Republic’s image as a stable and progressive democracy won’t change in   
   this electoral cycle. But the rise in far-right populism internationally   
   is a warning for the future – of how concern over immigration can be made   
   a focus for other discontents and create turbulent politics.   
      
   https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/expelled-the-same-day-ireland-   
   hardens-illegal-immigration-response/ar-AA1uFXhO   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)