‘Time to play dirty’ – far right orders ‘crying’ women and children to join its protests
‘MAKE no mistake. Get as many women and children down to these protests as possible.’
The message was posted just after 11.30pm last Sunday night by a person on a far-right focus on the Telegram social media platform. He was responding to videos and posts about ongoing protests at River Lodge House in Newtownmountkennedy, Co. Wicklow, which was earmarked to house asylum seekers. But the previous day, River Lodge House became the latest building linked to asylum accommodation to be targeted in an arson attack.
‘It’s impossible to police the situation without looking like complete thugs. The optics always look bad for the government when there’s women and children crying on camera.
‘It’s time to play dirty,’ he added. Eight minutes later another person replied: ‘Time to make a serious example of traitors.’ This post was greeted with a fire GIF.
At 11.50pm, another warned: ‘There is no stopping what’s coming.’
They added: ‘All the deluded f***s in this country can’t stop a man who doesn’t give a f*** about what anyone else thinks... the anger beneath the surface is boiling, the f***wits in Gov can run around playing ‘Wack A Mole’ all they like but when the day of reckoning comes the Quite [sic] Men who never said a word will spill blood.’
The following day, the protest outside the building intensified. The Garda Public Order Unit was forced to intervene to allow construction workers get access to the site.
Members of this unit are specially trained in peaceful crowd management. Videos posted online showed officers moving the protesters to the side of the road to allow the workers to get through. An attempt was made to barricade the lane to River Lodge. One man was arrested on suspicion of throwing a pallet at a garda. He has since been released without charge, but a file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
A video posted on X, formerly Twitter, at 12.30pm on Monday showed emotions running high. Women could be heard crying and shouting: ‘This is our village. We are only trying to protect our families.’
Another woman added: ‘My daughter won’t be able to walk this road any more. None of us can.’
Just days earlier, River Lodge House in the townland of Trudder had been the scene of an attempted arson attack when three men arrived by taxi carrying petrol and attempted to set the building on fire.
Local protesters called gardaí and the fire was quickly extinguished, causing minimal damage. Meanwhile, on an online Newtownmountkennedy forum, locals were clearly conflicted about the events in their community.
One woman said there needs to be ‘less drama and hysterics, less emotion, less right-wing disinformation, less prejudice and propaganda’.
She added: ‘Tarnishing the group being moved in as a collective bunch of potential rapists (protect our women and children) and criminals is destructive and playing into the hands of right-wing factions. Such rhetoric must be scaring the s**t
‘Can’t stop a man who doesn’t give a f**k’
out of the children hearing it.’
But one man sounded a more militant tone. He posted: ‘Wake up people, please go to Trudder right now, your community needs you, your daughters, wives, aunts, cousins, elderly, disabled people. Please join us right now, this is no drill. They’re here!!’
Another woman claimed crime is ‘at levels never seen before’ in towns housing asylum seekers.
But when questioned about her sources for this information, she doubled down on her claim, saying: ‘Most of them don’t get reported... so people like your good self will continue to support it.’