{"id":94456,"date":"2025-09-30T10:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T10:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/94456\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T10:11:07","slug":"the-women-pushing-back-against-the-far-right-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/94456\/","title":{"rendered":"The women pushing back against the far right \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Dublin<\/a> city centre\u2019s busiest streets has been transformed with a \u201cwelcome all\u201d mural by Singaporean-Irish artist Holly Pereira.<\/p>\n

The new mural \u2013 North Strand Welcomes All \u2013 was unveiled last week just as Dublin City Council<\/a> was conducting a review into the issue of Tricolours being erected by anti-immigration campaigners on lamp-posts across the capital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pereira, who has been painting murals for 10 years, is one of many female Irish artists working to welcome immigrants to the city, and says it is \u201cnice to be part of the conversation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNinety-five per cent of people were super positive about it,\u201d Pereira said, \u201cbut there was a small amount of people who \u2013 at the time it was quite stressful \u2013 were shouting at me, \u2018No, we don\u2019t welcome all\u2019. It was just far-right people who had a problem with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was grown men who were shouting at me in the street going, \u2018No, we don\u2019t like that\u2019, or one man said, \u2018I\u2019m going to come and get some of the lads to paint over that tomorrow\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the majority of people \u2026 some of whom would not be as leftie as me \u2026 we found common ground on it. They said, \u2018I like the colour of it\u2019 and \u2018Even if we don\u2019t agree on every issue [such as immigration], we can agree on improving our neighbourhood and community\u2019 \u2013 there\u2019s a baseline of mutual respect that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Dublin 12<\/a>, artist Sarah Bracken Soper felt so strongly about racist stickers blaming immigrants for violence against women, which she noticed on lamp-posts around her area, that she created her own pro-immigration \u201cIreland For All\u201d stickers to paste over them. <\/p>\n

\u201cI noticed the stickers on the walk to my daughter\u2019s creche, and I just didn\u2019t want that in my neighbourhood. It was blaming immigrants for violence, and it mentioned female victims in the sticker \u2013 linking violent crime to anyone who wasn\u2019t white Irish. To see victims further victimised in a sticker and used for racist messaging. I made that sticker to cover it up with that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She has noticed the emergence of Tricolours on lamp-posts and on people\u2019s houses in recent weeks. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou do get this feeling of dread, but that\u2019s changed for me now. I\u2019m not going to be intimidated by our Tricolour; it\u2019s not ever going to be a symbol of divide. I think we need to reclaim the flag and celebrate it for what it is: peace and unity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Bracken Soper\u2019s Palestinian friend, a student at University College Dublin, \u201cregularly\u201d gets taunted on the street and the artist has just completed a mosaic portrait of her, which she intends to submit to the Royal Hibernian Academy<\/a> for exhibition next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is a genocide survivor who arrived in Ireland in 2024 and regularly people shout at her on the street. They say \u2018Go home\u2019 to her, and that\u2019s all she wants to do. She wants to go home but her home has been reduced to rubble,\u201d Ms Bracken Soper said. \u201cShe was running a small design business while studying in Gaza<\/a> when the genocide began.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Ms Bracken Soper, who received \u201chorrible abuse\u201d online when she posted an Instagram reel of her replacing the racist sticker with her own, art is the platform which she can use to fight back against anti-immigrant rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of [the abuse] was far-right white males threatening me, saying, \u2018I\u2019ll change my opinion when I get raped\u2019 or that they \u2018hope I get raped\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, she said, \u201cat the bottom of the sticker is \u2018N\u00ed neart go cur le ch\u00e9ile\u2019\u201d, meaning there is no strength without unity. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe people coming out with these negative messages are really loud and that means that the opposition needs to be really loud,\u201d Ms Bracken Soper said.<\/p>\n

She said far-right racist messaging was \u201csomething that I can see becoming more visible, so it\u2019s important that the resistance to it is visible too\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, a group of volunteers known as Inchicore For All gathered to march at the Ireland Against Racism Carnival at the Garden of Remembrance, Dublin. <\/p>\n

The group has been organising quarterly multicultural feasts and nature trips and funding for children\u2019s summer camps. It has been buddying-up families new to the area with local families who can share advice and information on social clubs or preschools and schools.<\/p>\n

Louise Fitzpatrick, one of the volunteers, said: \u201cWe started out as a bunch of mammies. We\u2019re all volunteers, now also including men; we all have full-time jobs or full-time care responsibilities. Our co-chair had a baby a few weeks ago and she\u2019s still busy organising lots of different things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very lucky in Inchicore<\/a>. It has always been a melting pot; there\u2019s been very little agitation in the community and it\u2019s probably because people are aware that the voice of welcome is much louder and bigger than the unwelcome voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Use of Tricolour to mark territory for \u2018indigenous Irish\u2019 inappropriate, says Minister<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She said the flag issue was of concern everywhere and that it was \u201ccreeping up\u201d, but they were very focused that their space remained friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our own banner and logo and we brought it to the protest at the Garden of Remembrance, but we\u2019re also very proud to fly the Tricolour in the right sentiment. It means peace and unity, and the people in our local IPAS<\/a> [International Protection Accommodation Service] centre are very aware of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have developed a template for other community groups to use for setting up the family buddy system. The group also hosts clothes swaps, Halloween costume swaps, Christmas jumper swaps, and it facilitates attendance at market stalls where makers and bakers at the local IPAS centre can have their wares sold. <\/p>\n

\u201cOften friendships develop. We\u2019ve had families go on holidays together. I\u2019m godparent to one of my buddy families\u2019 kids. We\u2019ve been at weddings. And we make sure that everything we do benefits the whole of the community, the whole of Inchicore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the north inner city, volunteers were mobilised to form welcoming groups such as Cross-Cultural Conversations or East Wall Here For All following anti-immigrant protests at the opening of an asylum centre at the end of 2022. <\/p>\n

Niamh McDonald, from Hope and Courage Collective (HCC), said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got beautifully diverse expansive communities, and it\u2019s really important that we show and express what our communities are and it\u2019s important that we hold on to our flag and what the flag means and do it in our own way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis volunteer work is never seen. What is front and centre is the division, but the unseen work, day in, day out, where there has been no division and just a welcome, is what is most important. Our flag is one of solidarity, peace, unity, and hope. The work that people are doing on the ground is incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the mix of all the people seeking asylum coming together, these events become a space of learning about culture, language and food.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a human level, all these people want is to have a safe space to live, to have an everyday life of having a roof over their head, finding love, joy, connection, seeing their children grow. There\u2019s a humanity there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2023, HCC has supported more than 100 communities in \u201cresponding to fear and division by building solidarity and hope\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

Green Party<\/a> Dublin city councillor Hazel Chu<\/a>, who also felt moved to protest on Saturday, said it was very important to her that anyone protesting brought the Tricolour to the protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I told everyone ahead of Saturday is bring a Tricolour because, you know what, that flag does not belong to just one group of people. It belongs to us all so, what do we do with it? How do we recapture it? <\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to start a campaign called Recapture the Flag, because it\u2019s as much mine as it is yours; it belongs to everyone. The anti-immigration sentiment is what some groups are peddling out, that\u2019s why we have to counter it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding its review of flag use in its areas, Dublin City Council said a comprehensive risk assessment was required before anything could be removed from public lighting poles. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese assessments are currently being carried out and will also inform our review,\u201d a spokesman said. <\/p>\n

The newly unveiled mural on the North Strand Road, made possible through the 2025 North Inner City Discretionary Fund, now \u201cstands as a vibrant symbol of local pride, community engagement and the power of public art\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n

Lord Mayor Ray McAdam said: \u201cWhen you scatter \u2018Welcome to\u2019 across walls and rooftops across a city, you don\u2019t just mark boundaries you write invitations. <\/p>\n

\u201cMurals become the city\u2019s greeting cards, saying not just come here, but you are seen, you belong, you matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Dublin city centre\u2019s busiest streets has been transformed with a \u201cwelcome all\u201d mural by Singaporean-Irish artist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,61055,7,8,28698],"class_list":{"0":"post-94456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-north-strand","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-tricolour"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}