By Ryan Sands
An anti-racism counterprotest was hosted in Downpatrick on Saturday evening. The event, held outside the town’s Saint Patrick Centre, was arranged as an oppositional response to an online call – made after an outbreak of racist violence in Ballymena that spread to other towns – for the ‘people of Downpatrick’ to ‘take a stand and stop welcoming those illegal migrant gangs flocking into our town’.
A social media post, which featured the famous Lord Kitchener First World War recruitment image, urged people to gather at the Saint Patrick Centre for ‘a peaceful protest’ at 6pm to ‘stand as one, both religions standing up for our women and children’. However, with a large number of counterprotesters congregating 30 minutes earlier, this failed to materialise in any significant way.
Speaking at the anti-racism event – which was attended by local Alliance, Sinn Féin and SDLP representatives – Ceallaigh Ní Raghallaigh said that those present were there to “stand up against the blatant racism disguised as protecting women”.
“I am a woman – it does not make me feel safe to know that minorities are being attacked, burned out of their homes, businesses destroyed, and people just made to feel unwelcome,” she continued. “I personally would rather have refugees, immigrants, people of colour here than the current mob of thugs, who are holding the north of Ireland to ransom, and the establishment that enables them.”
Read the full report in the current issue. In the piece, the organisers explain why they feel that immigrants should be welcomed.
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