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Notes -
the holiday inn apparently housed immigrants?
seems interesting what Irish people are saying. for example UFC Champ Conor McGregor tweeting to the effect of “do something immediately”, and more PC ones saying this is alt-right
Is there a reason we haven’t seen this kind of reaction in UK or France?
Not the first migrant accommodation to burn in Ireland. Seems to be a safety hazard to house refugees in such flammable accommodation.
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One big distinguishing factor is that Ireland’s immigration experience is much more recent.
It’s hard to find a red line to rally around when your country’s first experience of mass Muslim migration happened in your grandparents’ days and when you’ve already learned to avoid the ghettos. Anything short of a drastic acceleration is just boiling the frog.
Ireland has never had ethnic ghettos, Dublin youth excepted we’re not used to the violence that’s accepted as part and parcel of normal city life, a ratio of 1800 Irish to 700 MENA males isn’t something Irish towns are used to.
I’m doubtful that this was a terrorist attack, but yesterday it was unclear whether Ireland had just experienced it’s first ever Islamic terrorist attack. Even though Ireland does have a high proportion of foreign nationals it’s nearly all working class Eastern Europeans or middle class Western Europeans who don’t cause much trouble, having areas suddenly gain a large population of young African and Muslim males is jarring and easy to rally around (I know this guy is much older but tension has been building for a while). All this when house and rental prices are through the roof.
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Median age in France is 42, median age in Ireland is 38.
That’s not that big of a difference, certainly not enough to explain the difference in reactions.
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There's a recent history of grassroots anti-government organization in Ireland, what with "The Troubles" and all. Also a stronger sense of tribe. That was the whole point of the Irish independence movement after all.
The UK is much more authoritarian and has a long history of sicking the police on people who oppose immigration from it's colonies, that's been expanded to broader immigration.
France likes to protest against it's government, but it's more formally organized with a lot of union involvement. There isn't any blue collar community organizing that can lead to a rapid response like this.
Macron isn't shy about cracking down on protesters in a hard violent fashion. As seen in the yellow vest protests a few years ago.
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You might differentiate between reactions to governments gleefully and joyously importing millions of migrants (Canada, Ireland) and governments that claim multiculturalism is flawed and borders need to be Under Control and numbers Will Come Down but then do nothing to make it so (UK, France).
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Never underestimate a Celt.
France and UK have lots of Celts...
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