Young girl leads anti-migrant chants as protest makes its way through Dublin

The happy girl continued as the less than 200 protestors snaked their way around the front of Pearse Street Garda Station and towards the front of Trinity College.

Tourists and foreign nationals, bemused or confused, held phones up to record, with some smiling as the girl changed the chants to “You’ll Never Beat the Irish” and “Olé, Olé, Olé”.

There was also plenty of “Harris, Harris, Harris” and “Out, Out, Out”.

As the protestors, many draped in the tricolour or carrying the flag, or both, turned up O’Connell Street, two lone uniformed gardaí skipped past in front of them, met by shouts of “traitors”.

The girl, who appeared to be aged six or seven, continued to lead the chants for some time.

Some chants appeared to be prompted, including “No vetting, not welcome” and “No passport, no entry”, met by loud cheers.

The demonstration had started some 30 minutes earlier, at around 3pm, at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square. Compared to previous anti-immigration marches that had gathered there, this one was a lot smaller, with less than 200 gathered.

There were no banners from well-known far-right political parties or from well-known agitators.

The most prominent banners on display were ‘Coolock Says No’ and ‘Ballymun Says No’.

Unlike the last marches, the garda presence was also small.

On the way down O’Connell Street, one of the protest ringleaders shouted into a loudspeaker some slurs about child kidnapping and migrants, adding: “It has to be stopped and, stopped, it fucking will.” 

There was an unpleasant incident at the junction of North Earl Street when a couple of the protestors shouted abuse at some foreign nationals and a young Irish male shouted abuse back.

This prompted another man walking with his bike beside the young male to say “are you a man or a woman?” and they exchanged words and a few boxes, in front of a shocked Asian mother and her daughter filming the march.

At the next junction, at Abbey Street, a lone garda stood by his bike uncomfortably as he was subjected to abuse by the ringleader and a bunch of marchers closer to him, before they moved off.

The demonstration ended up outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street, which no longer has migrant tents circling it as the area is blocked off by railings.

There were speeches – about migrants, about children needing to feel safe and some bizarre conspiracy stuff.

There were chants of ‘Get them out’, but, it being a bank holiday Monday, there was no one inside.

One woman called for a march to either the Presidents residence or the Supreme Court and the crowd opted for the latter, perhaps unaware it would be closed too.

At this moment, a small group of ‘soft cap’ gardaí emerged from a public order van and walked towards the protest, prompting abuse from a number of them.

The organisers led the march away and they headed back slowly, on what was a warm day, towards O’Connell Street. They seemed to scatter and disperse, with one of the leaders suggesting to others about going for a pint.