Ireland elects pro-immigration president amid anti-immigration riots
Even as Ireland grapples with anti-immigration riots, the country has elected a radical Left-wing president who has promised to welcome migrants across its borders.
Catherine Connolly, a proud socialist, defeated the country’s two largest parties by winning 63.4% of the vote on Friday—more than double than that of her rival, Fine Gael nominee Heather Humphreys. It was the highest percentage of votes of any president in Ireland’s history. In her victory speech, Connolly vowed to be “an inclusive president” and “shape a new republic … that values and champions diversity … and the new people that have come to our country.”
Connolly’s open support for Hamas and disdain for Israel are mainstream views in Ireland, whose citizens have long been passionate advocates for the Islamic pro-Palestine movement.
Anti-immigration riots
Connolly’s election victory came after three days of riots in Dublin following the rape of a 10-year-old Irish girl by a Muslim Afghan migrant. Rioters gathered outside a hotel known to be housing migrants and clashed with police, setting a police car on fire and injuring four officers. At least 24 demonstrators were arrested.
It was the second wave of riots this year. In June, violent protests erupted across Northern Ireland after two migrants, reportedly from Romania, sexually assaulted a teenage girl. An estimated 107 police officers were injured and 56 people were arrested.
The riots reflect growing frustrations among native Irish citizens, who are repeatedly slammed as “racist” by their government for demanding tighter immigration policies.
In November 2023, after an Algerian Muslim migrant stabbed three small children and an adult outside a day school, Irish government officials accused protesters of “hate.” Then-Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned citizens not to blame migrants for an uptick in crime.
Three months prior, another Algerian Muslim, 30-year-old Mohamed Akrouf, was arrested for stabbing a young man on Grafton Street in Dublin.
That same August, a 29-year-old Algerian migrant named Lokman Benharkou launched an “extremely violent” attack on two women. When a man came to their aid, Benharkou stomped on his head a number of times, knocking him unconscious and causing serious facial injuries.
The Irish government insists that serious crimes like homicide and sexual assault have decreased with migration, but officials refuse to publish crime statistics by migrant status or nationality.
