Rundale

James Renaghan

“They came to town, and they ran away” was the antifascists’ chant on July 28th 2024, dwarfing the anti-refugee protest which fled into Dundalk under Gardaí protection. This was the turning point, during the second week of protests in a summer of antifascist struggle. In this article I will cover Dundalk’s anti-fascist actions last summer, the significance of winning that battle in an unfavourable political climate across the island at the time, and the legacy it produced in the political scene of Dundalk.

For other communities across Ireland: whilst preexisting social and cultural conditions made an anti-fascist victory in Dundalk more favourable than other areas, it wasn’t inevitable either. It required deep organising, alliances being formed and community ties being strengthened and mobilised. All of this exists across the island. Build them bigger. And if they don’t exist, create them.

Shifting Tides

Dundalk was unique across the 26 counties in the summer of 2024 – a rallying point of the socialist left that confronted both the government & fascist dividers on the street. Prior to the far-right attempting to astroturf in Dundalk, we were suffering like other towns across the island from “progressive neoliberalism”. By that I mean social democracy and its inherent violent contradictions that cannot be sustained or resolved. The backdrop of the 2010s with the water charges movement, repeal and marriage equality, all existed within the framework of capitalist accumulation. By the time the Covid-19 global pandemic emerged, the fragments of victory from the previous decade had been fading away. The pandemic provided uncontested physical space for the far right to organise on the streets under the guise of anti-lockdown protests. The pendulum had begun to swing right globally, and at the local level it was no different, albeit at an earlier stage in development.

Contemporary Ireland is a deeply unequal society. The material or structural context of this economic reality is absorbed and internalised on a psychological and emotional level. The endemic failures of neoliberal capitalism provide the social bases of fascism. It appeals to anger, grievance, emotion and violence – all more predisposed in these socio-economic contexts. Far right rhetoric can be reassuring and comforting for those who are looking to belong; a core foundation of the social order espousing anti-establishment and anti-elitist sentiment without fundamentally challenging the class society we are forced to live in. Essentially, the alienation felt in our society is being exploited by the far right.

Inspired Actions

In Dundalk, as elsewhere, these social conditions were being felt with anti-refugee protests confidently cropping up around the state with unsuccessful resistance to them. However, after seeing the initial anti-refugee protest graphic, four of us decided to call the first counter-protest. We believed that if any place could go against the prevailing winds of racism and win, it was Dundalk – a border town, with strong republican sentiments and a history of accepting refugees. I remember, before the initial counter, frantically scribbling signs to portray our history: “We earned our nickname ‘El Paso’ due to people fleeing British terror in The North, let’s not allow a British fascist led movement tell us to fight refugees instead of the rich.”

In the first week, the only anti-immigration protests where the antifascists were outnumbered, with Dublin flags bizarrely being waved on the other side, the protest reached its logical conclusion of violence. Asylum seeker accommodation was attacked and whipped up. Young lads were pepper sprayed and arrested. As tensions rose to a boiling point and spilt out across the streets, public figures who’d fuelled the anti-immigration protests were dining in the affluent Clermont restaurant owned by billionaire Larry Goodman’s son. In a show of worker solidarity, a worker in the restaurant recognised them and called us saying to get out here as quick as possible to confront them. Two of the lads spun out to the restaurant, confronted them all and we posted it online. The contrast was portrayed in the extreme – bussed in to spread division, vitriol and bigotry all under the false pretence of fighting for the exploited Irish people, only to go and cheerily dine at the true exploiter: the billionaire’s restaurant. A smug, but premature attitude that they had succeeded in keeping people divided on anything besides class lines.

Another protest was called the following weekend, with significant organising efforts taking place during the week. We organised a united front under the banner Dundalk Communities United. The united front was rooted in a socialist ethos and internationalism, which informed how we organised and portrayed our mobilisations. We wanted to avoid the pitfalls of liberal anti-racist responses of finger wagging moralism about not being racist without challenging the structural and material issues of capitalism. Our messaging prioritised worker solidarity with the oppressed and calls to unify against the government and bosses. The same imperialist system that keeps working class people in poverty here produces refugees across the globe.

Just like the first week, we strategically denied the far-right the ground to assemble where they pleased. This was a psychological victory for us in dictating terms and forcing the anti-refugee side to gather away from the orphanage. Having denied them the space, outnumbered physically and drowned out sonically, the far-right had to flee through town. After making unsuccessful pleas with the guards to get us to move, they then received their garda protection escort. We continued to march after them, refusing to allow the far-right to regather peacefully elsewhere in town. During their speeches, fascists called to burn down the orphanage, menace local refugees, and deport all migrants from Ireland. Prominent fascists from Dublin were caught sneaking into the counter-protest and routinely chased out.

This set the tone for the remaining five weeks, with us outnumbering each week and their numbers dwindling until they could no longer muster a crowd. During this time, to name but a few happenings, further garda protection escorts were required for the far-right, a €5000 donation via crypto currency was received from accused sex traffickers the Tate brothers, and local fascist patriot Tracy O’Hanlon claimed on the mic that “the 33rd Dáil are worse than any British government that ever came into this country.” Demoralisation had set in on their side and we became further emboldened. It was heartening to see so many people come out in a strong bloc of compassion. People brought their friends, spoke to the person next to them, formed links, built community. Our bloc simply wasn’t a countering mechanism, it was a space for us to organise the society we want, one built on solidarity and compassion not exploitation and exclusion.

I joke that the most progressive patriotism in the world is the patriotism that people from Dundalk have for their town. We captured this pride of place and articulated it through the anti-fascist defence of our streets. Local band the Mary Wallopers led chants at the counters, promoting the counter protests vigorously on social media. Jinx Lennon performed multiple live sets during counters. Fans of Dundalk FC put out calls to club supporters after the first week of protesting: if you’re spotted on the other side, you won’t be welcomed back. At one stage during a counter protest, I passed three generations of a family standing together – father and son, mother and daughter. Organic intellectuals were emerging across the town, playing a crucial role in winning hegemony on the streets. From a situation in which nothing was happening, suddenly anything was possible again.

Legacies

A year later, there is a distinct socialist project continuing its development in Dundalk, highlighted by a Dundalk Communities United socialist conference selling out in May 2025. There is a Marxist reading group with over fifty members. I ran in the general elections with People Before Profit on an explicitly anti-racist ticket, prioritising areas of deprivation to canvas to make socialism tangible for people. In a time of deep demoralisation there must be a two-fold approach from socialists: doing the long hard work in communities and wider organising and protesting. Since the elections, we have been back out on the doors for neutrality, special education, and housing vacancy. Our door-knocking campaign on neutrality aided the Neutrality Now turnout in Dundalk being noticeably larger than other areas.

Our continued efforts to build authority within our community and class in times of low-level struggle are not a silver bullet, but we cannot rest on our laurels or wait for the next social movement to make an intervention. We endeavour for more than an anti-fascist town but a socialist one that can surmount a challenge to both liberal and fascist forces. The socialist project has been reborn in Dundalk by defending the streets; the point, however, is to win them.