Until late last year, Ireland seemed like an outlier among European nations in remaining relatively immune from anti-immigrant bigotry and far-right politics, despite waves of recent migration from Ukraine, the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere — a startling cultural shift in a country better known for centuries of poverty, repression and large-scale emigration.
Well, not anymore. There is still no significant far-right party in Irish politics, but the illusion of social harmony was shattered last Nov. 23, when an anti-immigrant protest in Dublin erupted into a night of violent riots that made worldwide headlines. A mob of perhaps 500 people surged through the central city for hours, looting and vandalizing shops and setting fire to buses, a light-rail tram and police cars.
