Yesterday a man stabbed several people, including children, in Dublin city centre. He was apparently a foreign-born Irish citizen of twenty years. By evening an anti-immigrant demonstration turned into a riot; middle-aged men and teenagers looted shops, torched a Luas train, assaulted gardai and firefighters, and intimidated people of colour. There are reports that the far right also attacked direct provision centres around Ireland, actions that were probably organised via Whatsapp.

It feels like the world has gone very dark. The far right is rising everywhere. I think of Argentina and the Netherlands. I think of how 15 years of austerity and neglect have nurtured a situation in which fascist rhetoric could inspire people to view immigrants and refugees as such a threat that boxer, thug, and all-round bellend Conor McGregor tweeted, “Ireland, we are at war.”

And I think of how I never thought I would tell a friend, as I did this morning: “I don’t think I would feel safe going to Dublin now.”

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Tonight I attended a vigil for Gaza in the town. Cupping tea candles in jars, we gather in the cold. Chant Free Palestine and listen to a Gazan man and longtime local resident as he thanks the Irish for their continued support of the Palestinian cause. I chat with friends, and they tell me what a lot of local people have been telling me lately: they feel lucky that they live here, safe and sound and free, in our wee bubble in the west of Ireland. There are two Irelands, and I live in the best one.

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A Brazilian immigrant and Deliveroo driver stopped the attacker by hitting him with his motorcycle helmet. “I did what anyone would do,” he told a reporter. On the rioters, he commented, “It looks like they hate immigrants. Well, I am an immigrant, and I did what I could to try and save that little girl.” A Gofundme page was created "to buy a pint" for the man, and so far it has raised nearly €300,000.

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