Inchoate Working-Class Protests Emerge in Ireland Over Immigration and Economic Grievances
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Anti-immigration protests emerging in working-class areas of Ireland, unlike the right-wing movements in the UK which aim to take over the system.
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The Irish protests are largely peaceful family affairs, not dominated by football hooligans like in the UK. Attempts to paint them as dangerous far-right movements seem unconvincing.
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Competition among fledgling right-wing parties to harness the unrest may cause vote splitting. Lack of a figurehead makes the movement hard to stop but also hard to channel politically.
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Occasional political violence emerges, evoking Ireland's history of agrarian unrest. Irish right-wing draws on cultural traditions of rebellion unavailable to similar UK movements.
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Ireland has Europe's fastest growing populist movement but its inchoate nature and the government's inability to address grievances puts pressure on the fragile coalition.