Maintaining focus on the real issues… why Ballaghaderreen community is to be commended
There’s an unfortunate situation we’ve generally come to expect when we hear news of a protest in a rural town these days.
After all, time and time again we’ve seen similar news stories devolve into the same situation; a rural community attempting to call attention to genuine issues in their area have their protests so completely derailed by disruptive opportunists and far-right agitators, that this is what the entire story becomes about. The voices of the affected are quickly muffled out, their problems endure or worsen, and the situation repeats.
Last weekend in fact, we very nearly saw this exact situation play out in one of our own local towns: Ballaghaderreen.
It will be little news to regular Roscommon People readers that crime in Ballaghaderreen, as well as in a number of other local rural towns and villages, has been on the rise. And the heightened occurrence of a number of incidents, from burglaries and anti-social behaviour to vandalism and violent attacks, coupled with the continued perception that the Government has failed to give this problem adequate attention (never mind properly address it), has prompted a slew of public demonstrations.
We have seen communities, activists, and certain local politicians making keen and admirable efforts to protest against the increase in rural crime and lack of Government action in response. And given the current climate, this is something that now must be done in tandem with staying conscious and vigilant of how such activism could be easily derailed by those looking to engage in mob-like anti-social behaviour, or to frame it in a way that fuels a hateful political agenda.
As mentioned, Ballaghaderreen is among a number of local areas which has been suffering from a lack of resources and experiencing rising crime levels. There are quite a few examples to point to from across recent months, but perhaps none capture the level of the severity associated with the ongoing situation better than what occurred in the town last weekend.
It was reported nationally last weekend that a serious violent assault had been carried out against a teenager on the town’s Main Street, shortly after midnight. And matters only intensified on Saturday, when a group of up to 40 people (allegedly in balaclavas) took to the streets of Ballaghaderreen, prompting even more fear for residents and leading to damage to two properties.
On Sunday, over 400 residents gathered in the town for a vigil/crime protest, demonstrating against the lack of resources and adequate policing in the town, as well as publicly displaying the community’s solidarity – not just with the young victim allegedly assaulted a few days before, but also as a community as a whole.
And as well as successfully holding a large-scale protest to bring attention to the issues being experienced in the area, Sunday also saw the community of Ballaghaderreen successfully sidestep the same pitfall that so many other rural towns have been unable to avoid when holding their own protests in recent months. Because again, as we have (unfortunately) come to expect, Ballaghaderreen residents were not the only attendees fighting to make a point at the recent demonstration.
The assault alleged to have taken place in the early hours of last Friday morning had, within the couple of days, caught the attention of far-right commentators, as well as some agitators online, eager to spin the story away from the central issue of rural crime and into a blanket (and utterly unfounded) condemnation of the non-Irish members of the community. Blatant misinformation was espoused, from referring to the assault as a “gang rape” to claiming the perpetrator(s) responsible were refugees, to the point where Gardaí had to put out a misinformation notice to shut down these false claims. As is their pattern, some of these agitators then turned up to last Sunday’s protest.
Their intrusion at this event had the potential to obscure the reality of the very real problems Ballaghaderreen has been fighting to have addressed for so long, and to spark divide between residents in the community by placing the blame squarely on a subsection of that same community. But fortunately, such efforts were largely quashed.
Following the protest, several videos cropped up on social media, depicting far-right agitators’ interactions with residents. Clips taken by these agitators themselves show exchanges with residents wherein they unsuccessfully attempt to present the situation as being monolithically the fault of the town’s immigrant population – as if these residents don’t have an infinitely better idea of what is going on in their own town, and as if this isn’t the community whose open embrace of its newer, non-Irish neighbours has seen the town held up as a model of integration nationally. One particularly viral video showed notorious outside agitator Philip Dwyer attempt to disrupt proceedings by interrupting local councillor Micheál Frain during his speech at the event.
“You’re a mouthpiece and we know you are,” Frain shot back, eliciting cheers from the local crowd. “You’ve been going around the length and breadth of the country stirring hatred. The people of Ballaghaderreen will stand together as they have always done”.
It is widely felt that these people do not have any real interest in the welfare of towns like Ballaghaderreen or their residents. And it is only more evidenced by their approach at last Sunday’s event, by their attempts to divide a community particularly known for, and proud of, standing in solidarity with each other – Irish or non-Irish.
Ballaghaderreen is an area where enormous efforts have been made to make sure theirs remains an open and inclusive community while taking in a huge influx of new residents over the years. But Ballaghaderreen’s openness and community spirit – while enduringly commendable, and only more so amid recent rising tensions – can only go so far to ensuring a rise in population that drastic doesn’t have significant negative knock-on effects.
An increase of the scale Ballaghaderreen’s population has experienced puts enormous pressure on a town’s resources. A ramping up of resources needs to happen in tandem when such influxes occur. But this has not been realised in Ballaghaderreen – in fact in some areas, such as Garda coverage and presence, resources have been ramped down. There is a lack of appropriate housing, educational resources, doctors… the list goes on.
The people of Ballaghaderreen have done their part; they have welcomed new residents with open arms, they have identified and highlighted to their representatives what more they need for the town, and they have swiftly and resolutely shut down those who would happily hijack their plight for their own baseless and fear-spreading agenda. Maintaining focus on the real issues in a situation like this is something that has become increasingly difficult these days, but this is what the Ballaghaderreen community has done and they should be commended for it. It is essential now that authorities listen to the community’s demands for more protection and take strong, effective steps to ensure meaningful action.
