The Debrief
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Well, you're very welcome to The Debrief, where we look back at some of the biggest stories of the week. And today I'm joined by political editor with the Irish examiner, Elaine Lachlan, public policy advisor, Oisín Cotland, and artist, architect and lecturer at TU Dublin, Roisin Murphy. You're all very welcome to the show. And I suppose we have to start with the story that dominated the headlines here in conversation, certainly in this programme all week, and that was the violence and the riots that we saw in Belfast. What stood out for you, Elaine? Was it the immediate violence itself or what's sitting underneath it?
Yeah, I think this is constantly on both sides of the border, it has to be said, is constantly bubbling under the surface. And immediately after that happened, I was obviously in Leinster House this week and politicians up to cabinet level were quite worried that this might spill over onto the streets of Dublin. And we did have, it has to be said, quite a small protest outside Leinster House this week. Thankfully went off peacefully and people are entitled to protest and voice their concerns and disgruntlement. It's thankfully we do live in a democracy. But I think when communities do feel disenfranchised with the political system and perhaps feel like they've been left behind, that it can sometimes allow bad actors to come in and perhaps sway public opinion, as we've seen in Northern Ireland.
into rioting, into violent behaviour and, you know, perpetuate these, what are falsehoods about people who've come to our country, about immigrants who are, you know, keeping the, we'll talk about the health service later in this discussion, but who are keeping the health service afloat, who are doing a lot of jobs that we wouldn't have people to fill if we didn't have people coming with skills and talents to this country. But a different narrative around that cohort is put forward. And it's a kind of a them versus us, really dangerous narrative, as we've seen in Belfast.
As you say, as we've seen in Belfast, and we saw in Belfast last year when there was those alleged sexual assault allegations, I think in Portadown. We saw it the year before when there was that awful, awful assault in Southport. And we've seen it here in Dublin, haven't we, in City West and, of course, the Dublin riots. Do you think we're at risk here that this kind of disorder becomes more normalized and more normalized part of some call it protesting? I would call it rioting in Ireland.
I mean, yes, I think is the answer. There's certainly, we've seen it, as you described. And I think there's a combination of factors here.
What events led to the recent violence and riots in Belfast?
One is there is just racism. Some of it is just racism. There's also, though, bad faith actors who are seeking to exploit real challenges and real issues for either often personal gain themselves in terms of money, but often political leverage, influence, attention. We live in an attention economy. And you combine that with the power of social media. And I say the power, but I also mean the device of power, as in it's designed for engagement, it's designed for extremism, it's designed for division. And those bad faith actors use it and their messages get amplified and the extremes get amplified. On top of that, we had an actual owner of a social media company who should have been busy becoming a trillionaire, deciding to spend his time inciting agitation on the streets of Belfast.
That's Elon Musk. And then, of course, in Belfast in particular, there is a long tradition of recreational street activity in the summer. So it's a tinderbox waiting to happen in Belfast in particular. But the more general trends are as we described. I would say it's worth remembering, like the numbers, to get the context here, because there are people who are trying to exploit this situation. I was just looking at the figures. In terms of international protection applicants, it's been about it got up to about 10 or 12, 13,000 or so as a peak in Ireland, but it's mostly been under 10 or under 5,000.
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