Team Hot Press is looking forward to tomorrow’s Dublin Says No To Hate rally, which is assembling outside Irishtown Garda Station at 2.30pm and then proceeding in a loud, but orderly fashion to Barrow Street where from 3pm the area outside of Google’s Dublin headquarters will become #SpeakersUnicorner.
“We call on unions, political reps, campaign groups and other political groupings to mobilise for this event,” the organisers say. “The time to stop the far-right from gaining any more traction in our society and communities is now. We know their rhetoric leads only to division within communities and to hate-filled violence and murder. Let’s not allow that to happen any more than it already has here in Ireland.”
They’ll be calling on Google and other social media companies to “end the platforming of far-right supremacist organisers and haters. The xenophobic rhetoric of these groups is already having a dangerous impact in communities around the country and that is particularly concerning for Asylum Seekers housed nationally in the extremely problematic Direct Provision system.”
A stark example of that occurred last night when Dublin-born city councillor, Hazel Chu, was subjected to a barrage of (anti)social media abuse by alt-righters on both sides of the Atlantic.
A class act, Hazel's response was: "Dear fascists, thank you for bumping me up a few hundred followers, a good 1/4 of a million tweet engagements and lots of support by good people wanting to make sure fascism doesn't win in our country. I am Irish. Ireland is my home as much as it is yours. Learn to share it."
For the past few weeks Barrow Street has been the scene of protests by members of Anti Corruption Ireland, which is headed by former journalist Gemma O'Doherty, and such like-minded groups as the National Party.