A group gathered in Dundalk yesterday to stage a counter-protest against an anti-immigration rally in the town.

The counter-protesters, led by The Mary Wallopers and a megaphone, drowned out the rally with a version of 'Take It Down from the Mast':

"So take it down from the mast, Irish traitors,
It's the flag we Republicans claim.
It will never belong to you fascists,
For you've brought on it nothing but shame."

"Take it down from the mast, Irish traitors,
the flag we Republicans claim
it can never belong to you fascists,
you brought on it nothing but shame"

Legends @marywallopers leading the sing song drowning out Hermann Kelly & his fascist scum on the strs of #Dundalk today!#Ireland pic.twitter.com/knCQ9xNs38

— Leah Ni D 🇵🇸 (@LeahNiD) July 21, 2024

One member of the The Mary Wallopers, Charles Hendy, held up a sign that read:

"We earned our nickname 'El Paso' due to people fleeing British terror in the North. Let's not allow a British fascist led movement tell us to fight refugee instead of the rich."

The Mary Wallopers' strong stance against far-right and anti-immigrant movements is well-documented. Under the Hendy brothers' previous guise, TPM, they staged a parody 'Dundalk Against Change' protest in May 2020 – to coincide with a Gemma O'Doherty-led protest on Blackrock Beach in Co. Louth.

The original track 'The Idler', which features on The Mary Wallopers' latest album, Irish Rock N Roll, also condemns xenophobia – calling out, at one point, the person "who forgets their history, and says 'Ireland is full, look after our own...'"

Yesterday's anti-immigration rally was, as reported by The Journal, organised in protest against the planned accommodation of around 260 Ukrainian refugees in a former orphanage at Seatown.

Three people were arrested for public order offences.