‘Ringsend Says No’ to the Plantation 

“Gimme a happy raytown again instead of racist ringsend” – Tranny Bohemians supporter on twitter

The Wolfe Tones’ ‘Quare Things in Dublin’ is a charming ode to the oddities and paradoxes of old Dublin. The following lines form part of the chorus of this memorable tune:

“There’s quare things in Dublin
Between Howth and Crumlin
Down in Ringsend there’s a five legged cat
And a three legged donkey
A two-headed monkey”

The lyrics are expressive of Dublin’s contradictions and idiosyncrasies; a nod equally to the docks, the source of the exotitudes that demarcated Ringsend, – affectionately known among locals by the cognomen ‘Ringer’ –  and a locus of employment for generations of Ringsenders.

Now, however, after it has become clear that Ringsend, a vestigial majority Irish holdout in an overwhelmingly foreign inner city, has been selected to be demographically replaced, one cannot but experience indignance. 

The prospect that financial and political party interests may succeed in their effort to place faux-asylum seekers in Ringsend induces bitter nostalgia. 

Nostalgia for the days when the word ‘contradiction’ called to mind a ‘two-headed monkey’, rather than a “community” organisation which does not represent the community; longing for a time when the only foreigners were shipmen and sailors carrying far-off produce, not bogus asylum seekers carrying knives, fuelled by malintent and resent.

Our only resolve lies in three simple words: ‘Ringsend Says No.”

And to the credit of the real Ringsenders, not the blow-ins who work for MNCs, they’ve answered the clarion call. Without direction from experienced activists, they organically and spontaneously blocked cars from entering Ringsend via the bridge.

More impressive was footage of local mammies rebuking crypto-leftist activists who attempted to co-opt, diffuse, and neuter the effectiveness of their protest. Through their actions, the proud people of Ringsend have proven that they won’t be deceived by such actors.

It’s not baseless speculation to affirm that they’ve learned their lesson from the rapid about-face of Carol Reynolds, a Labour local election candidate for Dublin’s South East Inner City. Reynolds, who is currently the subject of the an intra-Labour Party inquiry regarding comments she made in opposition to Sally’s pub being converted into accommodation for migrants. Lamentably, she vacillated as soon as pressure was placed on her by the left.

In the early hours of the morning, ‘Sally’s Pub’ was ablaze. An investigation is on-going, and whilst Garda Síochána are treating the incident as arson, there has been no official statement made regarding the suspected motive. Despite the dearth of information at present, this hasn’t prevented the anti-Irish left from pinning responsibility on their favourite boogeyman, the Far Right. 

Ringsenders know their back is to the wall. No established politician or media figures’ assuaging rhetoric will amend the damage to come if the establishment succeeds. Ringsend’s struggle is Ireland’s struggle, and thus it is imperative that they receive our support as nationalists.

Nostalgia has been a motif throughout this piece. Longing is a cognate of nostalgia, but unlike the latter, which is directed toward the past, longing is bi-directional; it can reduce us to sorrow for a past that is determined to never return, or it can catalyse us to actualise an ideal. Let us hope, for the sake of Ringsend, that longing impels us toward victory, rather than the rut of lament.

May the old songs reverberate through time:

“And there she goes my Ringsend Rose
In God’s Garden there’s none rarer
And there she goes my Ringsend Rose
Dublin Town has seen none fairer”