Protestors from Newtownmountkennedy lead anti-immigration march in Dublin

The crowd gathered at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square around 2.30pm before marching through O’Connell Street and towards the Custom House.

John Larkin, a resident of Newtown and local election hopeful, was one of the attendees. He said: “It was a very peaceful demonstration and mostly consisted of parents in their 20s, 30s and 40s with their kids.

"Around 50 of us travelled up to Dublin to take part in the protest and we also held a smaller march in Newtownmountkennedy as well. The road leading to River Lodge House is still blocked but we want to keep the pressure on.

“It was wonderful to attend the Dublin rally and see the level of support our campaign is receiving. We were placed up at the front of the march and led the protest. We had some great banners as well which really got our point across.”

Fellow Newtown resident Kevin Haig was also encouraged by the level of support the Newtown protestors were afforded at the Dublin demonstration.

He said: “We were leading the parade as a collective. The people of Newtown were treated like heroes and we were brought up to the front of the march. Every speech also mentioned our campaign in Newtown and what we have been going through. It was a very positive experience and we were heartened by all the support we received.”

Last week, the first residents moved into River Lodge House, with up to 60 International Protection applicants currently accommodated on the site. However, efforts from local campaigners to make contact with the community engagement team, who are meant to engage with the community, has been met with silence.

Kevin added: ”There is a tremendous sense of community and we are looking at establishing a neighbourhood watch scheme to make everyone feel safe.

“The whole set-up at River Lodge House looks more like a detention centre than an IPAS centre, it looks very strange.

"We have also been fruitlessly trying to contact the community engagement team because we want to talk about where we go from here moving forward.

"The community engagement team are meant to keep the local community provided with all the information we need, but so far we can’t find them. No one can provide us with contact details or information to such an extent we are wondering if the community engagement team actually exist.”

Meanwhile, four local protestors’ are due to appear in Bray Court on Thursday, and fellow campaigners are vowing to attend to show their support.

John Larkin said: “We will be protesting outside the court from 10am so we can support them and give them a standing ovation and a guard of honour on their way into the court.

"We will then walk the short distance up to the constituency office of an Taoiseach Simon Harris, where we will be holding a demonstration.”