This is a free release of the July 16 edition of The Ezra Levant Show. Start your free trial and become a RebelNews+ subscriber to watch new episodes every weeknight!

For months, locals have curtailed construction after erecting a makeshift blockade in front an abandoned warehouse. Men rotate there with and signs. Who exactly are these men and what are they protesting? 

For months, the men of the Dublin neighbourhood of Coolock have vehemently opposed a government plan to convert the warehouse into housing for migrants. The initiative, which received no public consultations, would have some 500 migrant men housed near the bustling residential community.

Hundreds gathering again at the proposed 500-man migrant centre in the Dublin neighbourhood of Coolock. Police helicopter overhead. A dozen masked youth — like those who threw rocks at police yesterday.

What will happen tonight? How will it end? https://t.co/88VhR1yZw4 pic.twitter.com/q4Z9iSbpHl

— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 16, 2024

This is not a wealthy part of Dublin. Who will service these people? Regardless, residents are fed up. So much so that protests reached a simmering boil yesterday and turned violent.

Riot police deployed pepper spray and made several arrests. Reports that some protesters threw bricks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails have emerged. 

Rebel News CEO Ezra Levant is on the ground in Coolock as protesters continue to demonstrate against the proposed migrant initiative. “Across the street, kids' play places, kids' theatres, a Burger King. It's a family neighbourhood, now 500 foreign men are being put in the heart of it," he said.

Some of the young Irish protesters are wearing two masks. The first to hide their faces in any confrontation with police. The second, to help with pepper spray — which they faced at last night’s demonstrations.

Their goal: stop the 500-man migrant centre from being built. pic.twitter.com/ihgJzBCPMn

— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 16, 2024

Levant observed how many of the young Irish protesters wore masks to conceal their identities from police and protect themselves from pepper spray.

Former justice minister, Helen McEntee, permitted 17,000 undocumented migrants and their families a pathway to Irish citizenship in 2022 under a "once-in-a-generation" government scheme. Applicants must have good character, with minor offences not the be-all-end-all, according to the department at the time.

Ireland is expected to accept 20,000 asylum seekers by the end of this year. By April 12, more than 6,000 people had applied for asylum in Ireland.

Surely what's happening there is a microcosm for the rest of the world.

Now “normies” are putting on the pepper spray visors, too — including moms and dads.

I think it’s symbolic — and a rebuke to last night’s police tactics, that many protesters thought were excessive. https://t.co/88VhR1yZw4 pic.twitter.com/zpQZJyzdyY

— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) July 16, 2024