Immigration and Ireland - MEGATHREAD *Mod Note Added 02/09/25*

You won't get answers as usual.

As far as Muslims go, I've met a lot of people from Arab countries in my line of work and once I got to know some of them well enough and we were bringing up topics, naturally the topic of religion came up and almost all of them turned out to actually be atheist. Some also believed in a god but not a man made religious god. Especially the younger ones. Even the Saudi Arabian ones who grew up under Sharia Law. The actual ones that were Muslim were sound. I can't recall any weirdos, just polite lads and lasses with good senses of humour. The far right types have probably never interacted with any of them and just got propaganda'd into their beliefs by incel far right influencers. Most of those incels were lifelong outcasts and we all know the type. They were probably left wingers before they got roped in and I know of a lad myself who donated money to some of the far right lads who upload videos and then put the obligatory "buy me a coffee/go fund me" link lol. He regrets it now to be fair to him.

At the end of the day the core belief of the far right posters here is that "the government hates the indigenous Irish!!" and "England has fallen due to Islam!!". Speaks for itself really doesn't it.

I saw a chap saying he's been living in England for 35 years. A migrant complaining about migrants. However one thing that struck me is that he's probably 60 years old. I'm in my mid 20s. I think the older chaps are more easily propaganda'd by the internet since they probably sit on those sites and consume the content for hours a day. I suppose you only have to look at the far right protests to see the demographic.

If people actually wanted to talk weird conspiracies, I can imagine a scenario where it's all some kind of large scale MK Ultra mind control type program. Controlling the social media platforms behind the scenes and using big data to propagandise different parts of the populations. It sounds wacky but these exact things have been done on large scales by governments before. My dad is surprised at how the loyalists were so easily able to infiltrate and use far right lads to propagandise (traitors I think would be my preferred term). Money talks I suppose. He knows how all of these far right types would have been treated in these areas back in his day, probably because he was partaking in giving out some slaps himself lol

In the Republic of Ireland, there were 83,300 Muslims recorded in the 2022 census, making up 1.62% of the total population. This represents a 29.1% increase compared to the 2016 census

Given our population has increased drastically in the 3 years since the '22 census, it stands to reason, given the demographics coming here, that the Muslim population has also increased through both immigration and those already here having babies.

Anyone who can't see the similarities to what has happened in other European countries and what will happen here over the next few years, either has skin in the game or their heads in the sand. But yeah, just keep throwing out insults and name calling to divert attention away from the changes in the country.

For those that are unaware, Peter Sutherland is long gone but in 2012, as the UN's special representative for migration, he attended the House of Lords EU home affairs sub-committee which was at the time investigating global migration. Sutherland, a regular attender at Bilderberg meetings, told that committee that the future prosperity of EU states depended on them becoming multicultural and that the EU should be doing its best to undermine homogeneity, however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens of those states.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18519395

What we are witnessing all around us is no pie in the sky, right wing conspiracy theory. The mass movement of people was planned and enabled behind the scenes years ago while we were busy getting on with life. Some countries have since recognised the folly of this plan and pulled back but the non-entities running Ireland bought in hook, line and sinker.

Yeah I’m sure that’s why mass attendances are at their lowest ever levels, ordinations are at their lowest ever levels, church marriages are at their lowest ever levels (actually a minority of services now), church is embroiled in numerous scandals, we elected a gay Taoiseach and we voted as a nation for gay marriage and abortion - yeah we’re really well in the grip of the Catholic Church

The Church is an irrelevance in modern Irish life - you couldn’t prove any more succinctly that you don’t actually live in Ireland if you’re attempting to argue otherwise

Seeing as anecdotes are allowed again, personally speaking, in my local church I see Sunday mass numbers being steady and even climbing slightly. With a combination of Catholic immigrants attending and also locals returning to the church.

Fair enough if that’s your experience but overall it is dropping and that trend will continue, as I noted above ordinations, church weddings, funerals and otherwise keystone touchpoints most lay people have with the church are all in decline

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/mass-exodus-over-41pc-of-worshippers-fail-to-return-to-church-after-covid-survey-shows/42404299.html

Boards being funny and won’t allow me edit to add, but I also wanted to point out that our popular vote for gay marriage and abortion clearly shows that church teaching are not something the majority of people consider when making their political decisions

Not a single Muslim country has legalised gay marriage by popular vote

Natty while I don’t mean to complain about the enormous benefit an opportunity to be educated by your good self provides, I think it only pertinent to point out that the article you provided for me to read not only contradicts your assertions of Islamification, I mean it directly contradicts it -

I am at the mosque’s sharia council, which in the past year has dealt with 400 requests for divorce. Sharia councils – often mislabelled as sharia courts – have a sinister reputation in the UK. Like halal meat and the niqab, they are a dog whistle for those seeking to imply that there is a creeping Islamification of the UK. In part, this is because sharia – Islamic – law is synonymous in many people’s minds with terrifying punishments such as stoning. The reality of the councils is much less bloodthirsty but there are still reasons to worry.

…

Almost all the sharia councils, which first appeared in the UK in the 1980s, were founded to facilitate Islamic divorces for Muslim women who need a religious scholar to end their marriage where their husbands don’t consent (they may also offer religious advice on inheritance, wills or issue religious rulings). They are not the only religious councils – there are also the Jewish Orthodox Beth Din, and Catholic tribunals. The sharia councils are often accused of operating a “parallel legal system” in the UK, but their rulings have no legal standing here or abroad, and they have no enforcement powers. As unofficial bodies, they also have no jurisdiction over custody or financial issues. What they rely on is the weight that religious rulings carry in the Muslim community.

Not that I think you were dog-whistling or anything, though if you’re unfamiliar with the subject I don’t expect you or anyone else would know better. Where it rises to the level of hysteria though is when you make claims which aren’t supported by evidence. When the claims you make are directly contradicted by your own evidence, I’m not sure what I’d call that tbh.

You accuse me of being intellectually dishonest, while the article which you presented as evidence in support of your claims of Islamification, which you defined, makes this clear -

Sharia councils – often mislabelled as sharia courts – have a sinister reputation in the UK. Like halal meat and the niqab, they are a dog whistle for those seeking to imply that there is a creeping Islamification of the UK.

They are not courts, they are not Islamic law courts, and the reason they’re allowed in the UK is because they are not in violation of civil laws.

I’m not sure what you think I have to wriggle out of. I’ve not contorted myself in knots claiming that we could now have a discussion without the hysteria, then jumping off with this absolute belter -

To those who ridicule the idea of Ireland being “islamified”

If that’s how you define intellectual honesty, it’s no wonder you would accuse me of being intellectually dishonest 😂