Dublin gangland figure brings extremist views to Irish mainstream on campaign trail | Ireland

Elaine Roe, 61, a cafe worker, is in no doubt what is the most important issue in this week’s by-election for inner-city north Dublin. “The government is destroying our country, bringing in rapists, murderers and kidnappers. It’s a shame. I might vote for Hutch, he seems like a normal person.”

That would be Gerry “monk” Hutch, a prominent figure in the mafia world, running as an independent in an election that is far from normal. The 63-year-old man, who was jailed for theft as a youth, is a prominent candidate in the contest for a parliamentary seat dominated by xenophobia and immigration.

Voters in the Dublin Central constituency will vote on Friday, with results due on Saturday, but one conclusion is already clear: hostility towards newcomers, particularly Black immigrants and Muslims, has entered Ireland’s main political agenda.

Hutch called for the detention of “illegal immigrants” in camps. “They should all be detained,” he said, singling out East Africans. “Somali ones and people like them, definitely. In custody.”

The Guardian said 99% of Irish people wanted stronger rules on immigration when Hutch was accompanied on a new canvass soundtracked by a flatbed truck playing pop songs. “But you’re not allowed to say that. Even if people have nowhere to live because of the housing disaster, you can’t say that,” he said.

In fact, what was once a fringe view—that immigrants are responsible for crime and housing shortages—has become recurrent in some regions. Hutch said residents of Dublin Centre, which includes working-class neighbourhoods, boarding houses, shelters and affluent areas, were urging him to run. “I will use the platform to help the people who voted for me and they will tell me what to do.”

People on the street and in doorways wanted to take selfies with Hutch. “You’re my number one, man. I love everything you do,” one man said. Hutch gave him a pamphlet promising “leadership” and “integrity” to shake up the status quo. “We need change and I’m your man,” he said.

Hutch has been a figure of infamy for decades. The court named him the leader of an organized crime group and he admitted to committing the crime. “I got away with some of them,” he told RTÉ in 2008.

He shocked the political establishment by winning almost a seat in the 2024 general election and is now running to fill the vacancy left by Paschal Donohoe, a finance minister in the ruling Fine Gael party who left the Dáil for a job at the World Bank.

A poll showed Hutch in third place with 14% of first-choice votes; This gives him the chance to prevail against 13 other candidates in an election that will be decided by the transfers of eliminated candidates.

Opinion polls also show that the most important issue for voters is the cost of living (33%), followed by house prices (24%) and immigration (12%). But for many voters, the issues are interconnected.

Butcher John Clarke, 45, said: “I’m not a racist but we should be able to fend for ourselves instead of letting people in.” “I have two children. They both had to go to Sydney because they couldn’t afford to buy a house here. I am particularly against Muslims coming, they want to take over this place.”

All mainstream parties reject racism but are toughening their rhetoric on immigration and asylum.

Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Sinn Féin, a progressive opposition party, declined to respond to Hutch’s call for arrest. “We cannot comment on other people’s comments,” he said. Sinn Féin candidate Janice Boylan leads the field but analysts say she will need transfers, including from Hutch voters, to fend off the Social Democrats’ Daniel Ennis.

Bertie Ahern, the former taoiseach and leader of the ruling Fianna Fáil party, was recorded secretly telling a constituent: “The people I’m worried about are the Africans. We can’t accept people from the Congo and all those places.” He also expressed his concerns about the next generation of Muslims.

Current taoiseach Micheál Martin said the comments were “inappropriate” and did not reflect the views of Fianna Fáil. Ahern later said he had no problem with people entering through the visa and asylum systems.

The death of a Congolese man in the city center on May 15 has led to further scrutiny of race relations. Yves Sakila, 35, dead after he was restrained by security guards who suspected him of stealing. Police are investigating.

As coffers swell with corporation tax revenue, the centrist Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coalition has increased public spending, but rising prices and a housing shortage have created a negative mood.

“The country is falling apart. There are no jobs, no housing. If you have a job the wages are terrible. My son is 36 and still lives at home,” said an anonymous charity worker.

Jimmy McDaid, 77, said he would vote for Hutch to clean up the drug trade. When asked about Hutch’s criminal record, McDaid said it was in the past. “Everyone is entitled to a second chance. Look at the government; they are gangsters who say one thing and do another.”

But in a by-election in Galway – to fill the Dáil seat vacated by speaker Catherine Connolly – Fine Gael candidate Seán Kyne is narrowly ahead in the opinion polls. His main rivals are Noel Thomas, an independent who has condemned Ireland’s “reckless open border policies”, and Labour’s Helen Ogbu, the first black person born in Nigeria to be elected to Galway city council in 2024.