Indians in Ireland: Building a home amid the hostility

Sowmya Paul, 44, has been working in Ireland for about two decades, but she is still perceived as an outsider. “I have been shouted at and asked to leave the country,” said the nurse, who hails from Ernakulam, Kerala.

Sowmya was among the 500-odd people, half of them South Asian, who marched through central Dublin on July 26, 2025, calling attention towards the recent spate of attacks against Indians in Ireland. Walking from the city hall to the gate of Leinster House, the seat of Parliament, the protesters carried placards and shouted slogans.

The march took place after an Indian was attacked in the south-western suburb of Tallaght in Dublin on July 19, 2025. The attackers allegedly removed the victim’s pants and underwear and posted a video on social media, accusing him of being a paedophile. A man driving past also took a video of the victim, whose face was covered in blood. In the video, the victim can be seen trying to pull his jacket down to cover himself and the man shouting, “Get the f*** out of this state now”.

Jennifer Murray, 42, a resident of Tallaght, was driving when she found the victim. In a video she later shared on social media, to “debunk the rumours about him,” Jennifer said he kept insisting he was not a paedophile as she covered him with a blanket lying in her car’s boot.

She took him to the Tallaght University Hospital, and then to the house where he was staying with an Indian family. Jennifer learnt that he works at Amazon and had come to Ireland only a week prior. “They have a newborn, and the wife there told me how he was doing all the cooking to allow her to rest after her childbirth. He is truly a kind man,” she said in the video.

“The attackers were teenagers, whose frontal lobes haven’t been developed yet. They have learnt the knife culture, and are influenced by online misinformation,” she told The Hindu.

Jennifer claimed that over the last few weeks, there were four similar attacks in the neighbourhood, but they were not reported by the media.

Her video opened a can of worms. On WhatsApp groups, Indians living in Ireland began to share harrowing stories of racial abuse, largely perpetuated by adolescents and teenagers.

On the margins

Since Brexit, Ireland has become a popular destination for India’s economic migrants. There are currently 80,000 Indians living in Ireland, marking a 300% jump over the last decade. According to 2023 data from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, 17% of nurses and midwives registered to work are Indian citizens.

The Irish government has also been wooing Indians to pursue higher education in the green isle. Earlier this year, while James Lawless, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation, and Science, was visiting Indian cities as part of St Patrick’s Day celebrations, his office issued a statement. It said that over 9,000 Indian students make up 13.1% of Ireland’s international student population.

At the same time, many Irish nationals have moved out of Ireland, seeking better opportunities in the face of the high cost of living and a growing housing crisis. Alongside the influx of Indians and people of other nationalities, and the out-migration of Irish nationals, anti-migrant rhetoric and attacks have increased, especially in marginalised areas such as Tallaght.

Tallaght was once largely rural. It was developed as a town in the 1960s, but without adequate facilities or job prospects. Last year, a survey by a group of principals, describing themselves as the Deis Cluster Advocacy Group, found that nearly half the primary schoolchildren in some of Dublin’s most socio-economically disadvantaged communities, in areas such as West Tallaght, Ballymun, and Darndale, have suffered major personal trauma. This includes homelessness, the loss of a close family member, or witnessing a violent death. This year, a school in Tallaght nearly shut down when funds earmarked for schools in socio-economically disadvantaged communities were cut.

Over time, expanding housing estates in Tallaght have accommodated Indians working in the Information Technology sector. The availability of nursing jobs at the Tallaght University Hospital has led to a surge in the Indian population. Tallaght became home to Ireland’s first Saravana Bhavan outlet in April this year.

It is the open area surrounding Tallaght’s mall where Indians have suffered violence at the hands of teenagers, said Anil Nair (name changed), who lives in the apartment complex where the victim of the July 19 attack was staying.

Anil has been living in Ireland for over a decade. Instead of walking to the grocery store, he now takes his car. “Teenagers hang out there on Friday and Saturday evenings. Indians here have been advising each other to only step out in groups. The miscreants are sometimes as young as 10 years. They are arrogant, because nobody is teaching them to behave differently,” he said.

Pradeep, who has lived in Ireland for eight years, purchased a flat in Tallaght two years ago. His wife Radhika joined him later. In the last three months in particular, the couple has been hearing about violence against Indians in the neighbourhood. “We have met nurses who were attacked with water guns while returning home from work. The boys who attacked them were quite young,” Radhika said. She added that the girls accompanying the boys are often seen making videos of these scenes and laughing.

A string of attacks

Since July 19, there have been many similar attacks in Dublin. Lakhvir Singh, a taxi driver, was attacked by his passengers on a Saturday night with a beer bottle that left his face bleeding. Data scientist Santosh Jadav put up a post on LinkedIn saying he was attacked outside his home and suffered a fractured cheekbone. The Irish media reported that Laxman Das, a sous chef, was attacked one morning by three men who also stole his e-scooter and wallet. The media also reported that in Waterford, three hours south of Dublin, six-year-old Nia Naveen was punched on her face, hit by a bicycle on her private parts, and told to go home by a bunch of older boys, when she was out playing. Except for Santosh, all the victims are reportedly naturalised citizens.

In these cases, while complaints were allegedly filed with Gardaí Síochána (the Irish police), no arrests have been made yet. WhatsApp groups have been abuzz with stories of being told off by the Gardaí when the attackers are teenagers.

Many also complained about how the Indian Embassy in Ireland has largely been non-responsive. It was only on August 1 — two weeks after the violence in Tallaght and after similar incidents — that the Embassy issued a travel advisory saying Indians living in Ireland must “take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially in odd hours”. The local media too reported on these attacks and mentioned the protest march in Dublin.

That march lasted close to two hours with speeches from local politicians, a few Indians, and trade union leaders. Nine Indians said that this was the first demonstration they had participated in. A few men wore neon vests to indicate that they were volunteers keeping everyone safe.

Nithya Kothenmaril, a PhD researcher, has attended several anti-racism marches in Dublin. She chose to live on her university campus for safety. “But recently, two young boys sprayed me with water. I was shocked,” she said. “But what shocked me more was that a white woman walking near me did not say anything. I was stressed all day that this had happened on campus.”

Most of the Indian diaspora groups gathers together only for cultural events, Nithya rued. “This is unlike the black community that gets together to discuss issues of justice. Given the big number of Indians in Ireland, their participation in the march is rather low,” she said.

Fearmongering

In April 2024, Ireland’s estimated population was 5.38 million, crossing the 5 million-mark for the first time since the 1840s. The Central Statistics Office found that more than 1 lakh people had migrated to Ireland between 2021 and 2024. Now, 15.5% of the country’s population are citizens of other countries.

Attacks on tourists, as well as targeted racist attacks, have risen in recent years. In 2020, George Nkencho, a young black man who had allegedly been suffering from mental health issues and had threatened people with a knife inside a shop, was killed by Gardaí. The incident galvanised the Black Lives Matter movement in Ireland.

“During the pandemic, the far-right grew on the back of the anti-vaccine movement,” explained Ruth Coppinger, the Teachta Dála (Member of Parliament) from Ireland’s Socialist Party. “The shock that came with the pandemic led to an increase in anti-authoritarian sentiment. The Internet has allowed the far-right to portray migrants as criminals and people are believing this.”

In recent times, several politicians have won local elections riding on anti-immigrant rhetoric, by claiming that migrants have been prioritised for social housing and health benefits. Last year, a planned asylum centre was torched thrice in Coolock in north-east Dublin.

It was allegedly online rumours that led to riots in Dublin on November 23, 2023, following the stabbing of children outside a primary school in Parnell Square, a multicultural area. Rumours began to fly online about the identity of the attacker and members of the far-right urged people to take to the streets. The hashtag #IrelandIsFull went viral. That evening, a large crowd gathered in the area, vandalising shops and vehicles, and assaulting Gardaí personnel. Eyewitnesses described the rioters as youth in their early 20s. By July 2024, up to 49 people, including several women, were arrested in connection to the riots. No leader was booked for spreading rumours.

According to Darragh Adelaide, a councillor from the People Before Profit party, the youth wing of the far-right National Party has been specifically targeting young men who feel alienated. Darragh grew up in the working-class area of Clondalkin in the west of Dublin, which is now his political constituency. He has seen the area grow over the years, with people from different countries living there. At the same time, austerity cuts in the past few years have impacted single-parent families and access to education, he said.

“There have been times when buses have refused to ply on the streets in Clondalkin because of anti-social behaviour. The dropout rate is high, and fascist leaders prey on people for petty jobs. The far-right has somehow conveyed the idea of scarcity and the government has been silent on this,” Darragh said. Growing up with a Nigerian father and an Irish mother, he said racism always existed in Ireland, but it was never this violent.

A change in the system

During her speech at the protest on July 26, 2025, Ruth acknowledged the labour shortage, and blamed the government for bending backwards to accommodate people from Ukraine fleeing from the war, even as the number of homeless people in Ireland has been steadily increasing each year.

However, law and order measures alone won’t solve racism, she said. “When people from different countries began to come here 25 years ago and faced racist slurs, Gardaí would dismiss them saying this can happen to anyone. We have a history of denying people’s experience of racism by gaslighting them,” she said.

This year, a study by the Irish Network Against Racism reported how people of African descent and Brazilians experienced discriminatory policing, racial profiling, and a lack of trust in Gardaí. Fear of not being taken seriously, potential repercussions, and previous negative experiences have deterred many from reporting crimes. Darragh said that while the government wants to bestow more power to Gardaí, it is not using the power it already has to combat hate crimes.

On August 22, 2025, while speaking at a graduation ceremony, the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, said that the recent attacks on Indians are being driven by racism, criminality, and the targeting of vulnerable people.

Feljin Jose, a councillor for the Green Party, who moved to Ireland from Kochi in Kerala at the age of nine, emphasised the importance of reporting crimes to Gardaí. “Many people are not aware of how the system works and how to respond when a crime takes place. A person must go to the Garda station and insist on filing a statement. However, there is often no evidence. When juveniles are involved, it becomes complicated. There is a lot more leniency towards them.”

He explained how such violence picks up during school vacations and on longer evenings. “The people committing such crimes are almost always from disadvantaged groups. There are very little youth resources and investments being made in something that could be productive for children. Even if there are such investments, change will take time,” he added.

Immigration consultant Senthil Ramasamy, who has been living in Ireland for 25 years, said that he had sent emails about the recent attacks to various Ministers and the Garda commissioner. The Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, responded mentioning the government’s policy on crimes committed by youth. Community-based youth crime prevention initiatives attempt to divert young people at risk of being involved in criminal behaviour. After a few steps of investigation and recommendations, an offender is referred to the Garda Youth Diversion Programme. Repeat offenders are investigated separately, and the Director of Public Prosecutions decides if a person should be charged.

Jim also told the media, “Regrettably, very many of the offences appear to be perpetrated by persons under the age of 18 and that does pose a particular challenge for us within the criminal justice system, to ensure that individuals who are under 18, who commit criminal offences, are brought before our courts, and face sanction.”

Legislating hate speech

There are also no provisions to legislate hate speech, which compounds the problem. In May, the European Commission suggested that Ireland was failing to comply with European Union rules on combating racism and xenophobia.

On August 11, 2025, a delegation from the Federation of Indian Communities in Ireland and Ireland India Council met with Tánaiste (deputy Prime Minister) Simon Harris. They demanded a deeper engagement between Gardaí, local leaders, and youth outreach organisations to address the racially motivated violence, as well as a review of the juvenile justice framework to ensure that serious violent behaviour, including hate-motivated actions, does not go unchecked.

Meanwhile, Jennifer is being felicitated by different groups of the Indian diaspora. “I am just a mam [mother] who helped an injured man who was being attacked by one of our own,” she said. “We don’t want to believe our own people are capable of this. They do not represent the Ireland that I want my children to grow up in.”

Priyanka Borpujari is a freelance journalist based in Dublin

This piece was edited by Radhika Santhanam