Locals protested outside the gates of Aughrim St Sports Centre in Stoneybatter this evening.

Protesters sought assurances from gardaí who attended the scene that no male asylum seekers would be accommodated at the sports hall, making known their specific concern about any attempt to house Somali men there as rumours have been circulating online that it had been singled out for their use.

Almost all Somalis have had their asylum claims accepted in Ireland in recent years and they are one of the groups who are expedited thought the asylum process along with applicants from Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan & Eritrea.

Once asylum seekers have been granted refugee status or given subsidiary protection, they can use the family reunification programme to bring in parents, spouses and children under 18.

All parties in Dáil except Fine Gael want to extend the scope of this programme to include grandparents, children over 18, siblings, cousins, nephews & nieces, as was the case before 2015.

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Look at these two headings and really let the issue sink in.

Four foreign men tried to rape a woman and Gardaí and politicians' first instinct is not to arrest the attackers (no arrests have yet been made). It is not to offer the woman counselling and help. It is not to increase foot patrols. It is not to given men and women the right to carry pepper spray in self defence.

No, the first act of the Regime is to tell the victim not to tell anyone the details of what happened, and to propose to change the law to make it illegal for the woman or her family to tell others what happened.

Is Ireland going to end up like England or America, where instead of mentioning race or nationality, Police will simply put out a warning for women to stay away from "men"?

If they change the law and something like this happens again (God forbid) and the woman puts up a post - will Gardaí arrest and charge her before they arrest and charge the attackers? (If they ever bother to find and arrest them).