Ireland ‘gripped by ugly mood’ as fury reaches ‘crisis’ | Politics | News [Video]

Ireland is in the grip of an “ugly mood” as a result of rising anger over a perceived inability to control a recent immigration surge, a former top diplomat has warned.

Ray Bassett, the country’s former ambassador to Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas, said the situation represented a “crisis”, not only for the ruling coalition headed up by Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris, but for Mary Lou McDonald’s Sinn Fein, seen by many as having “betrayed” its roots.

Furious protesters yesterday voiced their anger against the republican party after migrants pitched tents along Dublin’s famous Grand Canal, with one eurosceptic politician accusing the republican party of “stealing the flag of Irish nationalism for decades”.

Demonstrators marched through the centre of the Irish capital yesterday, with thousands chanting: “Sinn Fein are traitors.”

Mr Bassett told Express.co.uk: “There is an ugly mood among sections of the community in Ireland in the wake of the immigration surge and the Irish Government’s utter …