In Ballymena this week, those who have come from abroad to make their lives in the town were putting union jacks in the window in the hope it would prevent them being attacked.

In the random and brutal rioting that saw the homes and businesses of foreigners attacked and terrorised this was they did to protect themselves and their families.

On Free State today, Joe and Dion ask what is the root cause of this savagery which the police described as feral. Is it hatred or fear, supremacy or inferiority?

Joe looks at how hate has been transferred from nationalists to other minorities - with plenty held back for nationalists too and projects like Casement Park.

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“The kids were coming down for breakfast when these five men wearing cargo pants, big jackets arrived. They came into the third floor, stood in front of the bedroom door, took the three kids back in and told them to pack up. We heard them say: ‘You are going to be deported.’ As soon as the other children heard then they were all crying. It was such a horrific scene.”

This was how a resident in an IPAS centre in West Dublin described the scenes when families were deported last week and sent back to Nigeria.

“This is not a pleasant part of my job,” Jim O’Callaghan said on RTE. On X he said, “Another deportation flight left Dublin last night and landed safely this morning in Lagos, Nigeria. There were 35 people on board who had received but had not complied with Deportation Orders.”

On Free State today, Dion and Joe asked who these messages are aimed at? What is Ireland doing to combat the fantasies being spun by people like Conor McGregor about a lost Ireland that never existed?

Is appealing to those with concerns about immigration necessary to head off the far right or is this world without compassion and empathy Ireland’s dystopian future?

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TP O’Connor was elected as MP for the Liverpool constituency of Liverpool Scotland in 1885. He represented that constituency from then until his death in 1929. TP O’Connor was an Irish Nationalist MP and he is the only Irish Nationalist ever elected to a constituency outside the island of Ireland.

On Free State today, we look at the story of Liverpool and Ireland and the tensions that travelled from Ireland to the city. While it returned a nationalist MP, it also had 50 Orange Order lodge by the start of the 20th century and a 12th of July parade still takes place in the city today.

Writer David Swift discusses his book Scouse Republic. We ask if the city’s Irish heritage contributed to its sense of separateness and its determination to fight the establishment when attacked by Thatcher and the media that demonised the city after Hillsborough.

They also ask if Jurgen Klopp’s Christianity contributed to his status in the city and tell the extraordinary story of the time capsule Jim Larkin buried in Liverpool.

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