Far-right agitator Dee Wall joins anti-asylum seeker protest in Co Down

The presence of the Dubliner will raise concerns at the prospect of a resurgence of protests against refugees in the UK.

Agitator Wall – real name Dolores Webster – has been at the forefront of a surge in anti-migrant protests south of the border.

Webster joined the group of agitators outside the seafront hotel in the Co Down city last weekend.

The gathering last Friday night remained violence-free, aside from some chants and people carrying placards and banners calling for the foreign nationals to be removed.

The hotel, which has been used to house refugees since the start of last year, had up to now escaped the sort of direct protest action seen at other locations across the North.

There are now fears it could be targeted again.

But with the UK Government putting forward draconian legislation to “stop the boats’’ on England’s south-coast together with increasing unrest towards immigration south of the border, there are concerns that the influence of the far right is on the rise again.

Webster has a string of court appearances for public order offences in the South.

A fervent anti-vaxxer during the Covid pandemic, she once called on fellow vaccine sceptics to drag Irish President Michael D Higgins out of Aras an Uachtarain and “dance on his head”.

She also claimed the Covid vaccine was developed to wage “genocide’’ against the elderly.

Last month she welcomed English jailbird Tommy Robinson to Dublin for an anti-immigration march.

She said she gave the Islamophobic founder of race hate group English Defence League “100 blessings to come here”.

Robinson is due back this month for a protest march in the capital.

His presence has produced a split in the anti-immigration movement there because of Robinson’s close connections and support of loyalist groups in the North.

However, Webster praised her far-right pal and said he had more courage than Irish men.

“Men in Ireland claim to have two balls,” she said. “Where were they all the way through the lockdown when the elderly were being genocided [sic].

“Where were these men? They couldn’t even come up to have one ball as big as Tommy Robinson’s.”

During lockdown Webster took part in anti-vax protests outside the home of the then Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and in a video outside his house accused medical workers of being involved in the murder of Irish people.

She has also appeared to encourage violence against public figures telling a protest outside the Dail she would not stand in the way if they stormed the building.

“And I will not open my mouth… if you take every head out of it and f***ing stand on it.”

Links between Irish and British extremists are nothing new.

Nick Griffin, formerly of the British National Party (BNP) has also made an appearance as well as Jayda Fransen, formerly of Britain First but currently leader of the British Freedom Party (BFP).

The BFP, like the BNP from which it split, is a far-right, Islamophobic group.

Fransen set up home in Co Down a number of years ago as Britain First helped orchestrate a wave of race hate attacks across Northern Ireland.

She has since moved on following a bitter split with former lover and fellow Britain First chief Paul Golding.

The Bangor protest drew stinging criticism from politicians and human rights groups.

Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International accused those taking part of “demonising asylum seekers’’ who had fled violence and persecution in their own countries.

“These protestors should be ashamed of themselves,” he said, “instead of demonising people seeking asylum we should welcome and support them.

“I know there are good people in Bangor who are doing just that, reaching out and offering the hand of friendship.”

North Down MP Stephen Farry said: “These protestors are sadly deploying disgusting and inaccurate tropes to demonise vulnerable people.

“History provides many sad lessons when particular groups of people are scapegoated.”

There are an estimated 3,000 asylum seekers staying in hotels used by the Home Office.