After riots, grievances simmer at a Muslim-run soup kitchen

When Dublin erupted in a riot last November, masked youths looted shops, set fires and shouted slogans against immigrants and refugees. "Ireland is full," said one banner. "Ireland for the Irish," said another.

- Rory Carroll

Resentment at asylum seekers, demographic changes, a housing crisis, crime and the cost of living had boiled over, turning O'Connell Street, the capital's main thoroughfare, into what looked like a war zone.

Two months later, on another cold night, a different scene unfolded: hundreds of people queued at a soup kitchen run mostly by women wearing hijabs. In place of shouts there were warm greetings, including as-salaam alaikum, Arabic for peace be upon you.

"The food here is unbelievable - falafel and chicken burgers, curry, salad, you name it, they're one of the best groups around," said one young man, an unemployed plasterer from Dublin. "We'd be lost without them, and they're Muslims. So you see, the riot wasn't a racist thing."

The Muslim Sisters of Éire, a charity, runs the service every Friday on the corner of O'Connell Street and Prince's Street, serving up to 550 meals to people, Irish and non-Irish, in an area associated with crime, poverty and tension.