Pepper spray flying, protestors shoved to the ground, flames leaping in the background as chants of "shame on you" filled the night air.

The scenes in Newtownmountkennedy in County Wicklow won't have come as much of a surprise to many. It's just the latest manifestation of a growing frustration with Ireland's immigration policies.

The proposed refugee accommodation site has been a bubbling cauldron of resentment and anger for weeks now, often characterised by tense confrontations with Gardai officers. Like many of the protest sites we have visited, there is a mix of local residents - concerned about the sudden arrival of asylum seekers in their under-resourced rural location - and anti-immigration activists and "citizen journalists.