How the global far-right uses Ireland to spread anti-immigrant narratives online

Last Saturday, at the protest march in London led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, many in the crowd held up a picture of their hero. It wasn’t Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, but the recently murdered Charlie Kirk. Most probably few in the estimated 100,000 plus crowd even knew Kirk’s name ahead of his killing in Utah the previous Wednesday. But in death he had taken on the mantle of a martyr for those espousing anti-immigrant anger.

The protest was billed as being in the name of “free speech”. And in that context, Kirk’s murder put a topical spin on the ostensible reason for it. He was well known to a younger generation, mainly through his use of the TikTok platform. But for the vast majority of the protesters in London, Kirk could have been any one of the hundreds of right wing “influencers” who inhabit social media.

There was an earlier attempt to export to the UK Kirk’s organisation that propagated his politics in college campuses, Turning Point USA. There was very little take-up, suggesting that no commonality existed between him and similarly disposed elements in the UK. His murder changed all that.

At the conclusion of the march there was a minute’s silence in honour of the man who had over the course of the few days since his death been elevated to martyrdom.

In death, Charlie Kirk had taken on the mantle of a martyr for protesters in London espousing anti-immigrant anger. Picture: AP

The gesture didn’t go unnoticed back in the US. “Thousands of British patriots just fell silent in honour of Charlie Kirk in London,” tweeted Eric Daugherty, an editor at the conservative Florida Voice website. The marketing slogan for the website is “Honest political reporting to Florida minus the mainstream talking points”.

The gesture didn’t go unnoticed in this country either. On Wednesday, when the Dáil was re-opened, the Independent Ireland party requested that a minute’s silence be held for Kirk in advance of the day’s business. The request was rejected.

Back at London last Saturday, what the occasion demonstrated is the breaking down of borders these days among far-right elements. These elements find that they have common cause and they effectively cross-pollinate. 

Online, the result is amplification which in turn provides for a greater volume of hate being tossed about and all the results that flow from such activity.

The issue is one affecting this country at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment is rising, shows a report published in July by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) which monitors online activity.

“Ireland’s anti-migrant mobilization is not only shaped by local actors on the ground but increasingly amplified online by far right networks across Britain, Europe and North America,” the report stated.

It pointed out that the people involved are not necessarily directly organising protests or violence but play a key role in spreading footage and “reinforcing grievance narratives”.

“This activity transforms local incidents into transnational talking points, helping to embed Ireland’s protest movement within a broader global far-right discourse.”

This is a particularly sinister front in the campaign being raged by far-right elements to spread their message. They take situations and issues particular to one country, and identify with it, disseminate it among their own supporters as an example that that which they claim to be opposing is a worldwide phenomenon.

So it has gone with the proliferation of tricolours being displayed in public in various parts of Dublin and other cities in recent months. This quite obviously was lifted from Operation Raise The Colours, a campaign in England started in the summer by elements loyal to Robinson and his allies. The English flag was raised to symbolise opposition to immigrants. Now the Tricolour is being used for the same purpose, in an irony-free zone where a flag that once symbolised opposition to the UK is now being hoisted in imitation of the cross of St George.

Then there was the presence of a tricolour in an anti-immigrant protest in Ballymena in the North this year largely organised by loyalist elements. 

Again, irony is completely missed when the agenda is so base. 

The cross-jurisdiction meetings of these elements from north and south, the former rooted in elements close to violent loyalism, the latter including those who once subscribed to violent Republicanism, is an indication of how hatred can bring so many together. Ciaran O’Connor, senior analyst at the ISD, says that these kinds of connections are well established.

“The Irish far-right movement, such as it exists, have for many years been drawing on the rhetoric

and on- and offline tactics and general approaches taken by similar interests the US and the UK but also from some European groups. There is a significant overlap in the general approach by these groups.”

It’s not all one-way traffic in this spreading online of ideology and tactics. This summer in England there have been major conflicts over protests, sometimes violent, outside hotels housing asylum seekers. So it went in this jurisdiction a few years ago. The Irish efforts were originally borrowed from the English and now the tactic is being resurrected over there in a kind of feedback loop.

The most obvious example of the transnational cross-pollination this year was the so-called presidential campaign of Conor McGregor. 

The cage fighter’s appearance in the White House on St Patrick’s Day was a huge boost for those who identify with the anti-immigrant protests in this country.

On April 26, a march through Dublin city centre attracted over 10,000, a gathering that was in excess of anything that was expected. McGregor filmed a greeting to the marchers but for some reason it was beneath him to actually accompany them.

One of the more prominent figures that day was Malachy Steenson, who was elected to Dublin City Council last year. He was wearing a Make Ireland Great Again hat, although it is unclear which period in this country’s history he considered great.

Steenson told reporters at the protest that the biggest day of the year had been the national holiday when McGregor was at the White House.

“It doesn’t matter who the messenger is — it’s the message,” he said. “That message was brought very clearly to Irish-Americans… We are now calling out to our friends and family in America and throughout the world — look at what is happening here. 

“Sixteen million followers Tucker Carlson [the US podcaster who was too extreme for his old employer Fox News and who interviewed McGregor], 10m followers Conor McGregor, that is a huge reach that we couldn’t get without these two people.”

Steenson’s delight was well-grounded. Over the following months, McGregor’s social media output promoting himself as a potential presidential candidate went far and wide, across the world to his 10m followers. He was running, he repeatedly said, to “save Ireland”. Much of what he posted was completely without any factual basis but presented Ireland as a place that was being overrun by immigrants, reinforcing for those of similar views abroad that the world as they know it is under attack.

McGregor’s influence on far right

Ciaran O’Connor believes that McGregor’s influence on the far-right movement in this country has been significant.

“Anyone who has such a massive presence online has the ability to operate like a megaphone, to amplify the narrative and videos and general sentiment. A lot of Irish far-right influencers would look upon him as elevating their cause to an international audience.”

A report published recently by the European Digital Media Observatory Ireland in Dublin City University found that 58% of McGregor posts in his so-called campaign misrepresented this country, its Constitution, or its history. His content was viewed more than 100m times worldwide.

The report stated that his claims have normalised “fact free and extremist ideas” and that he was pushing “narratives seeded by fringe media, amplified by celebrities with little political understanding and broadcast at scale through the platform of the world’s richest man”.

People taking part in a Tommy Robinson-led Unite the Kingdom march and rally in central London. Picture: Lucy North/PA

The platform is X and its owner Elon Musk personally weighed in to amplify McGregor and all he was spewing frequently over the months. Musk also said he would financially back the cage fighter who was found liable for sexual assault in a civil court, in his campaign. That offer could not legally be accepted due to political funding laws here, but it did highlight the impact that money combined with the capacity to spread baseless claims can have on the democratic process.

Charlie Kirk wasn’t able to effect a connection with the UK when he was alive. The manner of his violent death made that possible. He is just the latest in the kind of connections right across the world between these far-right elements who want to spread and amplify their message on mediums where lies and distortion can be passed off as genuine facts.

Any issues, cases, or specific challenges in one jurisdiction can thus be projected far off in a manner so distorted it’s never going to be corrected. That in turn heightens anger, fuels resentment, and presents as further proof that hate is the only way.

Unfortunately, in this respect, the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts from each individual country.