{"id":140710,"date":"2025-11-15T05:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T05:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/140710\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T05:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T05:48:08","slug":"growing-threat-from-far-right-similar-to-dissident-republicans-says-garda-commissioner-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/140710\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing threat from far right similar to dissident republicans, says Garda Commissioner \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The far right in Ireland has become more organised, the Taoiseach and Garda Commissioner have warned.<\/p>\n

Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> said the threat of extreme violence has \u201cmoved on\u201d from individuals to an organised attempt to undermine the State and society.<\/p>\n

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly<\/a> said it was clear some people among the Irish far right were now trying to organise, so they would have the capacity to take violent action. He said even very small groups could challenge the State and seek to undermine it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo different to [dissident republicans]. Although they are small, obviously there\u2019s the potential for a lot of dangerous activity. It\u2019s something we monitor very, very closely,\u201d he said, saying there were fewer than 10 such far-right groups in the Republic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people here and they intend to do harm, particularly to some of our migrant communities, and that\u2019s something we have to be completely alive to. We are not immune to that. We\u2019ve seen it in the UK and across Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current \u201crisk level\u201d to the State, meaning the threat of a major security event, remained \u201cmoderate\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, most far-right agitators making threats or trying to incite violence via social media had neither the intent nor capability of following though, despite a lot of \u201ctalk in the media\u201d about the supposed threat they posed.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin also believed access to Leinster House may need to be reviewed after it emerged a man linked in recent days to an alleged violent far-right extremist group alleged planning a terrorist campaign had gained access by being signed in twice in July.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach and Mr Kelly were speaking, alongside Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a>, at a passing out ceremony for 194 new garda\u00ed at the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary. <\/p>\n

They made their remarks in the wake of high-profile cases of far-right violence and alleged conspiracies in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Last week it was alleged in court a violent far-right group, the Irish Defence Army (IDA), was conspiring to attack Galway Mosque to bring about its destruction. <\/p>\n

It was alleged that was to be its first attack in a terrorist campaign against migrants. A Garda intervention in Co Laois the week before last resulted in three arrests. <\/p>\n

One of the men detained, and whose house was searched as part of the antiterrorism inquiry led by the Garda special detective unit, is the partner of a now-expelled Sinn F\u00e9in member based in Co Laois.<\/p>\n

The man and his partner were signed in on July 16th by Senator Maria McCormack for a D\u00e1il healthcare debate, the party has said. The next day a staff member in Ms McCormack\u2019s office signed them in, at her request, on the day of a housing protest outside the D\u00e1il, it also said.<\/p>\n

Regarding the far right, Mr Martin said: \u201cThis is very serious. You\u2019re talking about an organisation, you\u2019re talking about an organised approach to inflict violence on people.\u201d <\/p>\n

He noted the recent attack in Drogheda, Co Louth, where the staircase in an Ipas centre was set alight, trapping a number of residents, including children and a newborn baby. <\/p>\n

There were also recent \u201cattempts\u201d to engage in violence at other Ipas centres, including the recent rioting at Citywest, Saggart, Co Dublin. He was also aware of threats made against other people and their families. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis now is very strong basis for indicating that this has moved on from individuals, or a general sort of narrative, to an organised attempt to undermine the State and society,\u201d Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan said he shared the concerns of the Taoiseach and Garda Commissioner about the threat posed by the far right. However, garda\u00ed had made considerable progress in investigations into recent crimes linked to the far right.<\/p>\n

This included arresting and charging suspects for the Citywest Ipas centre riots last month, the suspected Drogheda Ipas centre arson attack, also in October, and the alleged conspiracy to engage in a far-right campaign of violent attacks, commencing with a Galway mosque.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The far right in Ireland has become more organised, the Taoiseach and Garda Commissioner have warned. Miche\u00e1l Martin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,23882,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-140710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-leinster-house","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}