"Political bravery" is required to "fill a vacuum" that the far right is currently exploiting in Ireland, according to the coordinator of the Hope and Courage Collective.
The Hope and Courage Collective, previously the Far Right Observatory, is a national civil society organisation "that works with community groups, advocacy groups, trade unions, activists and academics to stop hate organising in our communities and workplaces".
The group works to "support communities and civil society to stay grounded, caring and resilient in the face of far right hate, bigotry and extremism".
The growth of the far right in Ireland has been ongoing for some time, and was significantly accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The violent demonstration outside Leinster House recently, which included numerous groups including far right agitators, brought the issue into the spotlight again.
Niamh McDonald, coordinator of the Hope and Courage Collective, told BreakingNews.ie that it was just the latest example of "mobilisations towards intimidation and violence" towards marginalised groups in society, such as LGBTQ people and asylum seekers.
This has been seen in far right involvement in protests at buildings housing asylum seekers, and library demonstrations.
"They're using things like books in libraries and sex education as smoke and mirrors, but this is exactly what it is about. These are direct attacks on different parts of our communities," Ms McDonald explained.
She said the Hope and Courage Collective has been speaking with Government ministers and decision makers about how these events can be prevented, with social media being one of the biggest areas of concern.
"One of the key ways is to look at the role social media plays in accelerating hate and extremism across Irish society. Effectively, they have a big hate mega phone that they can shout from and reach so many people.
"We have a higher reporting status with all the social media companies, and Twitter, now X, there is no engagement whatsoever. We can see now a lot of Neo-Nazis and fascists, internationally and in Ireland, are allowed back onto that site. There is no moderation at all."
She said Facebook is frustrating to deal with, as they frequently claim videos promoting hate and violence do not violate their 'community standards'.
Ireland has been chosen as the hub of the new European Digital Services Act, which will look at addressing the issue of hate speech on social media.
Ms McDonald said the Government has a responsibility to take the lead on this by speaking directly with social media companies, as many have headquarters in Dublin.
She said this is vital to combat the "lies and disinformation on social media and the hate that's being spread".
"From November 2022, there were particular terms and statements trending constantly online. This ended up on the front page of papers, and it felt like what they were saying was a reality. The more you invoke something, the more real it becomes."
Ms McDonald said political leaders need to try and fill the "vacuum that is currently being filled with hate, disinformation and misinformation" in communities.
She explained that the Hope and Courage Collective tries to do this by engaging with leaders in communities, providing them with information and resources to help counter far right agitators.
"Bad actors can see this is happening and fill that void with antisemitism, conspiracy theories, white supremacy, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. It can be filled very quickly, and it becomes toxic extraordinarily quickly.
"We need really brave political leadership right now, to stand up and say 'this is what's happening in our communities, this is what we're going to do', and we need politicians to take hold of that, that will stop the void that is out there. It's about having respect for communities, understanding where they are coming from, and listening.
"At the Hope and Courage Collective, we go in and support a community response. We support people to use a de-escalation and engagement tactic, listen to their needs, it normally brings the temperature right down and conversations can happen.
"There is a strategy in place. It's also about the narrative, how do we talk about things? The far right are very quick at taking control of the narrative."
She added: "From our perspective, it's important we have a race, gender, class inclusive narrative, that you take control of the narrative very quickly. That can guide you and you don't lose control of the situation.
"What the far right's key point is, is to use the emotions of fear, that your community is 'going to be a dangerous place, resources are going to be taken away'. They generate this sense of fear, that everything is going and slipping away from you, they are very adept at using those messages.
"It is important that communities are able to tell their stories. It's normally a tiny majority speaking on behalf of the whole community. In the majority of situations, the community doesn't understand how to respond or what's happening.
"What we do is come in, try to support community leaders, get in ahead of time and help build an inclusive narrative that speaks for everybody in the community so that everyone can get behind it and still have those difficult conversations about what communities need, not to avoid it."
Election cycle
Ms McDonald said the group is "very worried" about the cycle of elections coming up. There are local and European elections in Ireland in 2024, with the next general election to take place no later than March 2025. However, there is a lot of speculation that it will be called early.
Unlike many other countries, far right political parties have never had electoral success in Ireland. While Ms McDonald does not foresee this changing in the upcoming elections, she said it does not take success at the polls for politics to shift in a far right direction.
She cited the Overton Window. In political science, this is defined as an approach to identifying the ideas that define the spectrum of acceptability of governmental policies. It says politicians can act only within the acceptable range. Shifting the Overton window involves proponents of policies outside the window persuading the public to expand the window.
"We're very worried about the cycle of elections coming up. Look at England, Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party didn't have to get elected to invoke and change policies in the UK.
"To shift the Overton Window, that's kind of what's acceptable in politics. I think underestimating it would be very silly. There was an Irish exceptionalism to the far right, but if you go back decades, we had a very dogmatic Catholic Church that controlled laws. The far right didn't have a space to come in.
"With the growth of the far right internationally now, we can see there is no Irish exceptionalism. This will happen here. Politicians need to be very brave and hold the line in the face of the far right coming into these local elections, to push for more progressive policies. The reduction of inequality and the growth of equity will reduce the impact and growth of the far right.
"Appeasing or chasing the far right will only embolden them to keep coming forward. We can see that with the Tory Party in the UK, the more they appease the far right, before you know it, they have similar policies to the National Front, which was an openly fascist party in the UK in the 70s. That's not what we want here."
Ireland has a massive opportunity compared to the rest of Europe not to let this happen.
She said the Hope and Courage Collective is willing to "support political parties to understand how to respond to this in elections".
"How not to get baited. The far right bait you into reactionary positions, they bait you into reducing progressive policies. How do we stop that?
"Ireland has a massive opportunity compared to the rest of Europe not to let this happen.
"I don't think the far right will get anything in the next elections, but there is a growth happening. They could change the Overton Window of the election, you could have established parties or Independents moving towards the far right, so they could have an impact either way
"It's about brave political leadership in parties, and people in parties not accepting or tolerating it within their parties and communities. If we have that leadership, people will follow."
She cited the stance Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin took on the sex education bill introduced last year as an example of how to show leadership on issues that the far right target.
"They came out and said 'this is happening and going through'. They both made strong and progressive statements, there was nowhere to go at that moment in time for the far right.
"With that political leadership, the news cycle moved on. When it comes to asylum, when there is rowing back on policies, the far right are emboldened and push for more.
"We want our democracy to represent everyone who lives in this country. The far right don't want that, so there's an onus on political parties to be brave."
