While the Irish far-right movement was small it borrows from the MAGA movement in the United States or ‘Raise Your Colours’ in the UK.
David Gilbert, Reporter at WIRED told The Hard Shoulder there was no doubt that the Irish flag has been co-opted by the Irish far-right movement.
Former World Health Organisation Executive Director Dr Mike Ryan says the Irish flag has been “hijacked” by what he describes as a very toxic form of nationalism…
Ciara Kelly is joined by David Gilbert, Reporter at WIRED who covers disinformation and online extremism to discuss.
“We've seen over the course of the last two or three years the Irish far right movement have co-opted the flagpole online digitally in their avatars”, WIRED reporter David Gilbert said.
“Offline in their marches to kind of come to represent this anti-immigrant symbol and they are claiming that anyone who is waving the flag is a patriot, anyone who isn't is not a patriot.
“They're definitely using it to mark their territory and identify themselves both online and offline.”
He mentioned that while the Irish far-right movement was small it borrows from the MAGA movement in the United States or ‘Raise Your Colours’ in the UK.
Dublin Irish Leinster Ireland. Day Five of the fuel crisis. Photo: © RollingNews.ie“The MAGA movement is very identifiable with the Stars and Stripes, and in the UK we saw the Raise Your Colours campaign last year where Far-Right leader Tommy Robinson promoted this campaign to put St George's Cross as the Union Jacks around immigrant communities around the UK to intimidate them.
“That’s exactly what we're seeing here in Ireland because everything that the Irish far-right movement does is something that's already happened elsewhere in the world.”
How the Irish flag has been co-opted by the Irish far-right movement
Mr Gilbert explained that the concerning element was found in the strong online presence of the Irish far-right movement.
“When you look online and they have a way bigger presence online than they should have”, he explained on The Hard Shoulder.
The presence, he explained, is bolstered by algorithms and monetised content.
“You see figures like Elon Musk and Steve Bannon in the US who are engaging with these figures in Ireland and amplifying and finding them even further and therefore they have this kind of outsized influence online.
“They have a power there to attract more and more people, especially a younger audience that they don’t have offline.
“That's something that needs to be monitored and that we have to keep an eye on who's promoting these accounts.”
The Hope and Courage Collective produced a report with data suggesting that there is an increasing number of Irish people who believe that and agree that immigrants contribute positively to Irish culture.
Pictured the Muslim Sisters of Éire. Picture by: Sam Boal. Similarly, the reports revealed an increase in the amount of people who believe that working class people are struggling due to systemic inequality and of people who believe wealthy people are successful because they are given more opportunities than others.
The report finally found an increasing number of people who believe that black asian and minority ethnic communities face greater barriers.
Dr Ryan emphasized the importance of vigilance for fascists and hate speech as their rhetoric is growing “increasingly dangerous.”
He also noted that the content was deliberately being pushed to be “more extreme”.
Main Image: Protesters. PA Wire/PA Images
