Colm O'Regan: When it comes to fascists, 'over there' is now too close for comfort

Dublin, Ireland. Photo shows members of the Irish far right protesting outside Leinster House today. Protestors claim they will camp out overnight, as Gardai have closed multiple streets in the area. Photograph: Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie

I’ve spent a lifetime watching bad news. And most of the time it’s been Over There. Somewhere else. But more and more, the awkward little question arises: Could “it” happen here?

The latest “it” is a US TV show being taken off the air because the parent company is afraid of the government not renewing its license.

Of course, comedians have been taken off the air for years in Ireland. But usually it’s not because of fear of the Government.

Just fear of Liveline or the High Court or because the broadcaster promised to replace it with something and forgot, or because it was cheaper to buy in CSI: Miami or they did make something but because the first series wasn’t well-received, they didn’t want to spend time and money making it better and it was easier to just put on The Good Wife.

Or they give it a go, put the wrong thing on at the wrong time and then draw the wrong conclusion.

Remember when they put one salty Waterford Whispers sketch on a family-friendly New Year’s Eve show? 

Then it got complaints and RTÉ pretty much never booked Waterford Whispers again. Even though it’s probably Ireland’s most successful satire. 

A bit like not hiring an electrician because you didn’t like their carpentry. 

But I’ve never really felt any sense that the Government was “threatening” because of jokes. 

So in Ireland, as comedians, we don’t really fear that the Government will pressure the public TV service to clamp down on our work because we never believe the work is going to last anyway.

These are just things that happen Over There. 

For my whole life, I’ve been looking at what’s happening Over There. Over There is where there are earthquakes, civil wars, coups, invasions by hostile neighbours, interference by superpowers under the pretence of liberation, elections where the beloved president wins 97% of the vote, secret prisons, crocodiles, that sort of thing.

All that stuff was Over There stuff. 

Yes, it’s a completely patronising take. Bad news reduces Over There to headlines and doesn’t tell us about the real people who live there. 

(And of course, some of these things happened Up There, the North of Ireland, which we ignored as well. It’s so comfy Down Here.)

But, there is very much a sense that what was once Over There is now a bit nearer. 

Things that used to be unthinkable now need to be planned for. We always had governments in America that sneakily silenced opponents, but now they boast about it. 

We always had American governments that sneakily threatened Over There countries, but now they threaten Denmark.

And if things keep going the way they are, we’ll have a Trump mini-me in the UK in about four years time. 

Probably the worst start to any UK government in history could be replaced by Reform. France and Germany might have similar rulers. And the chats around the diplomatic tables have a different direction.

We’ve often congratulated ourselves that our political system is set up so that coalition and compromise is inevitable. 

The good thing about that is nothing ever changes and the bad thing about that is that nothing ever changes. But how long before we get O’Trump? But younger and more plausible. 

Who gently drags the conversation off so that what was once mad is now “ah what harm shur?”

Our fascist types so far here have been nutters or incompetents or both. Often divided. But that won’t last. There will come someone who is smarter, funnier, more charismatic and reasonable. Some JD Vance with a warchest of money from abroad.

People who used to run independent TV in Russia look at America now and say, “I’ve seen this before”.

Know the signs. If we ignore them, we could see “this” again. Here.