State warned it must tackle far-right 'threat'

An online petition by ultra-Catholic group Síol na hÉireann calling for a planned Muslim religious ceremony at Croke Park to be stopped was signed 23,515 times. Picture: Mark Stedman

The State must take immediate action to address the “growing threat” from the far right in Ireland, according to a European report on Islamophobia.

The report highlights the linkages between prominent far-right activists in Ireland and counterparts in Europe.

The chapter on Ireland in the European Islamophobia Report was written by James Carr, a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at University of Limerick and author on the subject.

The chapter criticised the lack of data in Ireland on Islamophobia but did cite figures of “otherwise unavailable official data” released by Irish authorities via the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ‘Hate Crime Reporting Database’.

It said these figures indicate there were nine reports of crimes with a "bias against Muslims" in 2019, while non-official figures published in the database showed there were 23 anti-Muslim crimes.

It said the reporting of data in Ireland needed to improve and that trust “must be built” with Muslim communities by State institutions to encourage reporting and assure people the reports will be taken seriously.

The report estimates that 30 candidates in the last general election, in February 2020, espoused “far-right positions”, including an anti-immigration stance.

These parties included candidates from the National Party and the Irish Freedom Party, with the latter running people in 21 locations.

The report noted they all “performed dismally”, receiving no more than 2% in any of the constituencies.

The author refers to the Europol’s terrorism report of 2020, which said “known criminal elements” were affiliated with right-wing groups in Ireland and that several high-profile right-wing extremist online figures in Ireland ask for online donations.

Europol said far-right activities in Ireland included “incidents associated with anti-immigrant ideology, including arson attacks on immigrant housing facilities and a vehicle”.

Mr Carr said right-wing groups have tried to exploit the pandemic as a recruitment platform.

He notes that an ultra-Catholic group, Síol na hÉireann, had a colour party at one of the larger anti-mask and anti-lockdown protests and that it had links with far-right groups in Britain.

He said an online petition by Síol na hÉireann calling for a planned Muslim religious ceremony at Croke Park to be stopped was signed 23,515 times.

The author said about 60 people protested at the event and that Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had his car attacked.

In his recommendations, Mr Carr said: 

• State institutions must take immediate action to address the growing threat from the far-right in Ireland; 
• Hate crime legislation must be introduced in Ireland and revised hate speech legislation must be enacted as soon as possible; the latter must incorporate online communication.