Boys sucked into violent online networks and carrying out far-right attacks

Defence Forces chaplain Fr Paul Murphy was stabbed by a 16-year-old boy in Galway last year. File Picture: PA

Young men and boys with personal struggles, who are socially isolated and who have a “persistent interest in weapons” are getting sucked into extremist online communities and carrying out far-right attacks, an EU report has said.

European police said these young people were typically not targeting specific groups in their attacks but “society in general”, which they see as “oppressive or unresponsive to their needs”.