Elaine Loughlin: People are starting to take Mattie McGrath more seriously

The Independent TD's more unorthodox leanings may have been met with an eye-roll and a snigger, but observers of the rise of the far right realise he can no longer be dismissed, writes Elaine Loughlin

Independent TD Mattie McGrath speaking to protesters at a rally in Roscrea, Co Tipperary. Feeding into an ‘Ireland is full’ narrative, McGrath told the rally: ‘We’re trying to be colonised here again.’ Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Mattie McGrath is a man who has always come at politics from a different angle but he has now taken a dramatic swerve to the right.

Increasingly out-there rhetoric on everything from vaccines to covid and the World Economic Forum (WEF) have all raised eyebrows, but his recent comments which equated the arrival of asylum seekers to a new wave of “colonisation” have sparked sharp criticism and raised concerns both inside and outside the Dáil.