Ireland’s first Islamist-inspired knife attack raises urgent questions about extremist threats

Ireland faces a reckoning on youth radicalisation, after a brutal knife attack exposes gaps in counter-terror strategy

Fr Paul Murphy leaves the Criminal Courts of Justice on Tuesday. Picture: Collins Courts

Even with the sentencing this week of a juvenile for an Islamist-motivated attack, Garda inquiries in the case are still not finished.

While the court heard about jihadist material that the now 17-year-old had consumed online and downloaded on his digital devices, one piece of the jigsaw in explaining why he carried out such a horrific attack remains missing.

When he was arrested after the savage assault on military chaplain Fr Paul Murphy, at Renmore Barracks in Galway City, on August 15, 2024, the teenager had a mobile phone on him.

The Central Criminal Court was told that the teenager refused to give gardaí access to his phone.

The detectives at Galway City Garda Station who led the prosecution were assisted in their investigations by the special detective unit — the force’s dedicated anti-terrorism bureau.

However, neither were able to break into the phone. It was a problem that has bedevilled other police services, including the FBI.

“We don’t have a full picture,” one source familiar with the matter told the Irish Examiner.

“It might give a better idea of how he was radicalised and how he planned the attack. But a big unknown is: Was he in contact with anyone who might have been guiding him?”

Even if that isn’t the case, it is possible the phone might reveal communication with other like-minded people who could conduct similar violence — including in Ireland.

The teenager went on to plead guilty to the charge of the attempted murder of Fr Murphy. But still gardaí could not access the phone.

The Irish Examiner understands gardaí are continuing their efforts to access the phone, with some suggestions that it may be a matter of time.

The attack on Fr Murphy shows that considerable planning went into it, and it reveals the incredible determination on the part of the teenager to sustain a stabbing onslaught.

Considerable planning went into the teen's attack on Fr Paul Murphy. Picture: Collins Courts

The teenager, then 16, cycled across the city that night, locking his bike down a side road, before walking up towards the barracks.

At this stage, he had strapped a long scabbard inside his tracksuit trousers. It held an eight-inch serrated hunting knife, which he had ordered online.

“The boy planned it, he parked his bike, walked up, and waited — he had plenty of time to pull out of it,” a source said. “But he didn’t.”

When Fr Murphy, dressed in civilian clothes, drove up to the gate, the boy approached the driver window and asked politely to speak to him.

Fr Murphy pulled his window about halfway and, immediately, the boy lunged at him and started stabbing.

In his victim impact statement, Fr Murphy said if he had fully opened his window he “would be dead”.

A combination of the car being an automatic and a flimsy gate saved him, and the jeep drove slowly through.

The teenager hung on to the car and continued stabbing. CCTV footage showed him. again and again, raising his arm high and driving it down.

One of his blows struck the top of the car with such force that the tip of the knife went through the roof.

Armed soldiers responded, calling on him to stop, and firing a total of five warning shots, before eventually tackling him to the ground.

Fr Murphy suffered seven deep wounds to both his arms, but luckily none to his neck or heart.

Fr Paul Murphy suffered seven deep wounds to both his arms. Picture: Collins Courts

The attack lasted almost 90 seconds, over a distance of more than 20m.

The judge described as “disturbing” the persistence of the teenager.

He told gardaí his attack was “in protest” at the work of the Defence Forces in Mali, West Africa, and “all the stuff in Islam”.

The court heard that, when they searched his bedroom, they found an Islamic State flag and sketches of graphic beheadings in a notebook.

These, and an examination of his devices seized in the bedroom and his posts on various social media platforms, all formed a picture of a “radicalised Islamist mindset”.

The court heard that the teenager had “undiagnosed” autism at the time, with his defence barrister Sean Gillane SC citing its “rigidity of thinking, fixated thinking, and impulsive actions”. He said this did not excuse his actions.

The teenager had converted to Islam aged 15. He was also struggling to deal with the break-up of his parents’s marriage, had found school “difficult”, and was “isolated”.

Mr Gillane said the teenager sought refuge online in a radical community, with a “poisonous belief system”.

Security sources have told the Irish Examiner there have been warnings about the possibility of such an attack in Ireland for years.

“This was flagged for long enough; it was inevitable it was going to happen,” one source said.

It [this case] should be a wake-up call for a whole-of-government response to radicalisation — from political extremism to religiously-inspired terrorism.

Inquiries reveal that while this is the first documented, publicly known incident of an Islamist-inspired attack in Ireland — there are others.

A second involves a murder, but is currently before the courts. In addition, there was a stabbing in Belfast last month.

A man was attacked by an 18-year-old in a case the PSNI said is a possible terrorist incident. Gardaí are assisting the PSNI with their inquiries as the teenager lived in Dublin for more than a year.

Specialist detectives are trying to piece together details of his activities and associates in Ireland.

Extremist websites

In his sentencing, the judge raised the issue of the danger that violent and extremist websites pose to young people.

The judge warned of “enormous consequences” if this is not addressed.

Ciarán O’Connor, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said online radicalisation content and extremist networks were “designed to recruit vulnerable young people”.

He said these were often young people who may be “socially isolated, angry, and searching for their own identity”.

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He said: “Online platforms, networks, and chats can offer people a sense of community and create pathways from disaffection or resentment into ideological echo chambers — where radicalisation takes place, extreme ideas are the norm, and violence is glorified and encouraged.

Extremist movements have been grooming young people like this online for years, be it Islamist or far right.

Former Defence Forces officer and security analyst Declan Power said the Fr Murphy case showed how a combination of “mental health issues mixed with an irrational and radical reaction” to events can be fatal.

He urged the State to take action and learn from other countries.

“Radicalisation is not the preserve of Islamists. The Government should learn the lessons, good and bad, from our neighbours and partners. An ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure.

“A fusion approach to training and information-sharing between education, health, and law enforcement professionals on the ground can be a step towards better protecting our society from the catastrophe of a combination of untreated mental health issues and unchallenged radical disinformation.”

Britain’s counter-terrorism strategy, Contest, was established in 2003 and a fourth iteration of it was produced last July.

This includes its Prevent strategy, which works with frontline professionals — such as teachers, healthcare and social workers, police, community leaders, charities, psychologists, and religious groups — to identify and assist young people susceptible to radicalisation.

Ireland has no such strategy.

“This incident, and other instances of violent extremism documented over the last few years, certainly raise questions over whether Ireland’s counterterrorism and wider security infrastructure is sufficiently resourced to respond to such threats,” Mr O’Connor said.

“This is especially the case as we are now in an era of largely post-organisational extremism where, more and more, people become self-radicalised through a mix of factors like online networks, violent material, and disinformation, outside of formal group structures.”