Far-right agitators forge links with terror groups and neo-Nazis
Entrance North The In To Belfast Estate Near A Warning Painted Was Rathcoole Grafitti A Belfast Photopress On Wall Housing Picture: The
Irish anti-immigration agitators collaborated with groups now deemed international terrorist organisations and prominent neo-Nazis in transnational movements that may be funnelling increasing money to Ireland's far-right.
News of the collaboration comes amid growing fears in Government over the rise of the far-right agitators in orchestrating anti-migrant protests and links with riots elsewhere. Taoiseach Simon Harris has condemned the use of the Tricolour amid violent scenes in the North, as police in Britain have struggled to quell rioting dominated by far-right groups.
Justin Barrett, who ran in the recent European elections and was a founder of the ethno nationalist National Party, spoke on the Nordic Resistance Movement’s (NRM) podcast, an organisation designated as a terrorist group by the US State Department in June.
“NRM’s violent activity is based on its openly racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, anti-LGBTQI+ platform," the US State Department said.
“The group’s members and leaders have carried out violent attacks against political opponents, protesters, journalists, and other perceived adversaries."
Mark Malone, a researcher with the Hope and Courage Collective — formerly the Far Right Observatory — said the Nordic Resistance Movement is a transnational group that brings together Nazi activists from Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Finland.
“Justin Barrett appeared in the podcast , the English language podcast of the Nordic Resistance Movement the week before the US state department announced that [the movement] was going to be categorized as specially designated global terrorists,” he said.
Recently, the broke the news that a former Ku Klux Klan leader in the US was advising Irish far-right activists online about strategies for anti-immigration protests.
Homegrown far-right agitators are a more immediate domestic concern than high-profile foreign neo-Nazi agents, Mr Malone said.
However, solidifying transnational relationships now may secure transnational funding streams for the far-right in Ireland in the near future, he added.
Irish far-right online influencer Keith Woods (the online pseudonym of Roscommon man Keith O’Brien) has collaborated on podcasts with British ethno-nationalist Mark Collett of Britain’s far-right Patriotic Alternative (PA).
Patriotic Alternative supporters were reportedly at some of the violent rallies across Britain, in which a hotel housing asylum seekers was set on fire, police were hospitalised, businesses were looted, and vehicles were set on fire following misinformation spread online about the identity of a 17-year-old charged with the murder of three young girls stabbed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.
Links between Irish activists and the British far-right have been established for years, Mr Malone said.
Direct connections are now being forged between recognised British far-right thought leaders and smaller Irish "influencers".
Gavin Lowbridge, of OffGrid Ireland, had “several neo-Nazis on his channel,” Mr Malone said.
These have included Australian Joel Davis, widely labelled an antisemite and neo-Nazi and "Raw Egg Nationalist", Mr Malone said.
“They’re significant in the international scene and we found it surprising that people relatively down the far-right food chain here are in contact with them and interviewing them on their channels,” Mr Malone said.
In response to a query from the Mr Lowbridge said: "Our podcast is committed to being a platform for free speech, where we welcome individuals from all walks of life to share their views and perspectives."
"At Offgrid Ireland, we believe that fostering open and inclusive discussions is essential for understanding and growth."
Links between the far-right in Ireland and the US are now also well established, Mr Malone said.
“Keith Woods would have extensive links in the US white supremacist and Nazi-adjacent terrain," Mr Malone said.
He was recently a guest at the American Renaissance Conference, at which other guests included former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, Mr Malone said.
Flags do not matter as much as white skin in the transnational white nationalist movement, in which skin colour denotes brotherhood, he added.
Transnational funding streams into this burgeoning Irish far-right movement may have grown from international funding of the anti-abortion movement in Ireland, Mr Malone said.
Mr Barrett, who was born in Cork but raised in Tipperary, was an active member of anti-abortion trad-Catholic Youth Defence — which had US funding — Mr Malone said.
“And even though he's based in Ireland, he also has an international audience. It's unlikely he was raising €25,000 from white supremacists in Ireland, there just are not that many people.”
A Media Matters report found that Mr Woods was making hundreds of thousands of euros through monetised online content, with platforms like YouTube allowing him to stream content and permitting advertising on his channel. Following the publication of the Media Matters study, YouTube tightened control of his channel.
That drive to make money from online content may also be pushing content to become more extreme, Mr Malone said.
“Often there's a financial incentive for influencers to be churning out content. And in this competing space, what we've seen is most content getting increasingly radicalized and moving even further to the right — to the extremes.”
Ireland must update its image of how it recognises neo-Nazis, who often no longer resemble the muscle-bound, short-haired, heavy-booted men of the 1930s and 1980s, Mr Malone said.
A very structural attempt has been made to look different from that old stereotype, cleaning up the exterior image with people now often wearing suits, he said.
Their strategy has changed from a "red pill" view where people were concerned about optics and would be slow to express racist, xenophobic positions unless they suspected they were talking to people who agreed with their views, he said, adding that the current lack of online regulation has allowed these activists to share their racist opinions openly and bring whomever along with them who chooses to join.
"Very often they are people in suits who try to appeal in quite articulate ways," Mr Malone said.
As arson attacks and violence continue at sites earmarked for refugee accommodation, what's important now is that those with racists views are separated from people with other concerns about their communities, Mr Malone said.
"It's really important that those on the extremes are absolutely isolated from the conversation. There's no legitimacy for neo-Nazis being involved in conversations about who gets to live or not in our communities," he said.
Justin Barrett and Keith Woods were contacted for comment.