Irish right-wing extremists prepare for violence – The Irish Times

Last month, a group of right-wing extremists from Ireland, the United States and continental Europe gathered online for a three-hour debate on how to stop immigration to Ireland, by force or otherwise.

These virtual meetings have become an almost daily ritual for this diverse group. Sometimes the meetings attract dozens of attendees, but the conversation is often dominated by a handful of voices.

One of those voices is that of the organizer of the meetings, a man from Tipperary in his 20s. During the meeting on June 18, he issued a dark warning to the others.

“It will be a power struggle,” he said. “We will simply have to defeat them. We are rapidly running out of time.”

The conversation revolved around a familiar theme: the justification for using violence to curb immigration. The Tipperary man made his point clear: “We need a bit of acceleration. They are playing with forces they don’t even understand.”

One of the Americans recalled an article he had read about people burying pigs in a place in Europe to prevent a mosque from being built there. He wondered if something similar could work in asylum-seeker shelters in Ireland.

The Tipperary man was enthusiastic. “It’s a great idea,” he said before suggesting putting pig’s blood in water guns and “squirting it in their faces.”

The following week, two pigs were found at Thornton Hall, a Dublin facility intended to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers. The pigs had been stabbed, but were still alive and had to be put down.

The Tipperary man, who says he identifies as “a bit of a National Socialist”, has taken part in protests outside accommodation centres.

No evidence has emerged linking him to the Thornton Hall incident. However, his rhetoric is part of a growing trend among far-right extremists in Ireland to shun electoral politics and make loud calls for physical confrontation or violence.

The Tipperary man, and others like him, can be remarkably frank about their intentions. “I don’t know how many virgins are going to be waiting, but I’ll be happy to help them get there if they want,” he told the meeting, which was made public, referring to Muslim migrants.

There are limits, however. During another meeting, he chides other attendees for speaking openly about gun use in an open forum. “Surely you are not that stupid.”

Another recently formed group that focuses on physical confrontation is Comhaltas na nGaedheal (CnG). Formed last year, the group is part of a growing international network of so-called “active clubs.”

Founded by Robert Rundo, a violent neo-Nazi from the United States, the Active Club network has cells across the United States and Europe. Rundo, who is currently in custody in the United States on federal charges of conspiracy and rioting, intended these Active Clubs to be a network of decentralized cells, meaning they would persevere even if their leaders were arrested.

The movement, sometimes referred to as White Nationalism 3.0, evolved directly from Rundo’s previous organization, the Rise Above Movement, which has been described as a kind of neo-Nazi “fight club.”

Like its predecessor, the Active Club movement combines far-right positions with a focus on masculinity and physical fitness, particularly mixed martial arts. This is evidenced by CnG’s social media posts.

The group frequently posts photographs of its members training in combat sports. Great care is taken to blur faces and other identifying marks. In some cases, even participants’ shoes are blurred to conceal their identities.

Members of the group have taken part in several anti-immigration protests, including the one in Coolock last March. However, they have a deep disdain for many of their fellow anti-immigration activists, such as Gavin Pepper and Hermann Kelly, whom they regard as moderates.

CnG doesn’t just want a dramatic reduction in immigration, it wants mass deportations, according to an associate of the group who spoke to The Irish Times.

“Are you going to give up and die, Gaelic man?” reads one message calling for members. “Nationalism is only as credible as the men who talk about it. If you can’t fight, learn,” says another. In another message, a member compares the CnG to the IRA of the 1920s and the Troubles.

It maintains close ties with other clubs active in the United States and Europe. Last year, members of Junge Tat, a club from German-speaking Switzerland, visited CnG members and attended an anti-immigration protest in East Wall.

Members of Active Club Scotland have also visited the group on at least one occasion.

“Through its online posts featuring content that champions whiteness and demeans multiculturalism and its offline activities that include hiking, training and combat/MMA work, it is clear that Comhaltas na nGaedheal sees itself as a follower of active club tradition,” says Ciaran O’Connor, a senior analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a counter-extremism organisation.

The goal of the active clubs is to attract disillusioned young people who spend too much time online and have few social activities. “They need to get off the Internet. They need to hike, lift weights and work out,” CnG told prospective members shortly after their creation.

This call to angry keyboard warriors has yielded surprising results around the world. Extremism researchers have been baffled by the growth of the active club movement. According to a recent report by the Counter Extremism Project, since its creation in 2021, the network has grown to 104 known cells around the world.

Until recently, the Irish cell had strong links to Justin Barrett, the controversial leader of the far-right National Party. According to sources, Barrett intended to use the CnG as a uniformed protection squad for the National Party.

These plans did not sit well with other National Party leaders, who saw growing concerns about immigration as an opportunity to appeal to traditional voters. Uniformed protection squads were unlikely to help the party shed its extremist image. Barrett was forced to resign, although he still claims to be National Party leader, and his association with the CnG came to an end.

Instead, he turned his attention to creating another group, called Clann Éireann. “Disengagement has failed! Democracy has failed! We will no longer negotiate our existence with our uncompromising enemies, nor accept the rules they use to bind us,” Barrett wrote on the new group’s website last year, while stressing that Clann Éireann was “in no way a political party.”

At the same time, Clann Éireann members began plastering lampposts across Dublin with stickers depicting a masked paramilitary and the Clann Éireann logo in the shape of a swastika, while Barrett began openly praising Hitler and wearing military-style uniforms.

Barrett did not respond to requests for comment, but expanded on her new group last month in a recent interview with the podcast of the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM), a large Swedish neo-Nazi organization that has carried out violent attacks against politicians and journalists.

The U.S. State Department recently designated the NRM as a terrorist organization, citing its efforts to acquire weapons and explosives and its involvement in hand-to-hand combat training.

Barrett told his interviewer that Clann Éireann is intended to be an “ideological vanguard” to spread “social and national ideas.” It will include a “uniformed security wing” called Sciath Náisiúnta to protect its members “from violent attacks by the Reds,” he said.

“In terms of violence, in terms of self-defense, we will do whatever is necessary. But we are certainly not going to depend on the police.”

Garda members tasked with monitoring extremist activity are familiar with both CnG and Clann Éireann but believe they currently pose little threat and remain small in membership.

Barrett’s organization has fewer than 20 members, including his wife, according to a source.

A security source said that the less organised groups that have been increasingly attacking migrants in recent months are a source of much greater concern for authorities. “These are people who are not members of a party or group, but who could share information and plans. They do not have a concrete ideology, except that they hate foreigners and want to harm them.”

In particular, guards are concerned about the growing number of violent attacks against asylum seekers that are filmed and uploaded to social media, before being shared in the far-right online ecosystem.

Nearly a dozen such videos have gone viral in recent months. In most cases, the images were accompanied by claims that the victim of the assault had been caught committing some kind of crime, usually involving a supposed threat to children. “In most, if not all, cases, there was absolutely nothing to support that they were a threat to anyone, including children,” a senior police official said.

The severe shortage of accommodation for asylum seekers has also created a new danger: makeshift camps created by homeless asylum seekers have become frequent targets of attack or intimidation.

On Tuesday, as guards attempted to quell anti-immigrant violence in Coolock, a group of asylum seekers who had set up tents in Phibsborough were attacked by masked men, including one brandishing a hurley.

Police officers moved the attackers to other locations and the asylum seekers were moved to other locations. On Wednesday, some of them had set up a camp at City Quay in the city centre.

That night, a group of men armed with knives and iron bars attacked the camp. Tents were slashed and thrown into the water, and the occupants were forced to flee to Pearse Street Police Station for safety.

Police say they are investigating the matter as a case of criminal damage. No arrests have been made.

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