You know, sometimes, in the midst of the immense amount of eye-rolling sensible people do about the Irish media’s comedic over-use of the term “far right”, we might be inclined to forget that some people do, in fact, meet that description. It’s worth mentioning that because of the following paragraph in Conor Gallagher’s otherwise perplexing lead story in the Irish Times yesterday, in which he reports that a veteran member of the Ku Klux Klan is “mentoring” the Irish far right. Gallagher does, in fairness, establish that there are some in Ireland who fit that description:
Butler (26) of Brown Street, Portlaw, Co Waterford, who has a conviction for manslaughter, regularly discusses his far-right views during the online meetings. In recent meetings, he has described himself as “a bit of a National Socialist” and has discussed the possibility of burying dead pigs on the grounds of proposed sites of international protection centres to deter Muslim asylum seekers. “I absolutely despise the Jews, man,” he said in another meeting.
It’s fair, I think, to note that if you’re a convicted killer who describes yourself as a bit of a national socialist, talk about how much you despise the jews, and plan to deter muslims by burying dead pigs near their tents, it might be a bit much to object to being described as “far right”.
At the same time, it might be noted, there are a great number of people in Ireland concerned about immigration who do not spend their days thinking about the badness of jews or plotting strategic porcine murder sprees who nevertheless get tagged with these views by journalists often unable and more often unwilling to see the difference between “I don’t think we can cope with this level of immigration” and “what we need is racial purity”.
Anyway, the Irish Times is less concerned about our resident antisemites and more concerned, per Gallagher, about the prospect that they are bringing in the Ku Klux Klan to advise them.
The first thing to say about this, of course, is that if one wanted to bring in external advisors to aid one in building a successful organisation, one would not initially think of the Klan as the model of where one wanted to end up. Outside a brief period in the middle part of the century when membership attracted some of great southern white gentlemen and was not entirely dissimilar to joining a modern country club, the Klan has been a standing joke in terms of its effectiveness for decades. Being advised on how to build a movement by the Ku Klux Klan is up there with being advised on how to quickly recover from illness by Dee Forbes.
That, of course, should give us pause: Is there really a Klansman “mentoring” the Irish Far Right, as we are told? Here’s Gallagher’s evidence:
In recent months Silva, who did not respond to requests for comment, has been joining online meetings of Irish right-wing extremists where he provides advice on tactics derived from his own clashes with authorities.
He has been present in at least five meetings, often speaking for several minutes. These meetings have been attended by up to 100 people, including several well-known Irish anti-immigration activists who have large followings on social media.
The Irish Times has obtained transcriptions or recordings of several of these meetings. During one meeting which ran for more than three hours, Silva is heard offering advice to Stephen Butler, a young anti-immigration activist who has been involved in protests outside a site earmarked for Ukrainian refugees in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
Now, we are not told where these “online meetings” take place, but it’s a reasonable assumption based on Gallagher’s description that we’re talking here about a forum like twitter spaces, which allows anyone to host a public discussion, and allows the host of that discussion to invite anybody he or she likes to speak. Twitter spaces is also regulary used by the community of dedicated anti-immigration activists to talk about protests and whatever else is on their minds, and the nature of the events is that often, the virtual floor is thrown open to anybody who wants to speak.
The nature of a forum like that is, of course, that you will often attract people to it who can’t get a hearing anywhere else, and who desire little more than to be heard by a sympathetic audience. Often such people will be the holders of minority views, or even extreme ones. Another feature of these twitter spaces is that they often drag on interminably, which fits with Gallagher’s description of them lasting for three hours or more.
Now, on foot of everything we’ve been told in the Irish Times article, it seems almost certain to me that we’re talking about a scenario where the ex-KKK Wizard, or whatever his title is, has logged on to an Irish twitter space from somewhere in America and asked to speak. Such a character would, of course, fit many of the characteristics of people who seek to speak at such events: A holder of minority views who would probably find it hard to get an audience elsewhere.
Does all of this amount to “the Irish far right being mentored by the Ku Klux Klan”? Not really. It seems to me that it amounts to a lonely bloke in America logging on to a relatively fringe Irish twitter space to find an audience – any audience – that might listen to him for a while. But of course, if you look really hard to find a reason to use a verb like “mentoring”, you can turn what’s a relatively sad story into a very scary one about scary hooded figures working behind the scenes to undermine racial harmony in lovely little Ireland. The Irish Times looked hard, and, well, voila.
Of course, what the Irish Times misses is this: It is easier, I think, for some liberals to believe that the residents of places like Coolock are in rebellion against the state because of the shadowy actions of pillow-wearing Americans than it is to believe that the rebellion has been formented by Irish Government policy. I remain relatively unconvinced that the people of Dundrum in Tipperary, or Newtownmountkennedy in Wicklow, are quite ready to start wearing blankets and burning crosses. The more likely dynamic, I think, is that many people who don’t hear anything like their views being aired in mainstream discussions in the Irish media are finding themselves on twitter spaces where at least their particular take on affairs won’t be dismissed as extremist insanity.
The whole thing is a case study, really, in what happens when you drive certain views from respectability. The views don’t go away – and may even grow and become more extreme. That’s why you end up with nutcase warbling about the jews and pig-killing, and how people end up chatting amiably to a klansman. When the mainstream media abdicates its role, there’s always someone there to pick up the pieces. Sometimes, that’s people like us here at Gript. Sometimes, it’s a lad in a hood carrying a torch.