Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said she’s “not sure there is a definition” of what the term ‘far right’ means.
The Minister’s comments came during a hearing of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice in response to a question asked by Senator Sharon Keogan.
“The definition of the far right..I mean, it’s, it’s obviously a political ideology or it’s a particular view that a person has,” said the minister adding: “I’m not sure there is a definition.”
Senator Sharon Keogan interjected saying that the supposed lack of definition for the term ‘far right’ echoed the lack of definition of the word ‘hate’ in the minister’s proposed Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022
“I think we need to define what it is,” said Keogan.
The minister continued saying, “So I think what we see from a lot of people who would claim to be far right, which is not a crime, for somebody to have a particular ideology, it’s where they act and maybe certain matters.
“We have seen people to be anti-government, anti-state, anti-immigration, anti-women’s rights, amongst other things – that would be my own particular view of those who claim to be far-right.”
The Minister also denied claims made in a Fine Gael social media post that she had fast tracked the attestation of 153 Garda recruits from Templemore in order to have more Gardaí on the streets before Christmas saying that although she did not have a personal hand in the decision she viewed it as “a positive thing”.
Justice Minister @HMcEntee has fast-tracked the attestation of trainee Garda in Templemore, meaning we will see more Gardaí on the beat before Christmas.
This is another way Fine Gael is building stronger, safer communities. pic.twitter.com/tRb3VA6MVF
— Fine Gael (@FineGael) November 29, 2023
“I think it’s a positive thing that the gardaí that were due to be attested in July [January] are being fast tracked,” she said.
“We obviously don’t want Gardaí coming from all over the country and being stationed in Dublin,” she said.
Senator Keogan said Gardaí stationed in commuter belt communities and villages were being called to Dublin and expressed concern about how this might effect those communities saying her own area had experienced a high number of burglaries in the last two weeks.
Minister said communities outside of Dublin would not be “stripped of their resources” but that a strong Garda presence was needed in the city in order for people to feel secure during the Christmas period.
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“We have seen people to be anti-government, anti-state, anti-immigration, anti-women’s rights, amongst other things – that would be my own particular view of those who claim to be far-right.” says McIntee
I knew it and so did many others. She’s using terms like far-right without understanding what it means.
I find myself agreeing with most of what I read on Gript. Its why I donated to it .
I also sometimes acknowledge that some left ideas are agreeable.
Its healthy to keep open minded .
Who claims to be “far right”? And who is anti-women’s rights? And it’s anti-mass uncontrolled immigration of tens of thousands of SINGLE MEN! Not anti-immigration.
She absolutely is a liar, no debate. But she is more of an idiot, who believes her own lies, and the lies told to her, and she thinks the public believe her lies too (well, some gobsh*tes do).
Get another jab, you sheep.
She states that it’s people “who consider themselves to be far right” but this is completely untrue. It’s her government’s description of people and value systems that the vast majority of ordinary working people align with.
Exactly.
Well we should all believe her and vote how she describes us. I just worry now about the use of absentee-voting that are now widely used in Europe, Brazil and the US to fix elections! This is why a pandemic happened in the run-up to the last two US elections. Dr. Robert Epstein has made some amazing discoveries since 2016 on what has also strongly influenced these elections! He analysed 6 million voters and had thousands of people working on this in the US and European countries.!
You have a superiority complex.
Most gobshites are not self aware enough to realise that they are gobshites. I fear this applies to Jack.
Also, who exactly are “those who claim to be far right”? As far as I can see, nobody; far right is a term used by the minister and her peers to smear those who they perceive to be “anti-government, anti-state, anti-immigration, anti-women’s rights, amongst other things” (by the way, which women’s rights were being threatened by the far right bogeyman?)
Welcome back Jack,
Quick questions,
Is it Illegal to be an ignorant conspiracy theorist, racist, or a homophobe?
Is it legal to be educated, multicultural, or gay?
goose gander.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander, the point being the pendulum always swings back, and the aggressive language you use now, may someday be used against you.
Perhaps then you will be willing to compromise on your positions..
Perhaps Jack it’s you who are the extremest. The agest and racists views you express regularly would suggest this. Now remember my advice about your meds
Ah you found each other ????????
Jack shaz, why not go where you might be in a position to make a meaningful contribution to the discussion
Your contribution are pathetic. You’re incapable of making a comment without making it personal and insulting people and you make zero effort to understand why people who have different opinions think the way they think.
You start name calling ‘racist’ and ‘far right’ because you don’t have the capacity to understand different opinions.
Every time you respond you encourage him
Yea Suppose
Name calling again.Right of what?Far right of what?Are the group queers for Palestine far right?My partner thinks I,m far right and we done a personality test and I ended up being a Gandhi type! and she ended up being a Stalin type!Who decides the point ,the location,the issue which is left and right.The name calling is just a way to put people in boxes and shut down debate.Yes if you want to call me far right ,knock yourself out.
Okay comrade. Let’s just forget that your political ideology was responsible for the largest loss of innocent lives.
I prefer wearing wool overcoats instead of synthetic fabrics during cold weather.
Wool overcoats get very heavy when they get wet though.
sounds like hate speech against wool covercoats
You’re like McIntee you don’t know what it means either.
Go read and learn about Nazi Germany and you’ll find out
Any time I hear somebody use the term “far right” now, I immediately think “right so far” in relation to the people being called “far right”. Go and ready some history books – work on your own ignorance instead of applying derogatory terms to hundreds of thousands of people you have never met. The irony of your own actions are probably lost on you. You are applying a stereo typical abusive label to a large portion of a population because you believe they are wrong to apply stereo typical attitudes to other people. Most of the content on this excellent site Gript.ie is centrist to mildly right wing. The reporting is balanced in that it gives both sides of a story. The content frequently is sourced or referenced – where the content is backed up by fact or study.
The most prosperous, safe times in Western Civilization with the most improvements in personal rights happen under center right government. The worst times in recent history with the most human suffering happened under left wing government.
I support this site and agree with most of its content. I am not at the extreme of any political leaning.
Educate yourself, instead of making an ass of yourself online.
You don’t know anything about the people you are attempting to insult.
My partner is South American. Over a third of the people I employ are foreign. Mixture of straight and gay. I have zero staff turnover, pay very well and profit share. Most of my friends are foreign. I have lived abroad extensively and integrated there fine. Have taken idiot Green Ministers all the way to EU petitions committee out of my own pocket and protected the environment from the Green Party.
Hardly a raving extremist. More a useful contributing member of society that leaves things better than I find them.
Perhaps you feel embarrassed about your intelligence or some other way inadequate ? And that drives your need to attack total strangers ? Or worse again crave acceptance from people you don’t even know.
Surely you would be better off seeking treatment for the inferiority complex and end up a better person. Less pathetic.
Well, alone your gobshite-answers seem to justify the reason for our existence! Maybe you can improve your grammar one day… who knows, keep trying!
I’d rather be Far Right than Far Wrong. The term Far Right is simply a Government tool to shut down debates they know they cannot win. Immigration, Gender Ideology, Hate speech etc. Over half the population of Ireland must be Far Right at this stage.
These are not conspiracy theories anymore they are Government policy.
This so called justice minister is clearly clueless!
John McGuirk provided the best definition of what it means to be ‘Far Right’ on his last weekly podcast with Sarah.
It is being what Leo Varadkar was ten years ago. Every view that he condemns as ‘Far Right’ now are ones that he is on record as being supportive of ten years ago.
What’s the difference between being a far right conspiracy theorist and reality? About 6 months.
Classic !! ????????????????
Humour helps Jack. You come across as a dour deranged Calvinist. Lighten up a bit. Vitriol is OK but try mixing it with humour.
He seems a real hater, he is more far right than anyone
Replace Calvinist with Communist and you’d be closer to the mark.
There you are again. Personal insults rather than discussing the issue and you resort to the personal insults because you are not able to debate some of these issues.
Given the Hate Speech bill she’s championing, she need only look in the mirror to see what a ‘far right’ activist looks like.
There is no far right or far left. This is a narrative pushed by the Irish parties to divide and conquer under instructions from the UN\WEF. The variant of what is described as liberalism today is not liberalism, its marxism used to destroy identity and individualism. No government should be engaging in left or right and should be unbias as it represents people who are left and right in the traditional sense. A government that choses left or right policies specifically does not represent the people.
Spot on James.
Far right is a pejorative term used to villainise and vilify those of us who oppose her mad policies on mass immigration which are hostile to our interests and imperils our country. Her hate bill is the most draconian piece of legislation in the world, according to international experts. Who on earth listens to the ultra radical feminists and their extreme political and woke views? McEntee herself is from that group. All Europe is far right according to her reasoning. Another example, Holly Cairns saying asylum seekers are not just ‘fleeing’ imaginary ‘war’ but ‘are members of the LGBT community, women’s rights activists and members of political groups’, which she claims gives them the right to flood into Ireland from anywhere in the world, for the benefits. And wait for this, the Ukrainian ‘refugees’ can go ‘home’ on their holidays for Christmas from Dec 22 to Jan 5, or can go off where they like on holidays. Tell that to the Irish homeless bedding down on the streets for the night. Think they give them a roof over the Christmas, to save themselves embarrassment. Then it’s back out to where they belong on cardboard in a doorway early Jan. She and her govt are terrified of our opposition and are left clodhopping us with the ‘far right’ label.
There’s a video on YouTube (it’s easily found) where Dick Cavett interviews Enoch Powell, and Cavett asks Powell about being called a ‘racist’ — Powell replies that ‘It’s a modern term of abuse, so the less well-defined it is the better’ — the same is true of ‘far-right’ today: it’s ‘a modern term of abuse’ — it’s a way to cast moral aspersions on someone, to signal the naive and gullible, those who are not media savvy, that they are supposed to dislike a person, a group of people, or an organization — I’ve emailed a number of people in the media who use the term, simply asking them to define it for me, but none have ever replied.
I suppose the media and the government have to walk the tightrope of constantly using that term but never defining it. Just imagine if they provided a definition. How many politicians throughout Europe , America, and the rest of the world would they then be calling ‘Far Right’ by virtue of their definition.
That might prove awkward from time to time . Rishi Sunak , UK prime minister and son of immigrants would definitely be ‘Far Right’ by any definition they would provide. And he would be just one of many.
So they have occupy this no man’s land of castigating and alienating Irish citizens at home for being ‘Far Right’ whilst avoiding defining what that means for fear of insulting and alienating politicians abroad
More constructive ambiguity ? Or more hypocrisy? .
Enoch Powell was no fool. He reached the rank of Brigadier General in combat in the Army at the age of 27. The youngest man ever to attain that rank.
Don’t feed the troll. Don’t respond, hard as that is and they’ll lose interest very quickly
I agree.
Probably the best response to trolls is simply to ignore them 100%, even to the extent of not even downvoting them (strong though the temptation to downvote them certainly is) because downvoting them indicates to them that others are paying attention to their comments. It may even be the case that certain trolls actually get satisfaction from being downvoted because being downvoted indicates to them that they’re getting the notoriety they’re probably seeking.
Good advice & sound logic .
But I like winding Jack up. He takes the bait every time
Anyone who speaks out about these disastrous govt policies or protect at the oppression are far right terrorists who threaten the end of life as we know it according to McEntee
She’s a shameful person ,& politician !
The term “far-right” tends to be associated, in the public mind, with 1930s-type Nazism and Fascism. Thus, it’s likely that many of those who use the term “far-right” see it as an easy way to try to discredit those with whom they disagree by seeking to create the impression, in the public mind, that the latter are, simply by expressing certain views, e.g. concerns over high levels of immigration, indicating that they agree with these extreme ideologies (1930s-type Nazism and Fascism).
Perhaps a far right person is someone who is woke and votes for these politicians but disagrees publicly with their immigration policy. Their response is to brand them far right to discredit or mute their critism. Where are the journalists who went and did some digging to find out who these protesters have voted for over the past couple of years? Perhaps they have not done this fearing the answers?
You are quite correct in respect to the connotations associated with the term ‘far right’ up until the time that it started to be abused. More recently the term has been so overused and abused that it has by now completely lost its meaning. It has been overused and abused by lazy journalists, left wing activists, and politicians who find it easier to denigrate those with who they disagree rather than expend the mental energy attempting to analyse, critically or otherwise , let alone understand, their point of view.
This is becoming a problem for them; too many people are starting to ask this simple question.
First order of business for the globalists: create completely new definitions for “far right”, “hate” and “woman”, carefully tailored to service their agendas (controlling free speech, silencing dissent; imposing biological falsehoods on the psycologically vulnerable).
Second order of business: disseminate brand new definitions to captured governments and their Pravda media.
Third order of business: get politicians, and their army of parasitic NGOs, to browbeat their constituents into accepting their absurd and dangerous policies by way of smears and strawman arguments predicated on the brand new definitions.
The “Far Right” tag has entered the “groves of academe” – in an otherwise well-written – if somewhat “dry” – tome: “One Hundred Years of Irish Language Policy, 1922 – 2022” , the author, John Walsh, tells us at p.319 – the context is factors that could influence Irish language policy in the future:
“The rise of extremism online and in physical places threatens all minorities, including Irish speakers, and risks provoking the election of far-right parties that could reverse decades of hard-won progress.”
So (and I definitely have no brief for Donald Trump), there are now two “sure-fire” put-downs available to the Left (and FG and FF) – “you’re speaking like Donald Trump now…” – or – as the mood takes their fancy – “sounds like you’re a supporter of the Far Right”.
I think we – readers of/subscribers to Gript. – maybe now should just hand ourselves in or, at the very least, engage in some public ritual of self-abasement – such as kissing the backside of a life size effigy of Michael D………
Just seen this on Newstalk Website but it looks like one word needs correcting:
The Tanáiste has told the High Court he is concerned about the growing publication by anonymous persons of
misleadinghonest content online, relating to politicians.They keep bombarding me with unsolicited junkmail propagangda. Whey they are brave enough to come around in person, I tell them to their faces why I believe they have little to offer but are causing problems for ordinary citizens. They probably view me as far right but cannot explain simply why I am wrong in my views. I would welcome an intelligent discussion but that is too much to expect from these very busy politicians.
That term is used for anyone who disagrees with anything the left is pushing. If you disagree with them, you are “far right” or fascist. At least in the US, that’s all it means.
Just like the clown minister, you have no idea what it means.
Jack, calling people cockroaches is not acceptable in polite discourse. You still have a lot to learn about life on Ireland.
24/7 loop media and political virtuous outrage denigrating and challenging the bogeyman that is the “far right”…………can you define the “far right” minister ……….eh………no definition…….risible
“We have seen people to be anti-government, anti-state, anti-immigration, anti-women’s rights, amongst other things – that would be my own particular view of those who claim to be far-right.”
Well, I am anti too much Govt, anti-too much state, anti too much immigration, anti- too many women’s rights so that men become second class citizens – so I guess I am far right. Everything is a balance and society in the West, especially Ireland, the US, UK, Canada & Australia is extremely unbalanced with the nutcases like Jack’s mates in charge. I wonder what he thinks his qualifications are to make the sweeping judgements he does. Well, Jack?
It’s the same as with Woke: There are definitions of both you can find in dictionaries and then there’s the everyday usage of the terms in which they conjured up as pejorative phrases that are intended to communicate dislike and/or disagreement on the part of the person uttering the terms. In those instances, they are meant to tell us more about the speaker than about the linguistic construct itself.
A good IQ is not particularly necessary when one is told what to do the whole time! It used to be the left, who were considered the intellectuals, but how things have been totally reversed! Now the zombies are those in power and their foreign masters are dictating extreme-leftist policies, targeting global-totalitarianism.
The answer to the question is for McEntee not answerable in public: The modern meaning of far-right is anyone who has an opposing view and who does not agree with their globalist power-grabbing scam-narratives!