There’s a tinge of Irish exceptionalism detectable in the discourse around the rise of the far right in Ireland.
While Britain and EU countries have established far right parties that wield much political influence, groups like Ireland First and the National Party have no parliamentary representation here.
And yet a Dáil presence is not required to have an outsized impact on ordinary Irish citizens, as people caught up in the violence of the Dublin riots in 2023 will attest.
Cork-based author, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, argues the pride Irish people have taken in largely escaping the xenophobic and conspiracy driven populism we see in Europe and the US, was abruptly challenged by the riots and spates of violence outside IPAS centres in the summer of 2024.
In his new book “Burn Them Out; a history of fascism and the far right in Ireland”, Ó Ruairc posits this follows a long legacy of “looking the other way” and refusing to confront an openly fascist undercurrent in Irish society.
In this episode, Ó Ruairc discusses the historical political and theological anti-Semitism that has existed here, and argues the openly fascist Blueshirts, the ultra-Catholic and anti-communist movements of the 1920 and 1930s and the IRA’s collaboration with Nazis were all precursors of today’s far right.
In this fascinating discussion with Hugh Linehan, Ó Ruairc examines the throughline from Eoin O’Duffy’s Blueshirts to the riots of November 2023.
Burn Them Out; a history of fascism and the far right in Ireland is available now.
