Hard-right adopts republican symbolism

A group of masked men dressed in black fatigues from a militia called An Sciath Naisiunta gathered on Thursday at the spot where the IRA leader Michael Collins was assassinated 102 years earlier, to the day. This symbolic location, at Beal na Blath in the Cork countryside, steeped in the memory of Ireland’s fight for independence, was the stage for a new, disturbing narrative.
In front of them stood Justin Barrett, a hard-right activist dressed in faux black military attire.
“Not since the Great Famine has the existential question as to whether Ireland will be or not be, as to whether the Irish people shall live or not live, been in the balance. Ireland is no longer Irish,” said Barrett, the self-declared leader of Clann Eireann, a new hard-right organisation.
Barrett, 53, seized the moment to inflame anti-immigrant sentiments, questioning those who had sought asylum in Ireland, as he addressed thousands of people watching on YouTube. He asked where the immigrants’ wives and children were, insinuating: “What sort of men are they?”
By portraying asylum seekers as an existential threat to Ireland’s national identity, Barrett was crafting a divisive “us versus them” narrative designed to rally support through fear and suspicion.
He added: “We are not here to create violence, we are not here to provoke violence but we will protect ourselves from the foreign invaders. But we will also protect ourselves with as much violence as is necessary. We will either have victory or death, there is no in-between. Ireland either lives or dies.”
While Barrett’s language and attire might seem almost theatrical, they were also purposeful, illustrating how hard-right groups are branding themselves as a modern iteration of militant nationalism in an effort to attract supporters.
Violent movements change as they evolve. They transform through efforts to repackage ideologies to broaden their appeal to those who might otherwise reject them. For months now, hard-right groups have increasingly adopted the symbols and rhetoric of Irish nationalism and republicanism to legitimise themselves.
Their supporters wave Fenian flags and tricolours at protests, and some, like those standing alongside Barrett, have taken to dressing like republican paramilitaries, wearing balaclavas and black berets. They also use the slogan, “Erin go Bragh”, once used by the United Irishmen of 1798. Clann Eireann’s logo is a Celtic cross, a symbol that is Irish but also used by far-right organisations around northern Europe.
“This is straight out of the far-right playbook,” said Orla Lynch, an expert on extremism at University College Cork.
“Ultranationalism is a key part of this. In northern Europe, far-right groups link themselves to Norse gods and Viking history. They have an idealised notion of nationalism.
“Our idea of nationalism surrounds the Civil War and the Anglo-Irish Treaty. These far-right groups are opportunists. They know how to appeal to an audience. Couching their far-right ideals in a language that people understand is a good strategy.
“The difficulty is that they will influence a much wider audience. That’s where the danger lies.”
Until recently, Ireland was regarded as an outlier in Europe because it did not have an indigenous hard-right movement. The Provisional IRA, the Irish National Liberation Army and other violent dissidents held extreme-left ideologies, supporting like-minded groups around the world.
Hard-right and anti-government movements emerged during the pandemic when Covid restrictions breathed life into anti-government extremism. The movement’s embrace of militant nationalism and violent republicanism really took off last year when Fenian flags became a noticeable feature in anti- government, anti-lockdown, and anti-immigration protests, a deliberate move to connect those protests in the public mind to Ireland’s historical struggle for independence.
“The use of Fenian flags is important as it speaks to a bygone period of resistance when the Irish identity was much less racially diverse, and to a mythical notion of what Irishness is,” said Elizabeth Pearson, an expert in extremism at Royal Holloway, University of London.
“Being a Fenian was historically about asserting Irish identity against a power that does not recognise that identity, that seeks to oppress and suppress it. That power was the British. It still is the British for many engaged in IRA activity,” she said.
Like other experts, Pearson suspects that the strategic use of Fenian flags is aimed at legitimising the hard-right movement. The uniforms worn by Barrett and his followers, while seemingly comical, are designed to convey an image of organisation, determination, and a quasi-military presence, hinting at the possibility of armed resistance.
“It is also a symbol of legitimacy, and it is a symbol of the ability to mobilise in a way that mirrors the state, but opposes the state,” she said.
The hard-right movement’s adoption of nationalist, republican and Celtic symbols to legitimise its actions has serious implications for the government should it increase their appeal. Drew Harris, the garda commissioner, has increased the threat level posed by violent political extremists from moderate to substantial, indicating that attacks are likely. Based on what is occurring across the country, the intelligence assessment made sense.
Politicians of every hue have been subjected to threats posted online. This escalation underscores the growing concern within security services that these groups are not only growing and becoming more emboldened but are also preparing for a more aggressive phase.
The most significant concern is not more attacks on proposed immigrant accommodation centres but on government ministers, TDs, and candidates who plan to contest the next general election. Though they dare not say it, the security services fear that politicians from all parties could be intimidated or attacked in the run-up to the election, which may take place as early as November. The darkness of winter nights would help enable such violence.
If hard-right extremists succeed in convincing the public that they are a new iteration of the IRA, or a modern form of violent republicanism, the challenge of countering them will become even more complex, garda sources say.
Monitoring and infiltrating extremist groups is already difficult as attacks have become more spontaneous, fragmented, and characterised by rapid evolution. These changes have rendered violent movements less coherent and more unpredictable than ever before. Moreover, the ease with which extremists can collect personal information on those in public life makes the task of protecting individuals even more daunting.
For the moment, people like Barrett are continuing to agitate online. On Friday night, he addressed an online gathering of almost 600 people on X, who listened to him discuss the violent protests that took place across England in the past four weeks. Muslim gangs, he claimed, were permitted to converge with the purpose of hacking people with machetes.
“How far away do you think we are in this country from that point? We need thousands of young men. We need tens of thousands in Clann Eireann,” Barrett thundered.
“When the time comes, we need to be able to defend the Irish nation to the nth degree. And if that means a second War of Independence, then that’s what it means. Our independence will be fought for against our own government acting in foreign interests.”
If the government fails to push extremist ideas back to the fringes, the arson attacks on accommodation centres, public riots and threats against cabinet ministers and TDs could be harbingers of a more violent decade to come.