The far right is an 'irrelevant political force' in Ireland and exaggerating its influence simply plays into its hands, Shane Coleman has warned.
He was speaking after the Tánaiste Micheál Martin told The Hard Shoulder he was concerned about the rise of far right and anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland.
He warned that the recent protests outside the Dáil showed that aggression towards politicians is worse now than ever.
“What we saw on the Dáil some weeks back was a new development,” Micheál Martin said..
“I hadn’t seen that kind of hate in evidence and just sheer aggression without any coherent thought process.
“I would be strong on protecting the rights of citizens to walk their streets and I would be particularly strong on the right of parliamentarians to walk the street.
“I take issue with that and I really get angry about that as an individual.”
TD Michael Healy-Rae and his assistant are surrounded by protestors as he enters Leinster House. Image: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ieOn Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Shane Coleman said there is definitely a ‘nasty element’ out there – but politicians and media outlets are “very much in danger of exaggerating the influence” of the far right in Ireland.
“Electorally, they are irrelevant,” he said.
“Now you always have to be careful, you always have to be vigilant and that can change but if you look across Europe, where you see far right parties gaining electoral advantage, we don't have that here.
“We probably have the smallest far right of any European country but there are people, I think, on the far left who want to talk up their influence because they want the far right to exist.
“They want that culture war. They want to be Ying to their Yang. So, they're keen for it to happen.”
Gardaí outside Leinster House, 20-09-2023. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNewsHe said politicians should “be careful what they wish for” when it comes to talking up the far right.
“As far as I'm concerned, at the moment, they are an irrelevant political force,” he said.
“They're a nasty element, they need to be watched, yeah – but they are an irrelevant political force.”
McCarthyite nonsense
Fellow presenter Ciara Kelly said we are in danger of labelling anyone who holds non-liberal views as ‘far-right’.
“That global project against hatred and extremism has said that the far right is a deep concern here, but it has listed, as groups of people who are in the far right in Ireland, the Iona Institute, Renua, the LGB Alliance and other conservative Catholic groups.
“I don't think any of them are in the far right and I think conflating any group that disagrees with, you know, out and out liberalism or progressivism - by the way, hand on heart, I'm a liberal - is a kind of a nonsense.
“This talk about the far right reminds me a bit of McCarthyism where they were looking for the Reds under the bed.
“This is like we're looking for the fascists under the floorboards.
“You don't have to be far right. You just have to be suspected of possibly having sympathies towards the far right. Or maybe that you could be persuaded that way in the future.”
Protestors outside Leinster House, 20-09-2023. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNewsCiara said there are lots of people in Ireland who have legitimate concerns about our asylum system and dismissing them all as far right is not the answer.
“If you accuse everybody of being the far right, first of all, I suspect you amplify the far right and second of all, you're, sort of, discounting legitimate concerns, and I don't think that's a good way for society to go,” she said.
