So-called ‘far-right’ candidates have “underperformed” in the European and local elections, according to a leading crime journalist.

Conor Gallagher from The Irish Times said several candidates running on an anti-immigration ticket have been elected to various local authorities.

However, he said there’s little that can be done about immigration at a council level and that it “will be interesting to see how it plays out” over the next five years.

On The Hard Shoulder, Mr Gallagher said the term ‘far-right’ is often used incorrectly.

“It's a very imperfect term and it’s sometimes applied to anyone to the right of Labour,” he said.

“But if you take it to mean someone who goes beyond calling for a reduction in immigration and take it to mean the kind of people calling for mass deportations, a common theme, I think that serves as a good definition.

“Some of them think the large number of asylum seekers coming in is part of some orchestrated plantation, this buzzword, which is like the Irish-ified version of the great replacement conspiracy theory.

“You also have a cohort who have made immigration a key part of their campaign, people who protest outside of direct provision centres and target individual asylum seekers rather than Government”.

He added that the term far-right should “be applied carefully”.

Dublin City Hall. Image: Radharc Images / Alamy

Mr Gallagher said Malachy Steenson, elected to Dublin City Council over the weekend, was one of the most “high profile” candidates running “exclusively on immigration”.

“He’s a very interesting character and has been trying to get elected for years, having come from a left-wing Republican tradition,” he said.

“He has previous associations with paramilitaries and was convicted in the Special Criminal Court many years ago; he was also involved in immigration protests at Eastwall.”

Mr Gallagher said Gavin Pepper, also involved in anti-immigration protests, was elected in Finglas-Ballymun.

“He's another person who has been kind of travelling around Dublin and the country to anti-immigration protests and has a history of making very inflammatory statements on social media,” he said.

Far-right party's

The crime journalist said the National Party’s deputy leader Patrick Quinlan was also elected in Palmerstown.

“The party is going through a split at the minute and has two factions, one behind Justin Barrett and the other behind James Reynolds, who were both unsuccessful in running for Europe,” he said.

“Barrett, a very extreme character, has endorsed Hitler and has started dressing in Nazi regalia.”

Mr Gallagher added that some of these candidates could have been using the recent elections to “grow their brand and possibly get into Leinster House”.

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Main image: Anti-immigration protestors pictured in Dublin city centre yesterday, 5-2-24. Image: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie