A new report has been published as part of Maynooth University’s STOPFARRIGHT project, which looks at strategies for resisting and countering the Far Right in Ireland. The project was inspired by concern at the rise of the far right throughout Europe, North America and elsewhere, and more immediately in Ireland, as the far right became increasingly visible in demonstrations against Covid 19 public health measures in the country. The report contains ideas about anti-far right strategizing from Irish and international civil society organisations and academics, and features EDMO Ireland hub coordinator Eileen Culloty who participated in a Project Webinar on the role of misinformation in far right strategies. Eileen discussed the insights gained from the H2020 Provenance project, which examined anti-immigrant disinformation as a case study and investigated how online audiences struggle to contextualise and evaluate both legitimate and manipulative news stories about migration.
The STOPFARRIGHT project finds there is urgent need for a national anti-far right strategy in Ireland, comprising a more militant state in the defence of Irish democracy, more state and community controls on social media companies, more principled and exemplary conduct from non-far right political parties, which are more intolerant of the far right and far right linked ideas, and a better supported and more active civil society which can build resilience and intolerance of the far right among local communities.
The project was carried out in association with the Crosscare Migrant Project (CMP) and supported with funding from the Irish Research Council’s (IRC) New Foundations Programme. The full report can be accessed Here