Watching the mainstream trying to understand the Irish Right is like watching a communist trying to understand why capitalism hasn’t collapsed yet. While they proclaim expertise in the area, in reality their ideology prevents them from understanding anything of substance, leaving their views stunted and their utterances empty and hypocritical.
The recent bout of hit pieces that have appeared, almost out of nowhere on a variety of platforms perfectly demonstrates this phenomena. Unable to comprehend how the cult of diversity could ever drive young men to the Right, these pieces blame the countercultural growth on ‘disinformation’ and supposed criminal elements within the movement.
One cannot blame them for this though. Blinded by their ideology, they find themselves terrified as the great wave of populism swells and swells on the horizon, hurtling at ever greater speed towards the electoral walls of the established state. A phenomena they long thought impossible, a hard right Irish nationalism within the 21st century, has suddenly crystalized in front of them, and they find themselves near powerless to stop it.
Of course, that is not going to stop them from trying. Digital polymath Thomas Sheridan last week predicted that, with the massive growth of Irish populism, the establishment would attempt to derail the movement the same way they did the water charges protest. Like the prophets of old, Sheridan’s prediction actualized less than a week later, with establishment hacks desperately trying to weaponize the state against the new threat.
Perhaps the greatest of these moves against the rising tide of dissent was Conor Gallagher’s ultimately weak hit piece in this morning’s Irish Times. Meant to be a sort of exposé on how the Irish Right are subverting the health crisis for their own gain, the piece devolves into a directionless mess. Clearly blinded by his own biases, Gallagher is unable to focus on the essential elements of the new Right in Ireland, instead bouncing from topic to topic akin to a Twitter thread, giving very little time to each.
From QAnon to Catholic dogma, Gallagher demonstrates a complete ignorance endemic in the mainstream. Like watching a Bible-bashing creationist trying to explain evolutionary science, Gallagher writes paragraphs and paragraphs while saying next to nothing, relying on historical exposition and ‘expert’ citations to give the illusion of substance. A man who capitalises the ‘C’ in 4chan is not qualified to talk about the new Right in Ireland, or anywhere else for that matter.
The article published by the Irish Times was textbook sensationalism. Complete with a random image of people doing fascist salutes in front of an Irish flag, the piece is all style and no substance. The same goes for a wide variety of other pieces published, seemingly by complete coincidence, on the exact same topic within a 24 hour period from TheJournal.ie and Irish Examiner.
It would be remiss to not mention the utter hypocrisy of the mainstream in its accusations against the right. As claims of violence and lockdown violations are hurled against this growing movement, these same sycophants lap praise onto Black Lives Matter and other leftist movements, and will often denounce any of those exact same accusations against these movements as mere conspiracy theory.
Being basically illiterate in the language of counter-culture, gombeen publications can do nothing but publish sensationalism in order to curtail the right. Meanwhile, those who have yet to realize that leftists have seized the reigns of social power, such as Ciara Kelly, are dumbfounded when they are cancelled for trying to point out the rise of political violence on the Left. These centrists have ultimately been outmaneuvered by the proponents of social Maoism. It is up to the Right to stop the chaos of the carnal Left.
The centre has failed to hold, anarchy has already been loosed upon the world. The only question is whether the Left, weakened by their continued success, is still strong enough to abort the strange, stirring beast, waiting to be born of a fully fledged populist insurgency.
How many legions does it take to conquer Hibernia?
Give it time. lol
” Yet, until the end of his days, the aging General Agricola never forgot his triumphs in Britain and the lost opportunity to bring Ireland into the Empire. His son-in-law Tacitus remarked, ‘I have often heard him say that Hibernia could be taken and held by a single legion and a small number of auxiliaries’… “
“The recent bout of hit pieces that have appeared, almost out of nowhere…”
The media attacks didn’t appear out of nowhere. They were merely held in reserve until the right made a mistake that could be turned into political capital for the establishment.
Last weekend nationalists allowed themselves to be goaded into physically confronting people who are professional agitators, that’s the reality. To what extent this was ‘physical’ is certainly overplayed by the media – that’s not in doubt.
However our people seem to have forgotten the nature of our enemy and what he’s capable of doing. Some lessons will need to be relearned. You don’t attack the agitators, because in these situations we can only lose. Rather we must invest our energies where we can win, and there only.
As far as the growth of populism is concerned:
Sure, we have great opportunities. But we still haven’t reached our target audience (working men and women, in my opinion), and that’s evident by very poor election results and shrinking numbers at mass gatherings – which themselves are increasingly factionalized. This is the opposite of what I’d expect regarding the growth of a popular front.
It seems nationalist org’s would rather wait until the recession/depression is upon us before they address the cost of living issue. By then it will be too late, as every political stripe will have taken it by the horns. This really should’ve been addressed from the very beginning.
I’d say that only Síol na hEireann have a clear target demographic in mind – disaffected Catholic conservatives. I’m not sure what the rest of the scene hopes to achieve. Immigration policy alone is not populist.
There’s reason to believe that most people don’t care for the issue at all (at least from an ethnic preservationist viewpoint). We need to broaden out our pyramid of values and become known for a more unique political brand.
Siol na hÉireann isn’t a political party its a loyalist run business.
Yes, but they are effective in what they do – It’s no coincidence that they were the first to be mentioned in the Dail. At the moment they are the stand-out party, the one with a public, intelligible credo.
I think that despite their questionable leadership, they have created a distinct new identity centred around an established demographic. They’ve effectively put Catholic conservative ideology back to work. That counts as an initial success.
I often feel that other nationalist org’s try too hard to appeal to the welfare class, whether urban or rural. They will never get any traction this way. They are a sell-out class. The return on investment is too low to warrant the effort.
Until we say – in the most direct terms – to working people that “We’re looking out for you” , we’re going to be addressed with confusion. Right now the Irish people see us as no different from any other European anti-immigration party.
Síol na hEireann are stand-outs. I can say that even as a non-supporter. Though where they will end up from here I do not know. If the rest of us took similar steps to identify ourselves (beyond ethnicity/immigration) we’d at least be on the chess board of public consciousness.
They are being fixated on for the fact they are nothing more than a marketing scam run by a hardline loyalist who in all probability is a British intelligence asset and conman. The Niall fella is thick as sh*t and few who support them the dregs of the jesusfreaks who are stupid enough not to see Dowson pulling the strings.
All it is is just flogging overpriced merch and performing to camera, there is no party just a ponzi scheme. Its all just staged actions for camera there is no infrastructure being built.
I’m sorry your comment is otherwise coherent but to think Siol is anything other than a swindle is beyond me.
Dowson perfected these scams when he was fleecing British nationalism, itll be our equivalent of Britain First and a total own goal when the media begins to have a field day on the. There is no Siol party or path for growth for them just Dowson sucking up money.
Siol as far as it exists beyond a YouTube channel is poison.
Your comments are fair, I have no particular issue with what you’re saying.
However, I do think that corporative style of nationalism is worth exploring, so I’m inclined pay attention to what Síol is doing.
Their ‘insertion’ techniques specifically are quite interesting. They’ve managed to place themselves at the forefront of certain events that are otherwise fairly mainstream. In so doing the Covid crisis has been used to full advantage, since the usual gatekeepers aren’t on duty
My argument is that we should be learning from these people. Dowson is experienced and knows how to make a sell, if even for ill-gain.
We shouldn’t be too hung up on the structure of political activism, i.e. what form our product placement takes, or how it reaches the audience (like via parties) – as long as it shifts perceptions in the intended way. Companies and lobbyists are doing this all the time. We ought to treat it no differently.
That’s fair see the argument for professionalisation but Siol is the most dangerous thing for Irish nationalism going, look up the video ‘Jim Dowson exposed’ by ex BNP officials detailing the scams he pulled harvesting money and funds off the vulnerable and you begin to see why.
Dowson very clearly has relationships with intelligence agencies who allow his schemesto operate-Siol being just an Irish branch of an intelligence gathering/marketing scam running from here to Serbia.
Mark my word that all their membership details will be harvested and dumped online and Dowson will disappear with the money like he did with the BNP/BF and now the Britain Freedom group.
There;s merit in the tact but Siol has to be destroyed ASAP before it does critical damage to movement. Dowson is a dangerous man.
I know all about the Dowson exposé among other details. It wasn’t really the point I was hoping to address with my original post.
The simple fact is that Síol has been the boldest party in seizing ground that other organisations hoped to claim as their own. Now the rest are eager to knock them out of their lead (a waste of resources imo) – Instead these other parties should be asking hard questions of their own leaders.
Why didn’t Renua or the NP try to advance their own positions by fleshing out a political identity just like Síol has done? This is the most basic step in reaching into the public mind.
The latter has developed on its Catholic ethos, with all the pomp and ceremony, homing in on a very patriotic front, along with forging European alliances. They also ran a charity wing. Now they are building up the home base by investing in a farming venture. This is impressive – if even ran by an agent. You can tell they have professional advisors.
If the strategy is to just be honest and stick to whimsical 9 principles I don’t see how we can bring things to the next level. We need to progress in tandem on a macro scale – i.e. intelligible policies – and micro scale – use timed actions to our advantage, like Síol is doing with the Covid crisis. Pet projects or ideas should be avoided.
I don’t think some parties appreciate just how cryptic their ideas/principles actually are = They can only be understood by the few and don’t inspire anything in average person. Less a call to arms than political theoretics. Síol broke that mold, and that’s very important to understand if will want success.
“Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” – Niccolo Machiavelli
Again its a marketing scam rather than a party-Dowson perfected his MO over the years so its hard for legitimate actors to compete-Siol wil never run for elections or make change-the org is limited as many ex members have found out for simple fact it is just a carpetingbagging operation
Like Britain First its surface deep-I think youre reading into how much McConnell has pursued a target market. No on e does what he and Dowson do because they’re not cynical conmen. Embracing old school Catholic nationalism is a market yes but in the elcetoral sphere a doomed one for time being nevermind having loyalist links.
It cannot be stressed how its all a scam, the food drives don’t exist beyond strongarming donations , the European connections are junk Dowson link nazi groups that are toxic. The level of poison that fool McConnell is brining into the scene is beyond belief.
Whatever about marketing acumen the entire thing a cod by Dowson that will end as it always does with membership details going public and vulnerable people being manipulated into signing away their estates.
I fully agree with what you’re saying regarding Síol and Dowson. I’m quite aware of the history of these characters.
The difference between me and you is I’m honing in on appearances, and you on reality. But the truth is they are both connected / necessary, one is the shadow of the other.
You have to understand that the vast majority put their trust in appearance. That’s how Síol was able to build up a powerbase – By projecting an optical illusion of a political venture. It’s the same with their charity drive, another illusion. To all concerned they are real though.
Other organisations should build a similar halo of appearances (i.e. signal their identities) which can be build up into real content over time. You start with a collective vision, then you make it manifest. This is how collaborative projects work.
The only problem with Síol is that they will never produce tangible results.. Let’s not do things that way..
Now that we’ve seen it I hope we can learn valuable lessons. At the moment the other parties are floundering in dogmatism, ‘proving their principles’ = even going so far as to fight with agitators. Síol was in the background making hay. That’s all I want to say.
Big-brained take there Ralph. I like Siol, even if the relationship with Dowson is suspect. I cant stand all this infighting a la Nathan Collins’s comments, but then again I’m a “jesusfreak” not unlike most of our ancestors.
Did our ancestors also work with hard-line loyalists?
Well Síol na hEireann do have a marketing professional behind them. You have to give Dowson credit, he knows what disaffected demographic to go after. Whether he’s to be trusted or not is doubtful.
Dowson absolutely cannot be trusted, there s a reason he isn’t in the clinker and that likely is cus he cuts deal with intelligence agencies, his work with Knights Templar is dodgy in the Balkans nevermind overt fraud with the BNP/BF etc
Complete cordon sanitare is needed not just around Siol but Dowson and British far right in general. Too many spook, toon many swindlers.
The man is toxic, fact Siol even exists an absolute disgrace for the amount of gullibility required to trust an 70IQ Donegal sheep farmer and a Orange order fraudster with money. Sick of nationalism being betrayed by low intelligence morons like the gobshites who cannot see Siol is a total fraud.
Asks to put trust in appearance to an outfit that doesnt even appear.