Posing as patriots, Ireland's far right cheers on Israel

Hermann Kelly (holding microphone), a prominent figure in Ireland’s extreme right.
Arthur Widak ZUMA Press

Only someone with a callous mindset would want the pleas of people under Israeli bombardment to be ignored.

Hermann Kelly, a well-known figure in Ireland’s extreme right, has displayed that kind of mindset.

When a family with Irish citizenship had their flights from Beirut canceled recently, they requested that the Dublin government help them to leave Lebanon. Everything about the family’s request looked reasonable: They were seeking safety from Israel’s airstrikes.

Kelly saw things differently. Jumping on X (formerly Twitter), he alleged – without producing a shred of evidence – that the family had probably made a false asylum claim.

Leading the Irish Freedom Party, Kelly will be a candidate in an imminent general election. When he is not “honing” his campaign strategy, Kelly follows the news from the Middle East.

He has described Hizballah as “Islamo-fascist” and Irish people sympathetic towards it as “far-left loons.” Almost two weeks ago, he commented that “it’s great to see Islamo-fascism getting wiped out in Beirut.”

It is hard to take accusations of fascism seriously when they come from a hardcore bigot like Hermann Kelly.

Leaving that matter aside, Kelly’s remarks must be interpreted as applause for Israel’s attacks on Hizballah, an organization formed as a response to Israel’s murderous 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

They must also be interpreted as approval for recent violence by the Israeli state against Lebanon. Hundreds of civilians were wiped out – to use Kelly’s words – in the week he made those comments.

Although there was no ambiguity about his approval for Israel’s offensive, Kelly felt the need to issue a “clarification” when he drew a predictably hostile response from some social media users.

“I never mentioned Israel,” the “clarification” stated, adding that the “issue of Israel-Palestine is irrelevant to the advancement of Ireland.”

Kelly’s argument calls into question whether he is really as anti-establishment as he purports to be.

Palestine is indeed irrelevant for Ireland’s “advancement” if you measure such things in purely financial terms. Anyone totally devoted to attracting foreign direct investment – regarded as sacrosanct by Ireland’s mainstream politicians – would advocate absolute subservience toward Washington, including the abandonment of any concern (genuine or fake) for Palestinian freedom.

Yet there are quite a few Irish people who can distinguish right from wrong. To advance Ireland in a moral sense, standing up for an oppressed people is surely vital, especially given that there are strong parallels between what Ireland and Palestine have endured.

Serving Ireland or Britain?

Despite posing as an Irish patriot, not much time has elapsed since Kelly was a diligent servant of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). He worked for UKIP in Brussels when Britain was still part of the European Union.

I have obtained a 2014 email message that Kelly sent to Roger Helmer, then a UKIP lawmaker, who has tried to defend Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank.

“Please keep out of all Israel-Palestine debates and disputes,” the message reads. “UKIP is here to restore British democracy, not become involved in other disputes which divide our electorate.”

Where exactly do Kelly’s loyalties lie?

A decade ago, he was striving to “restore British democracy.” Now his focus is on the “advancement of Ireland.”

Does he serve Ireland or its old imperial master, Britain?

While Kelly has a tendency to tie himself in knots, other figures on Ireland’s hard right have expressed support for Israel more clearly.

John McGuirk runs a “conservative” website called Gript.

On 9 October last year, McGuirk published an article which offered excuses for the genocide that Israel was beginning to commit on Gaza. McGuirk even alleged that Hamas would deliberately place “weapons and missile systems” inside hospitals, schools and mosques and dare the Israelis to strike them.

David Quinn, another “conservative” pundit, has been cheering on Israel as it bombs Lebanon.

In an article for The Irish Catholic earlier this month, Quinn sought to mislead his readers about Zionism, Israel’s official ideology.

“‘Zionism,’ a now hated term associated in the minds of many people with Nazism, is simply Jewish nationalism, similar to Irish nationalism and our desire to have an independent Ireland where we could control our own destiny,” Quinn wrote.

That is codswallop.

Zionism is centered around the colonization of Palestine and the expulsion of its Indigenous people. Irish nationalism is centered around resistance to the country’s colonization by Britain – the same Britain which sponsored the Zionist project in Palestine.

While Ireland’s extremists enjoy making absurd arguments, the threat they pose is very real. They have instigated racist riots on the streets of Dublin and torched a planned accommodation center for refugees.

Unlike most other EU countries, Ireland was able to claim until quite recently that the far right was not a serious political force. That changed over the summer when overt bigots won a number of seats on local authorities.

Undoubtedly, the far right is now hoping that it will soon be represented in the Oireachtas, Ireland’s parliament.

The Ditch – Dublin’s best team of journalists – has been exposing how munitions destined for Israel are flying through Irish airspace. Given the stance taken by the far right’s chief “intellectuals” on Israel, we must assume that such flights gladden their cold hearts.