Spare me the so-called ‘true patriots’ who preach about freedom

There are always those who preach about “freedom”, but only their own. This week three years ago, at the height of Covid, some of them paraded around maskless in Dublin city centre with their “patriotism” wrapped in the national flag, roaring “traitor” and “paedo”, threatening to lynch public figures while hurling fireworks at gardaí – three of whom ended up in hospital.

Despite the “patriot” tag, the language, aggression and symbolism were lifted wholesale from the Donald Trump/QAnon playbook, along with a heavy supplement of English white supremacy.

Last week in Celbridge, Co Kildare, a few kilometres from where I live, the same roars and obscenities were heard, the same fouling of the national flag, the fireworks hurled at gardaí – this time outside a hotel which had been housing asylum seekers for some time.

Hours beforehand, locals were talking about a Twitter/X post from Fergus Power, whose online bio reads: “Husband, Father, Patriot of éiRe [flag] God Wins – We win [joined hands emoji].” It was sent at 11.50am on February 27th, and was headlined “Major Incident Celbridge”.

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Since Power and his sidekicks rejoice in the title of “citizen journalist” while loudly denouncing the mainstream media, it’s worth reprinting his post for contrast. His technique should also be plainly understood, including by those who are not on social media. He began by making an allegation of a sexual assault on a young child, by a group of men whom he claimed were not Irish.

He said: “The police have tried to cover it up allegedly going so far as to have the child taken to hospital by taxi instead of an ambulance so as not to bring any attention [flag]. Apparently they have not made any arrests as of yet? & that distraught child & her family were brought back to Celbridge Manor after the hospital.

“The police, MSM & the monsters In this Government will not want this story getting out – They actively try cover them up & have been Doing for months & months now to keep their seedy, money scheme and agenda up [flag]. I don’t care what nationality this little girl is – She is an innocent child who has been hurt & defiled in the worst possible way. Her precious innocence stolen & every one involved & responsible for this heinous & depraved attack must be exposed & held to account including the soulless demons trying to cover it up? [flag]

“THIS HAS TO STOP – MAKE A STAND NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE [flag] JOIN SOUTH DUBLIN SAYS NO & OTHER CONCERNED PARENTS FOR A PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY AT 6.30PM [flag] GOD BLESS ALL IN THIS FIGHT & MAY HE BLESS THAT POOR INNOCENT LITTLE BABY & HER FAMILY flag and joined hands emoji] éiRe GO BRAGH [flag].”

Note the detailed yet hands-off language, not least the question marks (there were seven in all) after key statements, confirming that not a single one has been verified. When an account called “Dublin city centre says no” posted a short version, someone asked for a source or fact-check. “We will be left waiting for mainstream media to report the fakuggeee [sic] attacks,” came the reply.

Perhaps the anonymous poster was genuinely ignorant of the laws around the reporting of an alleged sexual attack on an identifiable child in an identified building. Perhaps some of Power’s 16,000 Twitter/X followers wondered why three EU citizens would be in the kind of place he routinely refers to as “plantations” and “people trafficking centres”. Perhaps a few of them wondered why MSM news reports don’t come riddled with question marks.

Maybe a handful of them even saw the problem with gathering to roar abuse at people who had already been brutalised, according to Power’s report.

The mob that assembled offered only screaming verbal aggression towards the adults and children inside – “Get them out”, “Paedos out”, “Deport them now!”, “Animals”– and again, the fireworks. There was talk of burning the place down.

Power, who is from south Dublin, was there to report a “big turn out” and post a video. He was careful to distance himself from what he described as “agitators masked up & screaming for violence & making threats towards the police and security staff – true patriots do not act in this manner. If anything happens it was orchestrated to paint us in a bad light. Just like the riots in November [flag]”. His citizen journalism did not extend to identifying or interviewing the scary agitators.

His original tweet had vanished, but he later retweeted contributors who demanded to know why An Garda Síochána, which got so agitated about misinformation, was taking so long to clear up the rumours. The circularity was dazzling.

Next day, the gardaí, limited in what they could say, described an allegation of “physical abuse” perpetrated against a child by an “adult directly known to them”. But by then, the damage was done.

These posts and the resulting “assembly” had a real-life, ongoing effect on a town beyond the regular Twitter hate-fests or protests about over-stretched resources. They were based on a concoction of unverified allegations against a group of specified origin, purportedly within the grounds of a highly sensitive asylum centre. It raises the question of where they would sit between the notion of merely obnoxious, honest-mistake free speech and the crime of incitement to hatred – with its threshold of intent or recklessness – contained in the so-called Hate Speech Bill.

Where do we draw the line?