Let's talk about the Irish far-right/neo-nazi telegram ecosystem.

For our jumping-off point, let's take this list of channels that @gearoidmurphy_ shared.

cw: violence, every kind of hatred

This started out as an attempt to document the people Murphy seems proud to be listed alongside, and by extension an explanation of he can now reasonably be called an unflinching neo-nazi.

But I think it's worth discussing more generally how exteme and numerous these people are

"Ireland's Woes"

-virulent antisemitism
-delighting in violence against antifascist protestors
-calling for trans health advocates to be lynched

It also regularly shares content from a channel called "Fuhrerious" which is a global neo-Nazi information network

Then there's "Ireland knows", which is almost exclusively full of antisemitism and is explicitly pro-Hitler.

Also makes reference to the idea of "Judeo-Bolshevism" as popularised by the nazis in the 30s and 40s, which continues to animate the far-right today.

"Edgy Memes na hÉireann" is a fun one. More antisemitism, including explicitly pro-holocaust 'jokes'. Also bog-standard transphobia/homophobia packaged as "protect our children", though less subtle than it sometimes is. And plenty of anti-Black racism.

"Irish Patriots":

-Antisemitic conspiracy theories
-Explicit and proud ethnonationalosm
-Pushing of the common racist/antisemitic "great replacement" conspiracy theory - and promising some unspecified retribution against those they consider responsible

"Irish real media":

-White nationalist scaremongering, fearing that immigration and racial diversity will bring "more degeneracy"
-Misogyny with reference to the Bible
-Connecting themselves with the BNP, an explicitly white supremacist and fascist group

"M269 Gang":

A group for disseminating stickers with racist and xenophobic messages

"Orlared" is just deeply, continuously racist.

There are many many more, but these are some of the most active.

Sub lists are only visible to the channel owners, and most are probably anonymous accounts anyway. These channels regularly share from each other, and there seems to be significant audience crossover.

What's the takeaway from this?

-Murphy is an out and out nazi. He supports, shares posts from, is supported by, and is shared by these violent, racist, extremist group and is happy appearing on a list with them. He has 7k YouTube subscribers, a huge reach. This is worrying.

-These groups are part of a network on the less-public parts of the internet, and serve as discussion forums and planning venues for the exteme far-right in Ireland. They're well-conected and eager to increase their public reach.

-The largest of these groups have thousands of members.
-They're well-connected to European and global networks of white supremacists, neo-nazis, and other fun characters.

-Given the shockingly explicit nature of these groups, they're more of a gathering place for extremists than a place where people are radicalised. But they regularly talk about their connections to less radical groups like Health Freedom Ireland and Yellow Vest Ireland...

...(organisers of last week's protest), and how they can be leveraged to draw people further down the extremist rabbit hole. They're conscious of the pipeline from "concerned about lockdown regulations" to neo-nazism, and seek to widen it.

-The National Party's official telegram channel is on that list. These people consider the National Party to be representative of their interests. Anyone who's soothed by the NP's willingness to participate in the electoral process should lose that illusion.

So yeah. The protest on Saturday was bad, but there's an established extremist network which stands to benefit from how mixed up the "anti-mask", anti-5G and antivaxer movements have become with Qanon and far-right groups.