As the rise of the far-right is becoming a growing concern in Ireland, we look at the work of an overseas activist, Patrik Hermansson, who went undercover to discover more about the movement.

Concerns about far-right and anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland have been raised following the riots that took place in Dublin on November 23.

As a result of the events, people are asking questions about the scale of influence from a number of people in the country with fringe right-wing views. People are also asking questions about An Garda Siochána and whether they have enough intelligence to predict such unrest.

As of now, Ireland doesn’t have a large far-right following in comparison to other countries, but many analysts are saying that the increase is concerning.

Patrik Hermansson is one person who knows the potential dangers posed from fringe right-wing ideologues and how gathering intelligence on them involves a great deal of difficulty.

Hermansson is a Swedish anti-racism campaigner and working with the advocacy group Hope Not Hate, he spent a year infiltrating the white nationalist movement (mainly in the UK) under an assumed identity. He spoke to Katie Hannon on Upfront: The Podcast about what he went through during his time undercover.

“While most meetings are religious talk, those could sometimes spiral into very explicit endorsement of violence and hate. I sat in a meeting where they applauded the killing of 48 people in Pulse nightclub in Florida back in 2016.

“As a gay man, that was quite a scary moment. And there were other sort of near misses and times where they spoke about what they would do to anti-fascists and journalists,” he continued.

The anti-racism campaigner also spoke about his time undercover in the US, where he crossed paths with members of far-right groups who identified themselves as national socialists and Nazis.

“I went to meetings and social things like barbecues on the west coast of the US. They imagined a war between white people and black people in the US and they were sort of training for it.

“While I was with them, they all had weapons on them. They talked about what they would do to anti-fascists and black people and Jews and migrants.”

Hermansson had to create a backstory for his attempts at infiltrating the extreme groups. He said was an exchange student in London, because he knew they were taking an interest in people who were academically minded.

“In order to get inside a group you have to create an identity to separate your real self from this new person. You have to have a backstory that makes sense of why you came to these views, which you actually don’t hold.

“I come from Sweden, and Sweden at this point in time had been made kind of an example of a country with high migration that led to lots of issues. So, I put myself up as being quite upset with this migration and now I was here studying in London, and I wanted to do something about it,” he continued.

The campaigner also told Hannon how social media played a huge role in how he got access to these far-right groups.

“I commented on their YouTube channels and their Facebook and just, you know, thumbs up and said I was interested in things to sort of bolster up the identity a little bit. So that got a bit of recognition essentially. And then eventually I sent an email and I asked, ‘Can I come?'”

One of the groups Hermansson attended was the London Forum, a very secretive meeting that has an international attendance. “They tried to intellectualise racism, use statistics and data to show that there were differences between white and black people, essentially. So, people from Europe and the US came and spoke at these conferences,” he shared.

“Nothing was filmed. Member lists were very tightly controlled. There were background checks on everyone who attended. The locations were secret and it’s essentially a sort of a hub.”

Hermansson spoke of how he believes that both Donald Trump being elected into the White House and the Brexit referendum have big parts to play in strengthening the rise of the far-right.

“Brexit definitely helped. And there was this idea of a wave of far-right parties in Europe that could have won as well with Front National in France and stuff. And that didn’t really go as they had hoped. But there was this sense that there was Trump, there was Brexit, something’s changing in our society in their direction.

“As individuals, they’re just people. Often, they have quite sad backstories, and you can have some empathy for them. I never liked them. It’s very hard when they cannot go five minutes without expressing their extreme ideas,” he added.

Patrik Hermansson also referred to Ireland never having a fascist party rule the country and cautions against any potential complacency.

“It’s very important not to be complacent and believe that we are somehow different. In Ireland or the UK, we have never had a fascist party in government and therefore we are somehow immune towards it.

“That’s a very dangerous way of thinking. So, we always have to be vigilant and that’s why organisations like Hope Not Hate keep trying to raise awareness of these issues,” he also said.

You can listen to Katie Hannon’s full discussion with Patrik Hermansson on Upfront: The Podcast here.