An attempt to organise in Ireland by members of the far-right received a setback in April when anti-fascist activists succeeded in halting a meeting in Dublin by Marian Kowalski, a Polish Presidential candidate for the neo-fascist Ruch Narodowy party (The National Movement).
Kowalski, who eventually secured 1% in the May election, was due to speak at the Academy Plaza hotel off O’Connell Street, Dublin, on the evening of Friday, 10th April. Around 100 anti-fascist activists prevented the meeting from going ahead.
The event was then hastily rearranged for the Jurys Inn Hotel on Ormond Quay. This small gathering was disrupted when the venue was attacked and a number of windows broken. Following the events in Dublin, Kowalski was forced to cancel a public meeting in Cork on Sunday, 12th April. His small group of supporters in the city did eventually hold a secret meeting in a mobile phone shop on Patrick’s Street.
The initial peaceful protest in Dublin had been organised at short notice by LookLeft magazine. LookLeft International Editor, Ultán Gillen, said: “In both Dublin and Cork, it has been made clear that people in Ireland reject fascist politics. We do not want this virus spreading through our body politic andinfecting our society.
“Those involved in the peaceful protest against this meeting are conscious of Ireland’s own history as a country marked deeply by emigration and welcome migrants to Ireland.However, what cannot be accepted are attempts to spread fascist politics, whether they come from groups based here or abroad.”
However, a matter of concern for progressive activists was the relative success of Identity Ireland candidate, Peter O’ Loughlin, running on an extreme right-wing and anti-immigrant platform in the Kilkenny-Carlow by-election in May. He received 930 votes.
