Call for Contributions

With the emergence of a more multicultural and multi-racial society in the 1990s, the standard wisdom in the Republic of Ireland was that the country was luckily avoiding the evils of far-right extremism; xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments would supposedly be avoided. In more recent years, this has proved to be more hope than factual analysis. With violent and even fatal assaults on refugees and immigrants, conspiracy-prone sects and riots, it is clear that a home-grown far-right has emerged.  The riots that took place in Dublin city centre in November 2023 highlighted the growth of domestic racism and were also seized upon by the far-right media internationally.  In the Republic’s local elections of 2024 for the first time since the 1940s openly fascist candidates gained seats.  Zooming out to a broader historical view, this is hardly surprising; twentieth-century Irish history is replete with religious conservatism, anti-communism, antisemitism, populism, ultra-nationalism and anti-feminism and homophobia.  Plus, as race becomes a more central category of Irish historiographical analysis, it is increasingly being recognized that Irish nationalism has long operated within an implied whiteness.

In this edited volume, we aim to trace the genealogies of the Irish far-right in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Diaspora. More specifically we aim to show how far-right politics played a determining role within the Irish Diaspora, connecting activists both at “home” and in global Irish communities.  In addition, as has become evident since 2016, the far-right is an inherently transnational phenomenon; so also in Ireland. Catholic conspiracists like Fr. Denis Fahey were in regular contact with Charles Coughlin in Detroit and Adrien Arcand in Quebec during the 1930s. Contemporary Irish fascists were influenced by movements in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France. By the 1950s the leaders of Ailtirí na hAiséirghe were corresponding with American and European fascists, while veterans of the Waffen SS who had been given refuge in Ireland were associating with nascent Nazi groups. Francis Parker Yockey, Oswald Mosley and Otto Skorzeny lived in Ireland for periods, while George Lincoln Rockwell visited the country in the 1960s. While British fascists generally espoused an extreme loyalism during the modern Troubles, more recently the influence of the American and British far-right has been vital to the emergence of their new southern Irish counterparts.

Scholarly investigation of this topic has been limited. There is a need for a historical overview with a multi-disciplinary and transnational perspective to understand this phenomenon and place it in context. In addition, given the obvious political relevance of these issues, our goal is to produce a book that is academically rigorous but also written in an open, accessible and jargon-free style.

We are especially interested in contributions on the following topics and potential clustered under the following headings:

Far-Right Ideas                                                            

• Anti-feminism
• Homophobia and transphobia
• Anti-Communism
• Antisemitism
• Fascism and anti-fascism

Organizations

• Ultra-religious groups
• The Blueshirts
• Youth Defence
• Irish Christian Front
• Glúin na Buaidhe
• Maria Duce
• Ailtirí na hAiséirghe
• The National Movement
• National Socialist Irish Workers Party

Global Connections

• Far-right influences on republicanism
• Ulster Loyalism & the British far-right   
• Fascist & Nazi refugees in Ireland                                  
• Anti-Abortion activism                                              
• Ian Paisley and American segregationists
• The IRA and EOKA
• Anti-Traveller movements in Ireland & the UK
• Irish involvement in British far-right organisatons
• Irish migrants & settler colonial white

 The Far-Right Diaspora

• Charles Coughlin
• Denis Fahey
• Peter King, Irish Americans and the New Right in America
• Scots-Irish involvement in the Klan and southern segregationist groups
• Irish symbolism and the culture of American police
• Irish Nativism in 19th century America supremacy

In addition, we are interested in any research on any relevant topics from the nineteenth century to today.

We welcome contributions from those a at all stages of their academic careers as well as researchers and activists from outside academia.  A proposal for this book will be submitted to a major international academic publisher.

Please submit a short abstract (250-400 words) by 30th November 2024

• Dr. Brian Hanley, Trinity College Dublin, HANLEYBR@tcd.ie
• Dr. Aidan Beatty, Carnegie Mellon University, AIDANBEA@andrew.cmu.edu