According to a study of online activity, most posts on platform X, discussing the anti-immigration demonstrations in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow that took place last week, originated from outside Ireland. Asylum seeker accommodation was targeted in the Co Wicklow town, as the site descended into chaos last Thursday. Protesters tried to halt construction workers from pursuing work, escalating into conflicts with law enforcement officers who used force and pepper spray to control the crowd. Garda vehicles sustained damage in the altercation and six arrests were made for public order offences.
The conflicts spurred a considerable number of anti-immigration responses on social media, often propagating misleading information regarding the event. Based on data analysed by Sky News through their social media scanner, Talkwalker, less than a fifth of the posts pertaining to the incident were from Irish social media users.
During the day of the protests, platform X, previously known as Twitter, noted 26,801 mentions of Newtownmountkennedy, escalating to 53,907 on the following day. The analysis reveals that more than half of these posts were from US-based users, whilst merely 21 percent were from Irish users and just fewer than 9.6 percent were from UK users.
Looking at the five posts that drew the most interaction, three hailed from non-Irish accounts. One such post from Tommy Robinson, a UK far-right activist, about the protests gathered 42,500 responses. Another pattern identified was usage of the anti-immigration hashtags “Ireland is for the Irish” and “Ireland is full”. Amongst the users who posted this, more than half were US based. Alex Jones, a notorius US conspiracy theory promoter, was amongst those who used the phrase, garnering 10,500 responses.
The study exposes the part played by global figures, including prominent US political commentators, of promoting Irish anti-immigration viewpoints overseas. The activity is similar to social media behaviour during the Dublin riots last November, where anti-immigration posts concerning Ireland were predominantly found to be originating from overseas users.
Following the occurrences of November 23rd, the phrase “Irish lives matter” saw a surge in popularity, particularly in the United States. It was utilised about 7,000 times in the US and UK, in contrast with just below 4,000 usages in Ireland. Moreover, the statement “Ireland is for the Irish” was cited 105,000 times by a total of 39,000 users. Interestingly, only slightly above 10,500 instances of its use were from Irish users, with 20,000 coming from users in the US and UK.
Criticism was aimed at the X platform by the Government in the wake of the riots, accusing the platform of neglecting to remove posts that instigated violence and disorder. These allegations, however, were denied by the platform.