The knife attack on Defence Forces chaplain Fr Paul F Murphy has underlined the fears within the Garda of a terror attack in the Republic, albeit from a different type of extremism.
In the post-pandemic period the atmosphere in the Republic has become more charged around the issue of migration. The far right has become emboldened and violent.
Senior Garda officers have been increasingly concerned about the prospect of a serious attack on a politician. Recent arrests over the alleged harassment and intimidation of politicians by the far right have been designed to reduce the comfort zone around targeting elected representatives.
And that has been done for fear that somebody – likely a lone-wolf attacker – may take up the rhetoric of the far right and violently target a politician, perhaps fatally as has happened in Britain.
The knife attack on Fr Murphy has all the hallmarks of that feared dynamic; a lone actor, radicalised to the point of extreme violence. However, the suspect in Thursday night’s incident, a 16-year-old teenager, appears to have been prompted by extremist views relating to the Defence Forces’ deployment overseas, rather then being connected to the far right.
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While the investigation into precisely what happened, and why it occurred, is at an early stage, several worrying lines of inquiry have emerged. Gardaí believe the boy has been radicalised into harbouring extreme views, specifically around the deployment of Defence Forces troops to Mali.
The Irish deployment to the African country – as part of the European Union Training Mission in Mali (EUTM Mali) – was withdrawn entirely last year. It is still unclear as to what the boy’s objection to that mission was.
The boy is a resident of Galway and has family based there, though they are also believed to have lived in the UK for a period. Gardaí suspect he was radicalised online or by associates – perhaps a combination of both – leading him to strike out at about 10.45pm outside Renmore Barracks, Co Galway, when Fr Murphy was driving into the facility.
During the incident Fr Murphy was stabbed several times and appears to have been targeted simply because he happened to be on his way into the barracks.
When two Defence Forces personnel intervened to stop the attack, five warning shots being fired.
The incident is being treated as terrorism related and the Garda’s Special Detective Unit, which specialises in investigating terrorism, is carrying out the inquiry. The involvement of that unit – and the fact the Garda’s Armed Support Unit responded to the incident on Thursday night – underlines the gravity of the attack.
A comprehensive investigation has already begun into the teenager’s background. This included a search at a property linked to him, while he was in custody. His phones and laptop were taken for analysis. Other devices have also been seized and some of the boy’s associates have been spoken to part of the Garda’s efforts to establish the precise motives for the attack.
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Though the incident will result in a review of security at Defence Forces facilities around the country, it appears at this early stage that the Galway attack is not part of a wider conspiracy. That means the boy is believed to have acted alone, and of his own volition, rather than the incident being the work of just one member of a larger terrorist cell with associates waiting to strike.
However, even if that is proven, gardaí will still be under significant pressure to get to the bottom of the knife attack very quickly, bring criminal charges and report their findings to the Government. Though there are no known links to the far right, the incident also underlines the challenges that could emerge if increasingly hostile public discourse, and violent protests, by those opposed to migration are allowed to spiral.
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