At the beginning of November, during a meeting in Athlone to oppose the now abandoned plans to open a large asylum seeker centre in the midlands town, an unidentified man asked for the microphone.
If the legal challenge to the accommodation centre failed, locals would have to face the Garda, he warned.
“Is everybody here prepared to feel the blunt end of a baton? Because that’s what’s coming,” he shouted. “We are at war. It’s an information war. And it’s very simple – you have no choice. You are going to lose your town.”
One person in the crowd said they didn’t recognise the man.
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“I’m local,” the speaker responded. “You don’t need to know me. You’ll find out in time.”
Although the man did not want to give him name, he did reveal he was part of an organisation called Sinne Na Daoine (SnD), which translates to We the People, the opening words of the US Constitution.
Sinne Na Daoine was founded by Anthony Casey, a former Courts Service registrar and a failed candidate for the far-right Irish Freedom Party in last November’s general election.
The organisation is part of a wave of groups which have arisen in the last year with the purpose of sharing information about alleged criminal offending, and in some cases launching “patrols” of local areas.
Others, however, see them as vigilantes.
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What is clear is these groups are primarily interested in offending by a specific cohort of the population: those born outside Ireland.
Launching Sinne Na Daoine as a “watchdog tool for communities” in September, Casey said: “If there is a crime spree in your local town by a certain minority of people and certain areas are beginning to be unsafe, Sinne Na Daoine will flag that.”
In a video since deleted from the organisation’s home page, Casey said: “If the Sinne Na Daoine banner goes up all people from all groups can answer the call. We need deterrence.”
The organisation claims it will share only “verified information”, but a review of its social media postings show several false claims or rumour-based claims.
In a recent post, it claimed the “occupying monks” of Mount Melleray Abbey in Waterford are to be evicted to make way for international protection applicants. In fact, the monks are moving to another residence as part of a consolidation of the Cistercian order in Ireland as a result of falling numbers and ageing members. No decision has been taken on the future of the abbey.
Sinne Na Daoine has received significant support and encouragement in some far-right circles, particularly from activists who believe the future of the movement is in street-level action rather than electoral politics.
However, it has also caused disquiet in the Irish Freedom Party. Following the recent general election and its failure to return a single candidate, the party voted to expel Casey and another man involved in Sinne Na Daoine.
“Two relatively new members of the party had been setting up a vigilante group (SnD) since September with notions of forming a political wing,” Irish Freedom Party leader Hermann Kelly said after the expulsion.
Sinne Na Daoine and similar organisations describe themselves as “watchdogs” or “community safety patrols”. In response to queries Sinne Na Daoine provided a link to its website, which described it as a “professional media company”.
“Our primary goal is to platform people and their communities, having their message heard, when all others seem to ignore them,” the group said.
While Sinne Na Daoine’s activities appear to be mostly focused online for now, other anti-immigrant groups have started routinely patrolling local areas, often with the stated objective of protecting women and children from foreign nationals.
These activists frequently share misinformation about the involvement of asylum seekers in crime or exaggerate minor incidents while calling on people to launch their own patrols.
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The origins of this activity can be traced back to 2023 when anti-immigration campaigners began setting up illegal checkpoints on roads in areas earmarked for asylum seeker accommodation centres.
Checkpoints were set up by vigilante-style groups in Leitrim, Donegal, Clare and Westmeath, an Oireachtas Justice Committee heard in November 2023.
“In Dromahair [in Co Leitrim], there was checkpoints set up, cars were being stopped, being interrogated for ID; we saw that in Inch [in Co Clare] as well, where protesters ordered, demanded ID, took names, took details,” then Green Party TD Patrick Costello told Garda Commissioner Drew Harris during a hearing.
He alleged gardaí did nothing in response. The commissioner replied that gardaí cannot monitor all far-right communication channels.
Far-right activists have launched other initiatives in at least a dozen areas around the country, including in Buncrana, Co Donegal, where a “community watch” founded by Kim McMenamin of The Irish People party has been carrying out street patrols in the town since November 2023.
One group calling itself Roscrea Rise, which regularly posts anti-immigrant content, says it conducts routine patrols of the Tipperary town. Last month it shared warnings about a man who it claimed was “watching” women in the town before driving to Racket Hall, a hotel used to house asylum seeker families.
Another group, the Irish Republican Sisters and Brothers, claims it is carrying out patrols of playgrounds and parks and providing escorts for children and the elderly.
An Garda Síochána did not respond to queries about the legality of these patrols or whether it is taking action to curb them.
Security work is tightly regulated by the Private Security Authority (PSA). Those seeking a security licence must be trained and Garda vetted. Checks are carried out on the “character and competence of any partner, manager, secretary, officer or beneficial owner”, said the PSA’s Keith Nolan.
“Ultimately, we want to ensure that security services are provided by licensed, trained and vetted professionals,” he said.
Most of these vigilante groups appear to have little interest in obtaining a PSA licence. However, some activists have announced plans to go down the official route.
In August, prominent far-right activist Fergus Power, who frequently spreads false information about immigrants, announced plans for a “registered security company” called Grassroots Alliance to perform patrols of Dublin estates. It will be manned by volunteers and funded through “prize draws and raffles etc”, he said.
Also last summer, gangland figure Scott Delaney, who served time in prison as an accessory to murder, announced plans to open a “24-hour security company” which would be stationed in areas around Dublin to “protect our women, our children and our men”.
Even if these men passed the PSA’s good character check, it is not clear that they would be awarded a security licence. Nolan said these types of community patrols do not meet the definition of “licensable security services”.
He said concerns about community safety are best addressed through dialogue and lawful means, “rather than through unauthorised and potentially illegal actions”.
