Be careful about what you read on restaurant review sites, especially this summer. Let us take the example of one remarkably picky customer. In the past week, he has left one-star reviews for 22 restaurants and bars around the country.
On closer inspection, the venues he reviews all share a common theme: they are complying with the Government’s vaccine certification system, which was introduced last week to allow premises to open for indoor dining.
“A pint of discrimination please,” he says of the Harp Bar in Cork.
"Part of the two-tier society" is the feedback given for the Orphan Girl in Wexford in another review.
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The individual is part of a small army of internet users that has been mobilised to target premises going along, often reluctantly, with the Government’s Covid-19 reopening plans.
Anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown groups are instructing followers to engage in what is known as “review bombing”. Others have suggested pickets, or making bookings, but then never showing up.
More seriously, some business owners have reported receiving threatening emails and phone calls.
Restaurants are not the only victims. Gardaí have noted an increase in threats to politicians and public health officials since the vaccine certificate legislation was passed in the Dáil earlier this month.
There has been huge resistance to the legislation from across the political spectrum; all but one of the Opposition parties voted against it in the Dáil for various reasons.
For public figures, the worry is that threatening online rhetoric will turn into real-world danger
But the most extreme reaction has come from a minority on the right, who have opposed almost every action taken by the State to tackle Covid-19 since it arrived on Irish shores in March 2020.
“There has been an aspect of very strong sort of anti-establishment sentiment since the start of Covid, but recently it has become more intense and more open – and in some cases more threatening,” said one Garda source.
Recently, there has been "a worrying uptick" in specific threats coming from those pushing outlandish Covid conspiracy theories, says Aoife Gallagher, an analyst with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a counter-extremism organisation.
For restaurants, the worry is that staff will be abused and they will lose business: a single negative online review on Tripadvisor or Google can damage a restaurant for years. For public figures, the worry is that threatening online rhetoric will turn into real-world danger.
"Unleash hell" was the advice of one popular Irish Covid conspiracy theorist to his 30,000 YouTube subscribers last week when talking about the premises that are obeying the State's vaccine cert rules.
“Destroy them on Tripadvisor and other sites. One star, bad review,” he said, before encouraging viewers to leave the names of businesses in the comments below.
On Facebook, groups have been established to promote businesses that have not reopened and to call for boycotts of those that have. Some share the Facebook posts of businesses that are reopening and encourage their followers to leave negative comments underneath.
One anti-lockdown group, which has more than 50,000 members, has promised to picket “the worst offenders”.
Perhaps the most high-profile group to get involved in the call for boycotts – though not anything more extreme – is the far-right Irish Freedom Party.
"There must be consequences for all those who have supported and gone along with this legislation," party leader Hermann Kelly told his followers. "Businesses which are participating in this draconian legislation must feel the heat of boycott from the Irish people."
JP McMahon has started requiring customers' credit card details before taking their booking 'due to the continual threat of fake bookings from people who disagree with the Government's new regulations'
One of those affected by the campaign is Pascal Wrenn, who runs two popular cafes in Galway city.
“We put up a post saying we were reopening,” he says. “We got good support from regular customers. And also a load of backlash, all saying the exact same thing.” Comparisons to the actions of the Nazis against the Jews were a common theme, he says.
“We also got a couple of phone calls to members of staff saying ‘You guys are disgusting’. And the poor staff don’t know what to say or do.”
All this made Wrenn nervous about fully reopening. During the pandemic, he and his staff had already “had a few bad situations” with people who refused to wear masks. “Not many but a few.”
Businesses have tried various ways of fighting back. Restaurateur and Irish Times columnist JP McMahon – himself a vocal critic of the vaccine certificate system – has started requiring customers’ credit card details before taking their booking “due to the continual threat of fake bookings from people who disagree with the Government’s new regulations”.
Others have tried to reason with those leaving negative reviews by responding they do not agree with the regulations either but have to get their staff back to work. This is rarely effective.
Wrenn decided it was not worth opening indoors just yet. “I’m pretty tough and I can take the abuse with a pinch of salt. What I didn’t want was abuse for my staff when they are checking vaccine certs at the door.”
The reviews from people “who have never set foot in the place” are of particular concern, he says.
“Social media comments are fine. We can delete them. The issue is when we start getting reviews, especially on Facebook. You can’t really get them taken down. You can report them but they usually don’t get taken down.”
Opposition to the vaccine cert was most evident in a series of protests that took place before the legislation was passed, including one last Saturday at the GPO that attracted as many as 2,000 people.
'You want your vengeance, you can have your vengeance,' she said to cheers. 'I will not open my mouth if you storm the building we're going to, if you take every head out of it and f***ing stand on it'
While many of those who turned up had reasoned objections to the vaccine certification system, the far-right and anti-vaccination activists have sought to insert themselves into the centre of proceedings.
One of these is Dee Wall, a long-time acolyte of journalist-turned-conspiracy theorist Gemma O’Doherty who has recently tried to forge her own path.
Wall, who also goes by Dolores Webster, ran in the Dublin Central constituency in last year's general election, receiving 101 votes.
Last week at a protest outside the Convention Centre, where the Dáil was voting on reopening legislation, Wall addressed the crowd via loud-speaker.
“You want your vengeance, you can have your vengeance,” she said to cheers. “And I will not open my mouth if you storm the building we’re going to, if you take every head out of it and f***ing stand on it.”
Wall, has become a mainstay of anti-lockdown protests and has been visited by the Special Detective Unit over previous threats made against President Michael D Higgins.
She previously called for Higgins to be “pulled from his house and danced on until there is nothing left of his head” and has posed in a T-shirt depicting a mock-up image of her holding a gun above the words “Dee’s Army”.
Around the time the vaccine cert legislation was being debated, a Facebook page – under the name Ben Blacksmith, which heavily promotes Wall's activities – posted the address and home phone number of chief medical officer Tony Holohan.
A short time later, Holohan and his deputy, Ronan Glynn, started receiving disturbing phone calls on their personal numbers. Security measures surrounding senior health officials have since been stepped up, sources say.
Wall did not respond to emailed queries on her recent activities or if she was linked to the Facebook page.
The Dubliner was also present at a protest outside Áras an Uachtaráin that same week, during which demonstrators climbed up the front gate and waved flags. “The people wanted Mickey to know we are coming for u,” the Blacksmith page commented while sharing Wall’s video of the incident.
It is important to realise these people are a small minority, says Wrenn, the Galway cafe owner. 'The problem is that minority is the loudest'
Other abusive rhetoric that has become increasingly common involves making baseless accusations of paedophilia against public officials, a tactic common among adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory in the United States. The YouTuber who advised his followers to "unleash hell" on restaurants often compares those promoting the Covid vaccine to child abusers.
A senior Garda says the force is not aware of any credible threats to officials but that online rhetoric is being monitored.
Social media companies have taken some measures against false or abusive content; the Blacksmith Facebook page has since been disabled, and many of the more prominent conspiracy theorists have seen their accounts deleted in the past year.
In response, some activists have taken to speaking in a sort of code to avoid the algorithms used by social media giants. Vaccines can become “maxines” and Nphet can become “Nefit”.
It is important to realise these people are a small minority, says Wrenn, the Galway cafe owner. “The problem is that minority is the loudest.”
On Tuesday he decided to “unofficially” let a few of his vaccinated customers inside to eat. “People were really nice and really understanding. We feel a lot better now. All that other stuff is obviously just online stuff.”
