David Quinn
Fr Paul Murphy, the army chaplain stabbed multiple times on his way into Renmore army barracks in Galway last Thursday night, was very fortunate to escape with his life, and it seems, without any long-term, life-altering incidents.
The alleged assailant was a 16-year-old who cannot be named because of his age. Gardai have established that he had been reposting material from Islamist terrorist organisations such as ISIS, and his online activity had been noticed by Gardai and therefore he was on a watchlist.
Gardai raided the family home of the boy to take away evidence that will enable them to discover what else he was looking at online.
A Garda source told The Irish Independent: “The expectation is that more incriminating evidence will be found on these devices, but gardaí are aware that this individual had been reposting fairly disturbing material from organisations affiliated with terror groups such as Isis (IS) and Al-Qa’ida in recent months.”
Agitated
It appears the boy, who has since been charged and refused bail, was particularly agitated about the presence of Irish soldiers in the African nation of Mali, where they acted as peace-keepers for 10 years up to last September. Mali has a strong ISIS presence.
Catholics will have found it particularly disturbing that the victim was a priest, although he was probably not attacked for that reason.
Fr Murphy is originally from Waterford, and reacting to the attack, the bishop of Waterford and Lismore, Phonsie Cullinan, said that the attack had “left us all in shock and mourning”.
He said that the Church “stands firmly behind him” and he urged “members of our congregation to keep him in their thoughts and prayers as he navigates through this painful experience.”
There was political reaction too. Taoiseach Simon Harris, Tanaiste Micheal Martin and Justice Minister Helen McEntee all condemned the attack and wished Fr Paul Murphy well.
But what was very noticeable about the political reaction is less what was said, and more what was not said.
There is no doubt that some ISIS fighters came from Ireland. This revelation caused few political ripples at the time. It’s like we didn’t want to know”
Most importantly, there was no attempt on the part of our political leaders to link the attack to any wider pattern in Irish society. While the assault on Fr Murphy seems to have been an isolated one in the sense that the alleged attacker was acting alone and appears to have no connection with a wider network, our politicians have shown a singular lack of curiosity as to whether other lone individuals are being radicalised, and radicalised specifically by the sort of Islamist ideologies that have produced the likes of ISIS.
When ISIS was at its peak a few years ago, individual Muslim men were flocking to join it in places like Syria and Iraq from all over Europe, including Ireland. According to one ISIS operative who was interviewed by Newstalk in 2015, around 40 ISIS fighters had been recruited in Ireland.
Maybe he was exaggerating, but there is no doubt that some ISIS fighters came from Ireland. This revelation caused few political ripples at the time. It’s like we didn’t want to know.
And who can forget Lisa Smith, the former Irish soldier who converted to Islam, was radicalised and then travelled to Syria to join ISIS? That was an extraordinary story.
But the big question which should have been debated at the time was this: how did something like that happen?
In 2018, a man was imprisoned for raising money for ISIS in Ireland. Who was he raising money from? How many ISIS sympathisers were (are) living here?
Do you remember widespread media or political analysis of any of this at the time? When Lisa Smith was discovered in a camp in Syria after ISIS was defeated in that country, some politicians expressed sympathy towards her, almost as if she was an innocent tourist trapped abroad in a conflict zone, rather than someone who had gone out there willingly.
Raging
If there was currently a civil war raging in some country overseas between an obviously fascist side and some other faction (as in the Spanish Civil War), what would we think if dozens of Irish people went out to join the fascist side?
There would undoubtedly be a national hue and cry and a demand to find out how this was happening, who exactly was being radicalised, who was doing the recruiting, and how extensive this tendency was in Irish society.
The incredible thing is that in the days following the attack on Fr Murphy, most of the analysis in the media concerned the Irish far-right, and not Islamism at all. The attack was used as an excuse to discuss the process of radicalisation generally speaking, but then with a particular focus on the far-right, and how the far-right is radicalised via the internet.
This is despite the fact the Fr Murphy’s alleged attacker appears to have been radicalised online and inspired by Islamist ideology.
Is the attack on Fr Murphy a totally isolated case, or are other young people being radicalised in this country by Islamist material online?”
In other words, the attack on Fr Murphy is not being properly analysed. Why is that? The number one reason is almost certainly that the political and media establishment do not want to feed any ill-will towards the Muslim community here and is worried that the far-right in Ireland might use the attack on Fr Murphy as an opportunity to recruit new members and turn more people against Irish Muslims.
This is an understandable concern. But it cannot allow us to turn a blind eye to what might be happening here, and what has undoubtedly always happened. Several dozen people do not leave Ireland to join ISIS for no reason. Money was not raised for ISIS here for no reason. There were obviously networks of some kind in existence.
Is the attack on Fr Murphy a totally isolated case, or are other young people being radicalised in this country by Islamist material online?
Have we radicalisers living and operating in Ireland?
Refusal
The refusal to allow issues like the above to be aired will end up having the opposite from the intended effect. Instead of being filled with facts, and sane voices, the void will be filled by rumour and extreme voices.
The ostrich-like response to the attack on Fr Murphy, the refusal to contemplate whether it might be linked to something wider, represents a colossal failure on the part of our politicians in particular, but also much of the media, to serve the public properly and honestly.