Since the riots erupted in Dublin in late November over the attempted stabbing of three children by a naturalized Algerian citizen of Ireland, commentators the world over have started examining Ireland’s proposed hate-speech law, which the Taoiseach and other members of government urged to be passed in the wake of the violence. A substrate of commentary, from Ireland itself, has focused on the fact that there really is no “far right” in Ireland — not in the way it’s understood in the rest of Europe, where a party defined by its stance on immigration makes headway. The “far right” in Ireland is more correctly analogized to Covid, wrote author Conor Fitzgerald. Nobody knows anyone who identifies as far right. You wouldn’t ask Covid for its opinion, or try to compromise with it. You see it as an impersonal but comprehensive threat.

And yet, even as nobody identifies with the far right, perhaps immigration views are becoming more common, if not commonly shared. A new poll from Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks shows that twice as many people would support an anti-immigration party or candidate now than would have in 2021. Forty-six percent of those polls said they have views on immigration they would be “slow to share in public.” Well, that’s not surprising, given the fact that the government has announced its anxiety to imprison people who share unapproved views on immigration.