Suppressed news on Jihadi attacks in Ireland

By Robert Harris

The Irish Examiner, a progressive-left news source, reported, on the 7th of January 2025 (hat-tip, Esmerelda), that:

“Authorities believe that a recent murder in Ireland was motivated by violent jihadist radicalisation, the Irish Examiner has learned.

It is thought to be the first murder in Ireland linked to radical Islamist terrorism. Details of the death cannot be provided as proceedings are under way in the case.

The development follows collaboration between security services here and in another jurisdiction.

The suspected motivation behind this murder, which happened in recent years, has not become public knowledge before.”

As indicated by the rather circumspect wording, it turns out It makes it clear in this article  by the same reporter, Cormac O’Keeffe, (‘New culture needed to fight radicalisation’, Irish Examiner, 7th of January 2025) that the reports on the incident have been suppressed by the authorities:

“… Ireland, which is believed to have had two alleged jihadist-inspired terror attacks in recent years by individuals — both radicalised online. One of these alleged incidents, the Irish Examiner has learned, led to a fatality. This was not known publicly previously and, as court proceedings are underway, no further details can be provided.”

Since there was no prior public disclosure, it may be inferred that important facts about the story were suppressed from the outset, not merely due to a court order.

The suppressed presumed-murder is of course not the first Jihadi murder in Ireland, whether inspired with online involvement or not – given the widespread suppression of news on other attacks in this particular jurisdiction.

In 2018 a Muslim man went on a stabbing rampage in Dundalk. Co. Louth;  he was found not guilty by reason of insanity by the courts despite radical religious documents having been found at his residence. Media commentary on motivation was thin on the ground but the Irish News reported that Mohammed Morei, a migrant,  had declared his allegiance to ISIS, and it is claimed on social media that the attacks in Dundalk were committed while this perpetrator was shouting  ‘Allah Akbar’.

In 2022, Yousef Palani murdered two gay men in County Sligo. The murders caused much soul-searching of endemic homophobia in Irish society, with the Catholic Church  singled out in particular, which echoes the media response to the murder of UK MP David Amess, where the murder was somehow cast as due to intemperate online debate. However, the violent intensity of the hate crime thankfully stood out as a rare if not unprecedented occurrence in Ireland, where one of the men was beheaded. It would turn out that the murderer was of a Muslim foreign (Iraqi-Kurdish) background although he had grown up in Ireland since he was six. Unfortunately there was no clarity on the motive because Palani would play along with exaggerating his mental health as would subsequently be revealed, where he went to pray at one’s local mosque after having committed one of the murders.  The author of this article speculated that there was some possible involvement with some form of broader scheme to finance Islamic terrorism given that an extremely large sum of money was found in suitcases at the man’s residence which was seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau. Palani’s father has since attempted to sue the same State agency for its return.

Perhaps the best known case of an Islamist attack in Ireland involves Riad Bouchaker, a migrant from Algeria, who stabbed several children and a schoolteacher at a school in Central Dublin, which led to a severe riot on Dublin’s O’Connell Street. Various people have complained that nothing remains known about the perpetrator  nor the motive.

There are, however, some shades of grey. It was perhaps harder to deny that the attempted murder of a Catholic army chaplin in Galway  last year by a youth that was likely radicalised online had no Islamist motive. And yet, while the authorities acknowledged that the youth had posted extremist content online, the political elite and much of the media swept by the significance of the motive.

Unfortunately, the suppression of news content on extremist Islamic activities in Ireland is nothing new and extends to occurrences not including murder. One such example involved tens of thousands of Euro worth of damage caused when cars were vandalised in April 2017, in a particularly “brazen and sustained”  manner, over a matter of days, according to the authorities in the outskirts of North County Dublin. Even though the language – starkly Islamist messaging – was profoundly threatening, neither the media nor the Gardai suggested there was any potential Islamist motive despite Blanchardstown/Castleknock possibly having the largest Muslim community in Ireland. In view of the context, the vandalism was surely indicative of extreme religious bigotry that had a distinct potential for violence – this fact was surely worthy of comment but some media coverage went as far as to omit the troubling ISIS association.

There were other sentiments such as “ISIS kill family” which were probably intended to be a threat in view of the fact that much of the damage focused on cars parked at family homes. Notably, there were misspelt words, such as “kill your famly” suggesting that the damage could have been caused by individuals with English as a second language.

Such threats are particularly worrisome because the Castleknock/Blanchardstown area of North Dublin has a significant Muslim community served by several centres/prayer halls  – although the seemingly more moderate Al-Mustafa Islamic Centre Ireland (an organisation also associated to some extent with some aspects of Islamic  extremism) is also located in the area.  There may be some association between the vandalism and the Shuhada (Translation: ‘Martyrs’, plural of ‘shaheed’) Foundation, which was formerly called the Dawah Community Centre. This organisation was based in two locations that are only a short walk from the Castleknock Park Road area, where most of the vandalism took place. Some brief Facebook entries from 2013/4 for the Dawah Community Centrewhich now appear to be closed or hidden, features antagonistic supersessionist commentary toward Jewish people, support for an Israeli boycott, and also features an appeal to help the people of Gaza with a link to the ‘Ummah Welfare Trust’ which has associations with terrorism, particularly Hamas  – thus the Dawah Community Centre appeared to have been quite openly fundraising for an EU-proscribed terrorist organisation.