AS FUEL PROTESTS continue to grind many major roads in Ireland to a halt, rumours within WhatsApp groups and on social media platforms have become more paranoid and outlandish.

Many of these, often bolstered by old videos, AI images, or the actor who played Hercules on TV in the ’90s, warn of imminent violent clashes.

With the protests in their fourth day, and no end to the stand-off clear, there are ample opportunities for misinformation to spread as people, anxious about fuel prices and protests, seek to understand the situation.

Many prominent spreaders of misinformation, particularly those associated with the far-right, have latched onto the protests as a way to bolster their own profiles, or to promote their pet causes. However, much of the most prominent misinformation appears to come from informal discussions between the protesters themselves, particularly on Whatsapp, while old and hoax imagery has been going viral on public-facing platforms such as X.

The Defence Forces

“The state has declared war on the people of Ireland!” reads a 9 April post on X (reduced of exclamation marks and capitalised letters). The post contains a video showing armoured army vehicles driving down a road in a suburb south of Limerick City.

This, and other sightings, prompted the Irish Defence Forces to respond: “These are the personnel of the 128th Infantry Battalion conducting mission readiness exercises ahead of deployment to UNIFIL next month,” they wrote in a statement.

“Mission Readiness Exercises are critical activities to train and prepare our personnel for conducting duties in Southern Lebanon.”

The rumour was also shared in an EU meeting on agriculture and rural development by Irish MEP Ciaran Mullooly.

“I’m watching pictures on my mobile phone of tanks — army tanks — going into parts of my member state, Ireland, sent there by the Irish government this morning to remove farmers from the sides of roads,” Mullooly told the committee.

Mullooly published a clarification on X early this morning, saying that “a mistake was made” and linking to a news story explaining the army’s exercises.

He did not respond to The Journal’s request for comment.

The idea that the army were mobilising because of the protests was made more plausible given the unfortunate timing that the government had earlier that morning indicated that it planned to call in the army. This later turned out to be for vehicles with heavy lift capacity, rather than for policing purposes.

Other rumours circulating (often citing a relation, or friend of a friend) claimed that the army were going to attack protest camps during the night (they didn’t), or that the internet would be shut off to “stop footage from getting out” of the army dispersing protests — the last one was viewed more than 392,000 times since being posted on X by a misinformation account yesterday.

Other posts indicate that the Irish Defence Forces are prepared to disobey orders from the government if they are asked to move against fuel protesters.

Not from Ireland

Another clip, watched more than 300,000 times on X since being posted today, shows an army vehicle that appears to have gotten wedged under a bridge that was too low for it.

“I think the Irish farmers & patriots will be ok,” jests one post featuring the video.

However, the video is not from Ireland. Aside from the licence plates not being in the standard format, and the steering wheel and the roads being designed for driving in the right lane, the army vehicles display a black and white Iron Cross symbol, as used by the German military.

A still of the video, not from Ireland.

Foreign amplification and old videos

Kevin Sorbo used to be well-known for starring in the Hercules TV show in the 90s. Nowadays, he is better known for his extreme conservative views and spreading misinformation on social media.

“I haven’t seen a single clip of this on the MSM [mainstream media], but the Irish are rising up,” Sorbo wrote on 9 April. “Good for them. I hope it’s not too late.”

The post, which includes a montage of videos of people waving tricolours, has been viewed more than 374,900 times.

However, there is a very good reason Sorbo has not seen those videos in the mainstream media, namely that the videos are all old, largely showing anti-immigrantion protests last year.

Other accounts spreading old videos also were from abroad, probably because most Irish people would recognise the footage as being old, and nothing to do with the fuel protesters.

“Ireland is being destroyed,” begins one post on X by a user who describes themselves as a spokesperson for Restore Britain, a right-wing group that registered as a political party.

“Like many countries across Europe, it’s on the brink of complete civil unrest,” continues the post which shows protesters clashing with gardaí.

The video was first spread during the Coolock riots in 2024. Local landmarks, such as the Odeon, can be seen in the background.

The same video was shared by multiple other British accounts.

“Proper kicking off in Ireland,” reads another 9 April post featuring the video by an account called the National Housing Party U.K. “Could this be the spark that erupts Europe?”

The National Housing Party is a registered British political party which appears to be a splinter group from far-right group Britain First.

Oddly, their post embeds a video by an account called The British Patriot, which posted the footage in June, 2025.

AI images have also been used, including one popular picture posted to Facebook yesterday which shows a garda water cannon being deployed against a JCB near the Spire.

An AI-generated image of police clashing with protesters

While many of these images and rumours are shared in an effort to bolster a political cause — often just to help the morale of the protesters themselves — as the example of an MEP sharing misinformation shows, they have the potential to convince people of falsehoods. Ultimately, they may work to inflame an already tense situation.

With reporting by Stephen McDermott.

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