THE RECENT BYELECTIONS in Dublin and Galway saw the continuation of a trend of online hostility, bigotry and disinformation aimed at candidates, particularly women and people born outside Ireland, according to a new report by the Hope and Courage Collective.  

The Hope and Courage Collective (H&CC) is an independent organisation that seeks to “strengthen democracy and build collective resilience in the face of rising far-right hate and disinformation”. 

The organisation’s researchers monitored social media activity related to the 22 May Dublin Central and Galway West byelections in the four weeks running up to polling day.

They observed a number of trends that are becoming increasingly familiar during election campaigns, including targeted smear campaigns, racist and misogynistic abuse and attempts to undermine the legitimacy of some candidates based on their ethnic or national backgrounds. 

The report found that two candidates in particular were the most common targets of bigoted online abuse: Labour’s Helen Ogbu in Galway West and Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan in Dublin Central. 

“Racist abuse and misogyny was a key feature as in other election cycles. Of particular concern were claims that certain candidates should not be permitted to stand for election because of their nationality, ethnicity or migration background,” the report said. 

HCC said that this kind of discriminatory rhetoric “risks creating a chilling effect that discourages participation in public life”.

“These attacks were not isolated incidents but formed part of broader online ecosystems designed to amplify hostility, undermine trust, and shape public perceptions,” the report said.

Helen Ogbu is a member of Galway City Council who left her native Nigeria and sought refuge in Ireland in 2006 due to safety concerns for her family due to their political involvement. Her husband, political activist Sunny Orji-Ogbu, was later murdered in 2010.

According to the H&CC report, Ogbu “faced sustained online harassment, racism and intimidation” throughout the campaign.

The report said the harassment aimed at Ogbu included “dehumanising racial slurs, repeated questioning of her legal right to be in Ireland, and narratives challenging both her legitimacy as a candidate and her right to participate in Irish political life”.

When she spoke to The Journal on the campaign trail earlier this year, Ogbu said she had faced plenty of racist messages online but found that hostility rarely carried over to in-person dealings. She had said at the time that “the people of Galway are so welcoming and loving” to her family.

Janice Boylan, a member of Dublin City Council, was also the target of misogynistic abuse online, which included “personal attacks and gendered slurs aimed at undermining her credibility”. 

Some of the social media accounts behind this online abuse that were cited in the report are frequent spreaders of disinformation about immigration to Ireland.

Notably, and in keeping with a trend observed by H&CC and others, some of these accounts are run by people based outside Ireland. 

The researchers noted that one anonymous US-based account on X and Facebook, Real Irish News, “was responsible for 21% of incidents recorded in this byelection analysis”.

H&CC said this aligned with the findings of a previous report it compiled “that showed that 75% of the far right content about Ireland originated from outside Ireland”.

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