While many are protesting fuel costs, far-right actors and international figures are using the movement to push anti-immigrant narratives.
This week's protests about fuel costs rapidly took shape online, where much of the organisation was carried out and where those involved are continuing to coordinate.
But as tractors and trucks took to motorways and streets from Tuesday this week, a whole other narrative, which had nothing to do with fuel prices, was already forming, driven by actors with broader and more nefarious aims.
Ireland’s far-right movement has enmeshed itself with the protests from the start, a ploy which softened the ground for international figures like Tommy Robinson to spread their own narratives online from afar.
The protests are not far-right at their essence; the groups involved in peaceful protests around the country are splintered, and many of those blocking roads and motorways are simply motivated by their frustrations about the price of fuel.
But the looming presence of extreme personalities and social media accounts is stoking tensions in a way that risks pushing this loose network towards a more volatile situation in the days ahead.
The question of when far-right and anti-immigrant figures became involved remains somewhat murky.
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