As the 2024 General Election drew to a close, Fine Gael wonderkid Simon Harris became entangled in an embarrassing incident. While campaigning at Kanturk, Cork, Harris was filmed ignoring and walking away from a distressed disabled worker. The incident gained traction on social media and the Green Party leader, Roderic O’Gorman, called it a “defining moment” of the election. This shift of politics online, due to the incendiary nature of social media, accompanies a broader shift in Irish political language, sometimes dubbed the ‘Americanisation’ of politics.
The youngest Taoiseach in history, Harris was notably active on TikTok and other social media outlets, earning him the title, ‘TikTok Taoiseach’. He has been known to enhance his political support through TikTok – while this has proven to be dangerous business, as Kanturk shows, the expansion of social media as a political vehicle and battleground is undeniable. The term ‘Americanisation’ can be derived from the fact that social media first emerged and became the mainstay of political discourse in the US, particularly during the Obama campaign in 2008. More recently, with the rise of MAGA politics, social media has permeated American political culture, exemplified by the prevalence of platforms such as X, TikTok, and Truth Social.
Use of social media as a basis for political debate rewards and perpetuates radicalism. Abundant research indicates that political content has increased on social media and that radically oriented algorithms drive users deeper into their ideologies. The study “How Algorithms Promote Self-Radicalisation”, published in the Social Science Computer Review, found that “algorithms are not simple tools that offer personalised services but rather contributors to radicalism, societal violence, and polarisation”. Another study, titled “TikTok’s political landscape” and published in New Media & Society, found that political content on TikTok increased markedly between 2019 and 2023, with a direct correlation to the 2020 US elections.
Also central to this ‘Americanisation’ is the use of populist rhetoric and talking points. Immigration and border policy are particularly relevant for both MAGA and Irish right-wing politics. An Irish example of this is the Independent Ireland Party, founded in 2023 and guided by TDs Ken O’Flynn and Michael Collins. Their political agenda bears striking similarities to the anti-immigration and strict border policy of the American Republican Party. O’Flynn, for instance, has made denunciations about governmental funds for Ukrainian asylum seekers. Following his re-election in 2024, he declared, “I’ve always believed that immigration is a serious problem in this country… I knew a government that couldn’t look after 14,000 homeless Irish people, 4,000 homeless Irish children, could certainly not look after 100,000 people coming in, plus all the undocumented.” Such erroneous arguments have found considerable popularity on social media.
While this closely mimics MAGA rhetoric, there is a more immediate connection with the US: American involvement in Irish politics. In 2025, the White House gave a spotlight to Irish presidential hopeful and sexual offender Conor McGregor, who went on to rant about the supposed immigration crisis in Ireland, claiming that “there are rural towns in Ireland that have been overrun in one swoop” and that “Ireland is on the cusp of losing its Irishness”. At the same time, Steve Bannon, one of the founders of the MAGA movement, has declared that an “Irish Trump” ought to emerge in the near future. More recently, Edward Walsh, the US ambassador to Ireland, took part in a forum panelled in part by Ken O’Flynn.
American political culture has also been evident in recent street activity. For instance, social media outcry played an important role during the anti-immigration riots of 2023, where violence proliferated. The influence of the US was visible in the pictures of Donald Trump and US flags held high amid the sea of green, white and orange of the protesters. MAGA symbols suggest a certain level of Americanisation within a strand of Irish politics.
While TikTok is a Chinese company, its user base and popular trends are largely USA-centered, much like the American-based platforms of X, Instagram and Facebook. This phenomenon is reminiscent of the 1990s, when American films flooded Irish popular culture; the 2020s have seen a similar flooding through social media. In addition, the consumer becomes the producer: Irish users produce this ‘US-coded’ content, as evidenced by figures such as O’Flynn and John McGuirk, a right-wing political commentator active on X.
Irish politics has never really been about the left-right dichotomy present in the US. Political competition has historically revolved around Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, whose identities were shaped less by a conventional left-right divide than by the legacy of the Irish Civil War. While this arrangement has seen some development recently, with the rise of Sinn Féin and other left parties, such as Labour and Social Democrats, the current ‘leader-centric’ and ‘us vs. them’ elements stand out and seem imported. This suggests that some level of ‘Americanisation’ of Irish politics is taking place.
However, it is worth noting that this is not a uniquely Irish development but part of a broader shift across Europe. Similar patterns of ‘Americanisation’ of politics are evident, for instance, in the UK. The rise of Reform UK owes much of its potency to social media radicalisation and influence from the US. Even more importantly, some analyses suggest that the US influence might not be as fundamental. For example, the anti-immigration element in Irish politics predates TikTok and the 2020s by over a decade. It has been argued that the present far-right revival has its roots in a much older Irish isolationist identity rather than Americanisation.
The right conclusion is that Americanisation is not so much a cause as a delivery mechanism. It did not invent the Irish far-right grievances, but it did give them a vehicle and method to spread. Ironically, the politics may remain Irish, but its performance increasingly isn’t.
Jasper Liitiäinen – Contributor