Irish incels: ‘Their world view is their situation is hopeless, all women are terrible’ | BreakingNews.ie

There is a significant, but largely hidden, number of Irish men identifying as ‘incels’, according to a documentary-maker who has researched the groups.

‘Incel’ is a term associated with an online subculture of people who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one, and blame, objectify and denigrate women and girls as a result. The movement is strongly linked to misogyny.

Alan Bradley created the upcoming RTÉ radio documentary Invisible Men – Ireland’s Incels. 

The radio documentary features candid interviews with members of this hidden group, along with insights from a prominent Irish female journalist who has faced threats of violence.

Ahead of its release, Mr Bradley told BreakingNews.ie: “I didn’t think it was as prevalent as it is, I didn’t know if we’d find any Irish men at all and if they’d actually talk to me.

“I spoke to William Costello, a researcher who has done a lot of work on incel ideology around the world, and he was telling me that in his Master’s research, 10 per cent of the incels who took part were Irish. That really surprised me too.”

Mr Bradley said the men he encountered did not fit the “stereotype of a lonely, strange guy hiding in his mother’s basement”.

“They’re people’s brothers, sons, uncles in Ireland… who we just wouldn’t expect or expect that from them.”

Mr Bradley said he was surprised to find most of the incels he spoke to for the documentary came across as nice men.

“It’s not to excuse the horrible misogyny and horrible things that they post, but I was surprised to find most of the guys I spoke to were really nice and really easy to chat to.”

He said one participant stood out, a man who he called ‘Paul’ (not his real name).

“I had a long chat about his experience being an incel. I caught up with him recently, and he said it was the first time he had spoken about it out loud, and it gave him a lot of time for reflection afterwards… it changed some of his outlook on his future.

“When I spoke to him, he was very bleak about his future and contemplating suicide in his 40s if he was in the same situation, which was very sad to hear. But when I caught up with him again he said, having spoken about it out loud, he had thought about it and was more positive there would be good things ahead in his life.”

The hateful and violent content incels share in groups can be extreme, including calls for the legalisation of rape.

Mr Bradley said it is not a group that “subscribes to the exact same thinking, with many at the extreme end and others less so”.

“They sometimes dismiss it as gallows humour. It’s performative and the more grotesque you are, the ‘better’ incel you are, the more interaction you get. You’re the best incel because you come up with more disgusting things than anyone else could think of.

“My concern would be that some may understand the performative side of it, but what about vulnerable young men, particularly in their teens, who are looking at this content and taking it literally? I think that’s a very big concern.”

It’s not a community that lifts anybody up.

He said another common trait is “self-directed hate”, where men will often post pictures of themselves “looking for advice on how they look, and they’ll tear each other to shreds about their physical features and really run each other down. It’s not a community that lifts anybody up”.

While incels are largely confined to online groups on the likes of 4chan, Facebook, and Reddit, some experts have expressed concerns about their obvious anger translating into real life violence, or even terrorism.

Mr Bradley said this was not apparent in any of the men he spoke with. However, one incident did stand out.

“I spoke to Detective Brian Murphy down in Cork, and he in 2020 covered a case where an incel approached a young girl and tried to coerce her to go away with him. Hopefully, it’s not a sign of things to come.”

Mr Bradley said many young men who are socially isolated find themselves hooked on incel ideology that they come across on social media.

They don’t want to see anything that doesn’t confirm their world view.

“If we have these problems, and there’s nowhere for young men to turn to and connect, then these sorts of spaces are what attracts them, and that’s a problem.

“One of the guys in the documentary described it as crabs in a bucket, so the idea that the crabs pull each other back down and nobody can get out of it. You definitely see that. If there’s a sniff of anyone even going on a date, they are thrown out and banned from the forums.

“They don’t want to see anything that doesn’t confirm their world view. That their situation is hopeless, women are terrible, if there’s a chink of light that shows that isn’t the case… they don’t want to see it, so they will shut it down and block that person out.”

Conspiracy theories, many of them from far-right agitators, have exploded in the past few years, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Bradley said there is an element of “conspiratorial thinking” in incel groups, as it gives isolated and lonely men comfort to believe the world is somehow rigged against them.

“This idea that they lost the genetic lottery, and that women only go for what they call chads, the classic alpha male type thing, and that women are shallow, vapid and vain etc, they sign up to that ideology and think everything else is a lie, so there’s no point in you trying to improve your life, and you just have to accept it, ‘lay down and rot’ would be a term they use.”

Mr Bradley said he was “shocked” at the level of abuse directed at the female journalist who appears in the documentary.

Alan Bradley’s Invisible Men – Ireland’s Incels is on podcast platforms now, and RTÉ radio on Saturday.

“Death threats, threats that she would be raped. She lives in constant daily fear that this will happen in real life.

“These are mostly Irish guys targeting her. It’s pretty horrifying.”

He explained that the journalist had not covered incel groups specifically. However, issues which she covered included women’s rights, femicide and domestic abuse. These topics often come up in incel forums.

Mr Bradley hopes the documentary will raise awareness about incel groups in Ireland, while also highlighting the horrific content they share and encouraging men to seek a way out of involvement in these groups.

“We tried to be balanced in showing how serious and disgusting a lot of the content is and how big the risk is, but also to be balanced on the real mental health issues in this community and looking at the causes.

“I hope some of that will come through, that to move forward in such a polarised situation, to have an open dialogue where people can come forward and talk about what they’re struggling with, rather than in the echo chamber of incel forums where they will be pulled into more toxicity.”

​Invisible Men: Ireland’s Incels will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 on Saturday, October 26th at 2pm, and is also available here.