“BOOM HATE SPEEEEEEEEEEEECH”: Languaging Anti Hate Speech Legislation in Ireland”

In recent years, response to increasing hate speech crimes has generated several “anti-hate” campaigns and public initiatives. The Council of Europe portal includes a section on hate speech where its impact (whether online or offline) on European society is recognized as “a major cause for concern”. The Council of Europe also addresses the “issues of hate speech and discrimination in the areas of education, sport, Roma rights, gender equality, sexual orientation and gender identity, the media and internet governance” (https://www.coe.int/en/web/no-hate-campaign/coe-work-on-hate-speech). As a direct result of this attitude, several EU Governments are creating the basis to have hate crime legislation established (Banks 2010; Ziccadi 2020). The consultation document “Legislating for hate speech and hate crime in Ireland” launched on 17th December 2020 by the Irish Minister for Justice Helen McEntee is a case in point in the attempt to provide nations with specific legislation on the matter. But how is this attitude towards a greater awareness, support and sensitivity towards the discriminated-against categories perceived by the general public? Is consensus about countering hate speech genuinely circulating among the population especially in online environments? This study investigates online attitudes towards the publication of the Irish report. Adopting a combined multimodal/social media critical discourse approach (Machin and Mayr 2015; KhosraviNik/Esposito 2018), the paper explores how narratives on and about hate speech are articulated in the article-cum-comments genre (Cambria 2016, 2011), i.e. the comments-on-the-article section of some online newspapers and newsites. It will do so by analysing the lexicogrammatical features and semiotic resources of texts used in the comments published in some Irish newspapers and newsites (The Irish Times, www.broadsheet.ie, www.journal.ie to quote a few) in the period October-December 2020 vis-à-vis the drafting and publication of the report.