Disturbing views of a far-right agitator
‘I will not report arson threats made on social media to the gardaí’
THE leader of an anti-immigration party said he will continue to post the addresses of proposed accommodation centres for asylum seekers and would not report arson threats made on his social media platforms to gardaí.
Ireland First leader Derek Blighe was speaking after he posted a chilling warning on the 43th anniversary of the Valentine’s Day Stardust fire – which claimed the lives of 48 people – that it is ‘a tragedy waiting to happen again’.
And when asked about comments made by Helen McEntee that people are ‘complicit’ if they do not report information, the far-right agitator launched an astonishing attack on the Justice Minister, calling her ‘a moron’ who should be ‘put back in the kitchen’.
The activist, whose registered party plans to field candidates in the local and general elections, has amassed a large social media following and regularly posts antiimmigrant videos and messages.
In some of these posts, Mr Blighe has identified accommodation or buildings rumoured to be earmarked to house asylum seekers and refugees.
Under his messages, some followers have posted threatening language and burning emojis which appear to encourage or incite others to target the buildings. Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, he said he does ‘not condone’ arson attacks, saying he is ‘a proponent of peaceful non-compliance and peaceful objection to issues’.
Mr Blighe added: ‘I certainly don’t condone the burning of buildings, it’s not productive. It gives the Government ammunition to use against us.’
Despite heading up a political party and having thousands of social media followers, he denied his comments have any influence on the actions of others,
He said: ‘I have no say in how one person picks up my tweet. I could put up a picture of flowers and teddy bears and that might put somebody into a violent rage.
‘I can’t direct people in what way to feel.’
Gardaí are investigating no fewer than 18 arson attacks on buildings or accommodation linked to international protection applications and Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of last year.
As highlighted in the Mail on Sunday last week, eight people have been arrested in connection with these incidents, but no one has yet been charged.
Despite the growing levels of violence, Mr Blighe said he would not contact gardaí if he became aware of arson threats made against asylum linked accommodation centres.
‘To the gardaí, no [I won’t report threats]. The same as I don’t report incitement to violence on myself.
‘Gardaí are stretched to the limit, and most of these keyboard warriors are full of crap. If I spend my time reporting every ominous comment on social media I’d get nothing else done.’
Pressed further on whether he would report threatening posts he replied: ‘I don’t see most of them.’
Asked again if he would report them if he did see them, he eventually said: ‘It depends on the comment, if they’re actively calling for law breaking, perhaps.’
Mr Blighe insisted he ‘didn’t see’ a post by someone reacting to his tweet about the Stardust fire tragedy, who said: ‘Why warn them [asylum seekers], just let the organisers get on with packing them out, just sit back and hopefully get a result.’
Asked if he would report the threat now he has been made aware of it, the anti-immigration activist replied: ‘It’s not for me to say what someone else’s hopes should be.’
He added: ‘The [Stardust] fire started accidentally. So that comment would say to me, that person hopes that a fire might start [at a named asylum accommodation centre] the same as it did in Stardust. Look, I don’t hope that anyone dies in that building, but it’s not my place to tell anybody what their hopes should be, whether I agree with them or not.’ When asked about Ms McEntee’s comments about people being complicit by not reporting threats, he replied: ‘No… nonsense. Of course that’s nonsense. How could you lay the same blame on somebody who hopes that a fire might start; how could you compare that to somebody who actually starts the fire? It’s completely different.
‘I also believe Helen McEntee is a moron and you can put that in your article if you like.
‘She’s not fit for purpose; she’s a weak justice minister, crime has skyrocketed throughout the country under her watch, and all she can do is hire more diversity officers for the gardaí and come up with thought crime laws to police people’s minds. ‘She should be condemned as the justice minister; she should be put back in the kitchen. No, that’s not misogynist… she’s a misandrist.’ While Mr
‘I’ve no say in how one person picks up my tweet’
Blighe insisted he has ‘no idea’ of the mentality behind the arson attacks, he said he ‘understands what could be driving it, ok’.
He added: ‘There are thousands of people in this country who are fed up of the way the Irish Government are forcing migrants into communities. Public opinion is fairly resounding; people do not want this, they do not want any more of this in their communities, but the Government won’t listen.
‘Obviously people might be becoming frustrated… [when] there’s no dialogue with the Government and they are not listening to the people you are going to have certain factions who will turn to violence.’ He said he will respond
‘Minister McEntee is a moron and should be put back into the kitchen’
to comments calling for violence under his posts to say this is ‘not tolerated’ but added ‘there are not many calls for violence’.
Asked about blockades on asylum centres, Mr Blighe said Irish citizens have an ‘absolute right to protest’ and he would not stop ‘an Irish person’s freedom of movement’, but he would if they are an ‘illegal immigrant’.
He added: ‘What is happening is, there is illegal immigration going on… 70% of them [asylum seekers] don’t have passports.’
Despite his views, Mr Blighe did welcome the notorious far-right English agitator Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, despite him having convictions in the UK for fraud, stalking, assault and using someone else’s passport.
He said he was ‘not aware of Tommy Robinson’s convictions, but I’ll take your word for it’. Defending his decision to welcome Robinson, he said: ‘I put out a video because some people were complaining he was coming over, and I said I had no problem with him coming over. I don’t agree with everything he says, but that doesn’t mean he’s not welcome in my country.
‘We can welcome the likes of [convicted murderers] Yousef Palani and Jozef Puska with open arms and put them up for years, so if a man like Tommy Robinson wants to come over, I have no problem with that.’
Mr Blighe would not say how many candidates his party is planning to contest the June local elections, and the General Election which many senior Government sources predict will happen before the end of the year.
But he said his party’s ranks have been swelled by discontented former supporters of Sinn Féin, which has suffered poll setbacks recently.
He told the MoS: ‘Sinn Féin has sold themselves for decades as being nationalists who care about Ireland and its people, and over the last few years myself and others have shown how Sinn Féin are an open border, globalist political party who are actually worse than Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Responding to Mr Blighe’s comments, a Sinn Féin spokesman said: ‘Derek Blighe is a serial spreader of verbal manure whose only endeavours amount to the spreading of misinformation about everything from vaccines to Sinn Féin.
‘His attacks on Sinn Féin are motivated, presumably, by his admiration for figures on the British far-right.‘For the record — Sinn Féin do not believe in open borders, and in government we will deliver a fair, efficient and enforced immigration system.’
Ms McEntee declined to respond to Mr Blighe’s comments.
‘She’s not fit for purpose. Crime has skyrocketed’