‘I hope the sprinklers are working’
‘WHY NOT HAVE A TORCH-LIT VIGIL...?’
‘Be careful where you leave the torches’
‘They need to go and make their opinions felt’
Just some of the sinister comments made under Irish Freedom Party posts as far-right agitators targeted the D Hotel
‘HOPE the sprinklers are working’, a named individual wrote on social media as a far-right party candidate announced a protest against a controversial decision to transform a local hotel into an accommodation centre for asylum seekers.
The comment emerged as farright agitators turned their attention to local opposition to the plans to repurpose the four-star D Hotel in Drogheda, Co. Louth.
Local Irish Freedom Party election candidate Alan Fagan ‘liked’ the post, but he cautioned underneath: ‘We’re not about that [person’s name]. The hotel was operating at 97% occupancy so my issues are how much was the Governments bride [sic] against normal profits? Also it’s very inhumane to put five grown men sharing sleeping accommodation. Stir crazy will ensue.’
The person replied that she ‘understands’, and then claimed it was ‘a joke’.
In another inflammatory comment, another person posted he hopes ‘climate change will stop this’ under Mr Fagan’s post calling for ‘help’ after he claimed Drogheda ‘lost its largest hotel to illegal human trafficking’.
Mr Fagan said he does not condone any attacks, adding: ‘Insofar as comments on my tweets, I’m sure the gardaí can decide whether or not they need to speak with anyone.’ His party colleague, Patrice Johnson, also posted about the D Hotel, and encouraged people to attend her party’s protest last weekend.
She later wrote: ‘Will it take another Ashling Murphy before this Government and our local representation stand up against this colonisation agenda?’
Among concerns about the town losing its hotel and other more racist commentary, one man replied with a number of fire emojis. Another sinisterly wrote: ‘Why don’t you have torch lit vigil to stop it happening? Just be careful where you leave the torches.’
The online commentary can be found under Irish Freedom Party social media posts campaigning against the plans for the hotel to house up to 500 asylum seekers in a two year contract from March 5.
Asked this week about posters inciting arson under Irish Freedom Party posts, the party said it does not condone any attacks or threats to burn any asylum centre.
Ms Johnson said the ‘D Hotel has been a cornerstone of our community for years’ and the community is ‘already struggling with a growing population’.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar this week expressed concern about some people playing on locals’ concerns about the situation in Drogheda to stir up trouble.
He said: ‘Migration brings out the best in some people, who take refugees into their homes, people who welcome refugees into their schools and into their clubs and into their communities.
‘It also brings out the worst in some people, with hatred and anger and racism and I’m very conscious of that.’
The sinister online commentary in Drogheda emerged as one of the Irish Freedom Party’s candidates in the forthcoming European elections, Michael Leahy, was accused of inciting violence the day after an arson attack on a migrant camp off Dublin’s Pearse Street.
Mr Leahy denies the accusations and in a subsequent statement, said the first reports he heard of tents being burned on Sandwith Steet was after his speech.
‘It is therefore impossible that what I said could be represented as encouraging people to burn tents, as no such event had taken place on Pearse Street on the night referred to. Indeed, I have seen no solid evidence, such as a Garda report, confirming that any migrant tents were in fact burned,’ he said.
He claimed the demonstration took place as a result of ‘violent attacks having been made by an asylum seeker on a local person and after the guards had searched their encampment and removed weapons including a sword’. He added ‘local people’ were concerned and went to ‘demonstrate their opposition to the excessive importation of unvetted persons’.
‘That is the “spirit” of peaceful demonstration and defence of one’s community to which I referred’.
‘The Irish Freedom Party is a centrist registered political party and it has never called for violent action against anyone and has never called for the burning of tents, nor would we do so.’
The afternoon after the attack on the camp at Sandwith Street on May 12, which provoked widespread political and public revulsion, Mr Leahy told a rally at Dublin’s Custom House: ‘We need to be active and on the streets, we need, we need to hold the Pearse Street spirit, we need to have mass meetings such as these in every town in the country on every day and night of the week.’
The party’s EU candidate, who is based in Ennis, Co. Clare, and is an architect and planner by profession, went on to tell the crowd to rapturous applause: ‘We want to let those in power know that we are a free people and we will remain a free people and that we are a great historic nation and we will not allow this nation to perish.
‘We need to say to those who seek to destroy us, we are coming; it is not you who will destroy us but we the people who will destroy you.
‘We are coming to demand justice for Ireland. There is no power on earth that will stop a unified and risen people when it is awakened.’
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday this week, Mr Leahy denied inciting violence at the ‘free speech rally’ and insisted there was ‘no question’ at the time of his speech of ‘people’s tents being set on fire’.
This is despite national media reports emerging prior to his 2pm speech that showed the encampment ‘destroyed’ after the attack.
Mr Leahy claimed it was his understanding, despite widespread reports to the contrary, that ‘no such event had taken place and there was no arson of any kind. Somebody said to me… these chaps [migrants] had left and they left a pile of rubbish behind and some kids made a bonfire.’ Gardaí recently confirmed five people were arrested in connection with the attack on the migrants’ tents but they were subsequently released without charge.
In a statement issued on February 6, a Garda spokesman said the suspects were among 10 people arrested ‘for arson attacks in recent months’.
Despite gardaí clarifying the incident as ‘arson’ related, Mr Leahy doubled down on his claims.
He said: ‘From my investigation of it… there was no tents set on fire on that occasion. That’s my understanding from having spoken to people who were there.
‘The following day, the day after I made my comments, morphed into a suggestion that somebody’s tents had been set on fire.
‘The guards were asked about it and said they were not aware of anybody’s property being set on fire that night.
‘You need to be very careful about the chronology of this, because I did not make any comment after reports emerged.’
Mr Leahy said he stands over the comments he made at the time.
‘I absolutely stand over those comments in regard to Sandwith Street. I think people do need to go out and demonstrate when they are being taken advantage of. My understanding is that it is an attack on local people who are very concerned about it and they need to go and make their opinions felt in a peaceful manner... I always condemn violence when I see it, I have no time whatsoever for violence.’