‘Not cool, Hermann... this is what the left do’
Bitter war of words between two far-right parties sparked by alleged confrontation
A BITTER war of words between the country’s two main anti-immigration parties erupted this week following an alleged physical confrontation between Irish Freedom Party (IFP) leader Hermann Kelly and a Brussels-based journalist.
Insults were traded online between IFP members and its rival National Party after a complaint was filed against Mr Kelly in the European Parliament.
The complaint was made by journalist Thomas O’Reilly, who writes for the European Conservative outlet. He accused the IFP leader of knocking a phone out of his hand when the reporter attempted to record an exchange between the pair at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Mr O’Reilly reportedly said in his complaint that Mr Kelly had challenged him to a fight before he attempted to begin recording.
Responding on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Kelly claimed the complaint against him was ‘false’ and went on to make a series of allegations about Mr O’Reilly.
He claimed the journalist is ‘backed online… by trolls’.
The far-right politician, who is employed in the European Parliament as an assistant to nationalist Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes and previously worked as a press officer for the British eurosceptic and Brexit advocate Nigel Farage, also claimed videos circulating online of the alleged incident were ‘edited’ and supported by National Party accounts. Last November Mr Kelly, who is standing as a candidate for the IFP in the Midlands North-West constituency in June’s EU elections, posted a picture of himself with Farage at the UK politician’s 60th birthday.
Mr Kelly’s online attack on the journalist who made the complaint about him sparked an angry response from anti-immigration commentators and members of the rival National Party. In a post this week, Mr Kelly said Mr O’Reilly’s ‘only supporters are NP [National Party]... accounts.’
The IFP leader was accused of ‘doxxing’ – revealing personal information about people online – by the reporter late last year.
One anti-immigration commentator said: ‘We can neither afford nor deserve to have figures like Kelly in our ranks, doxxing, harassing, threatening and defaming other nationalists out of admittedly spiteful ends. Disgraceful behaviour.’
‘This is not cool Hermann, this is what the left do!’ added another.
Another commenter described Mr Kelly has as a ‘moron’ and a ‘complete and total national embarrassment to the IFP’, adding: ‘If they were smart, they’d kick him to the curb.’
Another wrote: ‘This is really f***ing bad. Hermann Kelly is worse than the Shinners and worse than [militant left-wing group] Antifa. He is a traitor to Irish Nationalism.
Doxxing fellow Nationalists and contacting their employers is unforgivable. Nationalists have enough s*** to deal with already.’
The spat has exacerbated tensions between the IFP and the National Party ahead of the June local and European elections, where both parties hope to secure the election of the country’s first far-right politician.
As of this weekend, the IFP is fielding 19 candidates in the local elections, and a further three – including its leader – in the European ballot. Six National Party candidates are slated to contest the local elections.
Mr Kelly previously compared his National Party rivals to Nazis, saying: ‘National Socialism is a repugnant, anti-freedom ideology.’
In response to queries from the MoS, Mr Kelly said: ‘I’m very happy to report that anyone who read the story thought it was a “nothing burger”. Nobody in the Irish Freedom Party said a word to me about it.
‘We’ll have three candidates in the European, and over 20 candidates for the local elections, so we’re all very busy canvassing. There is no time for petty claims.’
He added he has not heard from the police in relation to the alleged incident at the centre of the complaint against him.
Mr O’Reilly did not respond to requests for comment.
However, on Friday he retweeted a post on X which stated: ‘The Hermann Kelly fiasco is a good case for RW [right wing] gatekeeping and dichotomising.
‘Nobody in their right mind votes for these retards, and nobody who’d vote for them is registered to vote.
‘The right needs to hone in on decent, organised, normal people to make a real change.’
A National Party spokesperson told the MoS it is ‘not involved in this spat between Hermann Kelly and Thomas O’Reilly’.
‘If they were smart they’d kick him out’