LATEST: Former National Party member behind Offaly refugee centre protest

THE man who recorded a video calling for a protest against a plan to accommodate refugees at the former convent in Kilcormac said he was a member of the National Party when he spoke at a demonstration against a direct provision centre in Tullamore three years ago.

John McGhee says he is no longer a member of the party.  In February 2020 he was among a small group of people who mounted a demonstration at the Marian Hostel.

“I don't have any faith in political parties any more so, no, I'm not a member,” he said today. “The lefties and NGO-type people, they'll say you are, whether you are or not.”

The hostel, which had been run by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, has been accommodating asylum seekers and refugees for the last three years.

On Thursday a video was circulated on social media asking people to attend a protest on Friday evening at the former Convent of Mercy in Kilcormac, which the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth says will be used as an accommodation centre for those fleeing the war in Ukraine.

The video included footage recorded in the convent building along with a narration from an unidentified individual claiming it would be used to house male migrants from African countries and the women and children of Kilcormac would not be safe.

The voice in the video tells those watching that their Government despises them and says the migrants are not being brought in for altruistic or humanitarian reasons.

“These migrants are being brought in to fracture the fabric of Irish society in general, to cause disharmony and unrest amongst the people, fracturing nation states,” it states.

On Friday evening John McGhee confirmed he had recorded the video and made the comments on it.

On February 29, 2020, following a protest organised on social media, Mr McGhee and others stood at the main gate to the Marian Hostel on High Street in Tullamore. He was holding up a sign saying 'Say No To State Imposed D.P. $€am'.

Observers of similar protests for a number of years have said Mr McGhee attends many of them and have said he is a “far right” activist.

Speaking at the protest in Kilcormac (other protesters are pictured below), Mr McGhee listed a number of other towns where he claimed difficulties had been caused by Government decisions to accommodate migrants.

Asked about the meaning of the text “Makeirelandgreatagain” which appeared on his video, Mr McGhee said: “I've no time for Irish politics, politics in general, especially American politics, it's an open sewer. Make Ireland great again? I don't know, I'm not aware of the phrase but Irish people are becoming a minority in their own country.”

He said he had not put those words on the video himself but did “agree with the sentiments”.

He added: “Ireland is not the way it used to be. People are turning on each other because certain people are afraid that Irish culture is being phased out.”

Questioned by reporters at the direct provision centre protest three years ago, Mr McGhee said he lived in Tullamore but was originally from Co Meath.

He said he was a member of the National Party. Philip Dwyer, an unsuccessful Dail candidate for the party in the 2020 election, was also at the protest.

Speaking in Tullamore that day, Mr McGhee said the purpose of that protest was to make Irish people aware that they were “going to be a minority in their own country” in 40 years or less.

He said he believed Irish people's kindness was being “taken full advantage of”.

“Now they're a pushover. So instead of Irish people rolling out the welcome mat they're now becoming a doormat and they're just lying down and taking it.”

He said Ireland should not be allowing people in from other countries because this country is “full”.

“We've a lot of people homeless, we've a lot of people on social welfare, we can barely look after what we have.”

He said he agreed with Brexit and added: “I'd rather be a third world country and be king of it rather than a minority in my own first world country.”

Mr McGhee was photographed at a rally recently in Mullingar opposing the use of the army barracks in the town for asylum seekers and refugees.

A number of sources said today (Saturday, February 11) that Mr McGhee was a prominent political campaigner with extremist views.

Fiona Pettit O'Leary, a campaigner against fascism, said she first became familiar with Mr McGhee in her campaigns against what she calls “pseudo science” and a recommendation that bleach could be a treatment for autism.

Ms Pettit O'Leary said she then noticed about three years ago that he was on the streets with the National Party and making videos saying “Ireland for the Irish”.

Ms Pettit O'Leary said she was shocked to read comments Mr McGhee made this week and likened them to “something out of World War II Nazi Germany”.

A resident of Co Cork, she said her grandfather, the late William O'Reilly, was a native of Clara and she grew up in London herself after her parents moved there.

“I'm very pro refugee,” she said. She accused the people at the protest in Kilcormac of hypocrisy and said it was likely that many of them had family members living overseas.

Ms Pettit O'Leary said the dangers posed by the far right activists are not being taken seriously enough and is concerned that violent attacks could be the next step.

“We have this notion in Ireland that we're untouchable by this,” she said. “I don't think we are responding to this in an effective way and that includes politicians. While the majority of them are saying it's wrong, there's nothing being done about it.

“These gatherings to me are like the beginning of something, like the night of the broken glass. I feel this from the perspective of my mother. When she went to London in the early '60s from Mayo, 'no blacks, no Irish, no dogs'. When she went looking for somewhere to live, they were the signs in windows in London.”

She said it was wonderful to grow up in multi cultural London.

“I've always said this about these campaigners – they're exactly the same as the quacks because they thrive on disinformation and lying,” she said.

“If we don't nip it in the bud it'll spread and something will happen here in Ireland. There will be more fires.”

Rev William Hayes, from the Presbyterian church in Tullamore, has been welcoming the refugees who have been coming to the town for the last few years.

“Whether we want it or not, we are living through one of those great moments in history. How do we want to be remembered when our grandchildren speak about what happened in Ireland during the Ukraine war?” he said.

“Will we be remembered with shame like those who once put up their, 'No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish' signs? Or will we be able to say, 'we did the little we could with the little we had and we welcomed people into Ireland just as we would have wanted to be welcomed if it was us fleeing harm'?”