'You're a clown' - Saoirse McHugh clashes with Peter Casey in RTÉ election debate

Independent European candidate Saoirse McHugh labelled her rival Peter Casey a "clown" during a debate on RTÉ's Upfront with Katie Hannon on Monday night.

The debate featured a mixed panel of eight independent and party candidates vying to earn votes ahead of the big day on Friday, 7 June, elections for the European Parliament will take place.

Among the panel was Saoirse McHugh, independent and former Green Party member from Mayo, and Peter Casey, a fellow independent and controversial former presidential candidate.

The most memorable things from the Midland North West debate on RTÉ in 2019 were the exchanges between Casey and McHugh.

Following the 2019 local election debates, they were both positioned beside each other again last night, even though Casey was closer to McHugh’s podium than his own at times.

McHugh was quick to call Casey out when he said he had been a migrant in three different countries legally. "Didn’t you tweet last year that you entered a country illegally?" she asked.

"Don’t be silly", he replied, despite the fact that she was right. The tweet from 2023 was found and reposted almost instantaneously by viewers, proving Casey had did indeed said that.

The brief fracas which occurred between McHugh and Casey was prompted by a fiery disagreement over the EU's role in peace worldwide.

The topic of Gaza came to the fore as an urgent case about which "there is so much more the Irish government can do immediately", argued McHugh amid several unruly interjections from Casey.

She said: "We can immediately stop selling dual-use goods to Israel. We can immediately stop the US military using Shannon, we can immediately the US military using Shannon and we can immediately bring in the Occupied Territories Bill."

Casey can be heard interjecting: "When the war comes out, Shannon will be the first place to go," to which McHugh replied: "Yeah, because the US military are there."

Casey responded saying: "You have to have defence" before McHugh unleashed a mighty show of frustration as the debate descended into chaos saying: "You're a clown, would ya stop! Peace is what will keep us safe."

After the clip was shared to social media, many people reacted with sympathy for McHugh while others claimed she "let herself down".