Ezra Levant interviews Fatima Gunning of gript.ie, detailing Ireland’s civil unrest over mass migration—250,000 arrivals in 2022—and government policies like Varadkar’s unpopular open-border stance and Harris’s retention of Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who granted amnesty to 17,000 illegal immigrants. Protests in Newtown Mount Kennedy (pop. ~3,000) against housing 160 asylum seekers turned violent, with police pepper-spraying journalists and kicking unarmed civilians amid distrust over discredited Commissioner Drew Harris. Gunning links protests to broader backlash against free speech restrictions, referendums like Ireland’s motherhood clause removal, and demographic shifts, warning of escalating conflict as public opposition grows, mirroring Canada’s tensions over similar policies. [Automatically generated summary]
Feature interview with our friend Fatima Gunning from Ireland.
She's going to tell us about a civil uprising, really a populist uprising against globalism and mass migration.
In one case, it turned into a mini riot.
She'll give us the details on that.
You don't want to miss today's show, and I'd invite you to watch the video version of it.
You're listening to the audio version here, but the video version has the footage of Fatima herself getting pepper sprayed by police.
It's incredible.
Go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe.
It's eight bucks a month.
And not only do you get the video side of things, you get the satisfaction of knowing you're keeping Rebel News strong because we don't take a dime from government and its shows.
All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, what's going on in Ireland?
They have a new prime minister and they have a new populist uprising.
It's May 2nd, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious f**k!
You know, I've been meaning to get over to Ireland for a while.
It's just so interesting to me.
Small country, less than 6 million people.
Really, there are many more Irish people around the world than in Ireland itself.
But what's happening in Ireland is a microcosm for the rest of the world.
Well, I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment with our feature guest today, Fatima Gunning from the news outlet gripped.ie.
I recorded this yesterday, but I'm playing it today.
I've been running around a little bit.
I'm in Toronto back from some of my journeys.
But listening to Fatima talk about Irish people standing up against globalism, against forced mass migration, how Fatima herself was pepper sprayed.
You'll hear that in a moment.
I took her up on her suggestion.
She said on Monday, they were expecting one of the largest protests in Irish history against open borders.
And I thought, well, you know, I better go over there and cover it.
So I'm going to be heading to Ireland on Sunday night on Monday.
They're going to have what is expected to be a giant citizens' revolt.
And that country is revolting against the government a lot these days.
I'll be right back the next day.
I'm just going to be in Ireland for 24 hours to cover this march.
Hopefully you'll find it interesting.
We'll put all that up at migrantreports.com.
Anyway, a bit of an intro there that I recorded after the main course, which was this conversation with Fatima Gunning.
Take a look.
Well, I like following the news from Ireland, even though it's a fairly small country, just north of 5 million people.
But there's so many parallels to Canada, I think, in its politics.
Recently, their prime minister, until just a few weeks ago, really, their prime minister Leo Varadkar was a kind of carbon copy of Justin Trudeau, trying out the same ideas, mass migration, censorship, globalism, an obsession with carbon and even nitrogen.
And the demonization of critics also had echoes for me here in Canada.
And my favorite thing about Ireland is that now I can follow the news there through GRIPT, G-R-I-P-T dot IE.
That's an independent news source that in some ways reminds me of Rebel News.
They're journalists who are, you know, they are real journalists doing real journalism, but they aren't afraid to be contrarian and to hold the government to account.
So it's a pleasure to watch the news in this interesting place through the eyes of Gript.
And I'm delighted that we're joined again tonight by one of Gript's in the field reporters, Fatima Gunning, who joins us now via Sky.
Fatima, great to see you again.
Thanks very much for taking the time.
Hello, nice to talk to you again.
Thank you.
There's so much going on over there.
Leo Varadkar, he's been the prime minister or the Taishach, if I'm saying that right, for so many years.
And he finally moved on.
And there's a new prime minister, Simon Harris.
Can you tell our viewers why did Leo Varadkar go and what's the new PM like?
Well, I think the reasons behind Varadkar's sudden departure, there's a lot of speculation about it.
I think he cited personal reasons, but I don't know what were the thoughts in his head.
I don't know.
It seems like his cabinet were genuinely surprised that he made the announcement that morning.
And yeah, he's just returned to being a local TD in his constituency.
So yeah, I don't think I saw it coming.
I know he was very unpopular, but then again, almost the entire government is extremely unpopular.
So yeah, I mean, Justin Trudeau's very unpopular, even more unpopular than Viradkar is, but he's hanging on to power for dear life.
Let me ask you about the new guy, Simon Harris.
Is he basically same party, same ideology, same policies?
What's he like?
So far, like, obviously it's early stages, but he hasn't done anything radical.
I mean, one of the things he's done that a lot of people thought was controversial is that he kept on Helen McIntye as Minister for Justice.
She is a deeply unpopular Minister for Justice who has presided over, well, the chaos we see with immigration today.
I mean, just, was it two years ago, she gave an amnesty to 17,000 illegal immigrants here?
That might not sound like a huge number to folks in Canada because obviously you're much bigger than us, but to us, that's quite a chunk of people.
So that was something that some like political commentators have said was possibly an unwise decision for him.
And, you know, he hasn't given really any signs that he's going to shake things up.
I just remember from 2011, he's quite a young guy.
He's 37.
He's our youngest Taoiseach ever.
He promised the Irish public that he was pro-life and that he was completely against abortion.
And, you know, a lot of pro-life people in Ireland would have voted for him.
But he also oversaw the introduction of abortion as Minister for Health.
So I think he's a little bit of a shapeshifter.
I think he does where he follows where the power is, perhaps.
Yeah.
What's interesting to me is that in the backdrop of all this were two referendum questions that were striking in the difference between the government and the people.
The most astonishing one was a plan to remove the clause from the Irish Constitution that talks about motherhood.
And I remember first reading that it was, it's such a unique and interesting part of a national constitution that praises mothers and defends mothers.
And I mean, it's actually beautiful.
And the idea of removing such a thing is such an appalling lack of judgment and just the total thumping by the people.
I mean, all the political class was for these changes and the people were against it.
What a great divide.
Has the government and has Simon Harris sort of abandoned some of that social engineering stuff?
You mentioned he's wobbly on certain cultural issues.
How is he on the feminist stuff, on the transgenderism stuff?
Is he still barreling ahead like Leo Varadkar was, or has he cooled it on that as the referendum cooled him off?
Well, I think it's almost a little bit too early to tell.
He's only been in office for three weeks now or a month, but I can say that at one stage he did have he-him pronouns in his bio on LinkedIn, I think it was.
So if that's any indicator, I'm sure he's not like he's not too questioning of the transgender ideology stuff.
He has said that he was going to go ahead with the hate speech bill.
I think I may have spoken to you about that a little bit previously, but that is an extremely controversial piece of legislation.
And he was interim minister for justice for a short time while the current minister for justice, Helen McEntee, was on maternity leave.
And he wanted to actually add migration status as a protected characteristic under that bill, which means essentially that it would be a crime to criticize or question somebody, are you an illegal immigrant or something like that?
He actually wanted to add that to the legislation, which is a bit crazy, isn't it?
Well, crazy today becomes normalized tomorrow.
That's the whole Overton window.
You know, I'm glad you mentioned the Justice Minister because we've talked to you and some of your colleagues before about the zeal with which the government has pushed this censorship bill.
And just across the sea in Scotland, Hamza Youssef, who's the first minister of Scotland, he really personally championed an incredible censorship bill that's similar to the one they're talking about in Ireland.
And I think it backfired on Hamza Youssef in Scotland.
The first week, there were thousands of complaints against him personally.
I think it was a deeply unpopular bill.
And it may have been one of the reasons that he stepped down recently.
Do you think that you mentioned that the new PM, Simon Harris, is keeping the justice minister who has promoted the censorship bill.
Are they going to go ahead with it?
Are they planning to push it through in Ireland?
I mean, they say they are.
They've been discussing amending it.
Like, we don't know what those amendments are.
So it's really hard to say.
I think it's so deeply unpopular and there's been such a tremendous amount of pushback against it that, I mean, if I was in his shoes, I would think it was a stupid thing to pursue.
Honestly, like, you want to make yourself even more unpopular.
But, you know, I guess, is it a matter of pride that they don't want to see to be, what would you say, kind of bowing to what they would probably call people who oppose it the far right because they just basically call everyone that doesn't agree with them far right now.
That's what Trudeau does in Canada.
It's one of the things I see, the similarities in all these countries that I love to follow.
And I love to see them through the eyes of Gript.
You mentioned one of the things that was done was the granting of an amnesty to 17,000 illegal migrants, I think you said.
And in my head, I did the math, and I think that would be like 100,000 or about 130,000 people in Canada.
Press Confrontation00:09:02
That's an astonishing number of people.
And I think this become a flashpoint because the places in Ireland where many of these migrants are being housed are so disruptive.
I mean, the great number of people who are being put in small towns is astonishing to me.
There's a fairly small town called Newton Mount Kennedy, if I'm pronouncing it correctly, that I actually think is in the district of Simon Harris in County Wicklow.
Less than 3,000 people, but they were planning on like a fairly small, close-knit place.
And they were planning on putting a bunch of migrants in there.
I don't think they had a public consultation on the matter.
And it turned into protests and there was some arson.
And I think it devolved into a bit of a riot.
Now, you were right there in the thick of it.
Why don't you describe what happened and correct me if I've got any errors in how I've described it?
No, like, so Newtown Mount Kennedy is, yeah, small town population, about 3,000.
It's really like quite remote in that it's quite difficult to get there if you don't have your own vehicle.
Yeah, so it was today, I believe, they brought about 60 male asylum seekers down there.
I think they're planning initially at least to house 160.
So 160 into a small town that's very quiet.
It doesn't have a bank, doesn't have a cinema, it has a tiny little garden station.
It's really under-resourced.
Like there's nothing to do there.
There's a church and there's a charity shop and there's a pub or two.
That's about the size of Newtown Mount Kennedy.
So I've been reporting on that situation for about five weeks now.
The protests have been going on for about six.
This might be the seventh week, actually.
It's been going on for quite some time.
But last Thursday night, I received word that the public order unit of on Guarda Shiakana, our national police, the public order unit are the guys who, I suppose they kind of get, you know, rough and ready public order, as the name suggests.
But they showed up and there were some scuffles.
I was told that they had pepper sprayed people and that an elderly guy had been arrested.
So I thought, well, that doesn't sound good.
I should probably go over and see what's happening.
Sometime after that, 50 fully, like fully suited out shields, helmets, jack boots, batons, pepper spray riot police, riot squad were deployed to the area.
And then they lined up.
The protesters were kind of facing off against them.
At one point, there was a girl who said, get all the women up the front.
It seems like she thought that the riot police would not charge women.
Boy, was she wrong.
They charged at the people and the people started to push back.
There were people knocked down.
There were people pepper sprayed.
There was pepper spray flying everywhere.
So I saw people knocked to the ground.
There was a lady screaming, that's my brother, that's my brother.
Then they kept pushing up the road further and further.
At that time, a little bit up the road where there were other protesters stationed, a fire was set to a bunch of wooden pallets.
That quickly got quite big.
Then, yeah, the riot squad kept pushing people up the road.
They, at that point, some men, like mostly teenage boys from what I could see, started to pelt them with bits of stone.
They had like somebody was throwing a chair.
They had like little fold-up chairs that were used at the protest site.
A sledgehammer that had been used to chop pallets was thrown.
There was an umbrella thrown.
It was just like, you know, the people are unarmed.
Whatever they could get to hand was just thrown at these guys with shields.
And in the midst of that, they pushed us up past.
I was complying with them.
I was just like, you know, staying close but distant while filming because that's my job.
They kept pushing up.
They pushed up past the fire.
And then there was a man who they pepper sprayed and he ended up on his knees with his head on his hands.
He actually phoned me today.
He actually reached out to me and like, thanked, well, I'll tell what happened next.
But I saw him on the ground.
I saw him clearly in a position of surrender.
And then the riot squad proceeded to surround him and they started to kick him.
So I said he got on his knees.
And, you know, some people have been saying that I did the right thing.
Some people have been saying that I shouldn't have done that because I'm a journalist and I behaved, you know, I guess I shouldn't have done that.
But anyway, in the heat of the moment, I did say he's on his knees and that's why I said it.
And while I was retreating back, one of the public order unit came up to me and pepper sprayed me in the face.
He's on his knees!
I'm a journalist!
I'm a journalist!
Yes!
Press!
You're pepper-spraying!
Your purpose-praying press!
Your pepper-spraying press!
Your pepper-spraying press!
Oh my God.
Now, my own point of view is that you are a journalist, but you're also a human, and you're also a citizen and a voter, and you have a stake there.
That's your place, too.
So you have, I suppose, each of us carry with us different identities at the same time.
And I really have to tell you, I don't think it's inappropriate for you to say something as simple, obvious, and factually correct as he's on his knees.
So I'm going to politely disagree with the folks who have chastised you for that.
But for you to be pepper-sprayed when you clearly were a journalist, when, as you said, you weren't obviously throwing things, you weren't writing, you were documenting it.
That's shocking.
Did they like blast you right in the face?
Did it hurt?
Did it take you out of commission?
So he came right up to me and I said, I'm a journalist.
I kept saying press, press, press.
Because obviously, when like a huge guy in a massive like combat suit is coming at you, you're just, you know, it's hard to form a sentence.
And you're just like, press, press, press.
I'm a journalist.
So the video, like, I don't know if you've seen the video, but the frame is zoomed.
So I'm not actually as close to him as I look like I am.
But he, yeah, he came right up to me, sprayed it.
And I kind of, I guess I went like this because you can see my hand going up in the video.
And then it got me like all here.
So the side of my face was burning.
There was a spot that got on my eyelid that was burning.
It was on my neck.
It was all over my hands.
My hands were burning all night.
But luckily, by some miracle, it didn't get straight into my eyeballs.
So I definitely didn't get it as bad as the other people who got sprayed.
Now, I saw, I think it was the boss of Gripped, John McGurk, if I'm not mistaken, who said he was rightfully outraged that you were targeted and that he was going to bring this up with the police.
Has he done so?
And has there been any reaction?
We in Canada have had similar things happen to us.
Our reporter, David Menzies, has been arrested three times this year, if you can believe it.
Twice he was taken to jail.
We feel that it's because he reports on things that the government and sometimes the police don't want.
Do you think this was just an over-zealous policeman?
Do you think they knew you were with Gript and didn't like the fact that you were shining a light on things?
Have they said anything to you?
Give me a little bit of background.
I don't want to overstate things, but I don't want to understate them too.
We here in Canada, we know that there's a hate on for our journalism.
We've been at this nine years.
We can see the patterns.
What do you have to say?
A week or two has passed now.
How does it look to you?
I would like to think he was just being overzealous.
I don't have any reason to believe that Ongar Deshukana don't like Gript.
I know that, in fact, some of them do because they actually voted overwhelmingly over 90% no confidence in their police commissioner Drew Harris.
So they're all working under a guy who, you know, 90, more than 90% of them say they have no confidence in.
So they're obviously in a really rubbish position now.
And, you know, unfortunately for them, they are the tangible incarnation of the state's policies, which they are being used to push through.
So they are like people are really angry at them.
UK Asylum Seekers in Ireland00:11:27
You know, they're human beings as well.
Like, I'm not happy with what he did, obviously.
But I would like to think it wasn't targeted in any way.
Well, I hope you get some information.
I know that here in Canada, we've lost our patients and we now sue police who attack our people.
But of course, that's a very sensitive decision that your team will make on its own terms.
I'm thinking about the stats you said about little new town Mount Kenley, 3,000 people.
And they want to put in, I think you said, 60 men and then more after that.
What's the total number they're looking at?
About 150?
Is that what you said?
So that's a really good question.
Their initial figure is 160.
They've moved about 60 there already.
But I think this is where the figures from the UK might be quite relevant because there are over a thousand asylum seekers in Ireland that haven't been given state accommodation.
So, you know, there are rumors flying around left, right, and center that they could be housing up to a thousand people.
The Department of Integration, who is overseeing all this, is not really fond of answering too many of my questions or at least not giving definitive answers to ones they don't like.
And it was brought up in our parliament today that there are between 700 and 1.2 million undocumented migrants in the UK.
Now, the flights to Rwanda have started going since yesterday.
So you've got to imagine, even if a tiny percentage of that, you know, possibly 1.2 million decide, well, Ireland sounds nicer than Rwanda, like, you know, you can only imagine that a huge percentage of them will want to try and come here.
Right.
And just for our viewers who aren't following it, Rwanda is an unusual, I'm not going to say experiment, I'm going to say a project that both the UK and Ireland to deport people who, because it's a safe place, if I understand, correct me, Fadam, if I'm wrong here.
Rwanda has agreed to accept these migrants and they're not in danger there.
So it's basically they would like to stay in the five-star hotel called the UK or Ireland.
And the government is saying we'll save you from a violent civil war or discrimination, but you're going to have to stay at the two-star hotel in Rwanda and we'll fly you there.
Is that basically, do I understand it?
It's basically moving the refugees to a third-party country.
Is that right?
Yeah, well, it's only the UK at the moment.
Yeah, so they want to move them to Rwanda while their asylum claims are processed because, you know, it has taken up, much like Ireland, it's taken up a lot of kind of public amenities like hotels and things like that.
You know, there have even been instances of them being housed in floating hotels.
So, you know, the place is bursting at the seams with all these people, many of whom are coming from safe countries claiming to be asylum seekers.
You know, I'm doing the math again.
If you said there's between 700,000 and 1.2 million asylum seekers in a country of 5 million, that's such an astonishing number.
That's, let's just say, roughly 20%.
That would be, again, in Canada, it's just so astonishing to even contemplate it.
Would be like eight million souls in Canada who would.
It's just astonishing.
So that's the the UK.
So the UK, like um, has uh what?
700,000 to 1.2 million people.
So that's the UK.
That's not Ireland.
Okay, I misunderstood, because that many in Ireland would be unbelievable.
I was having trouble understanding that.
So that's the UK, got it and and and the reason you're raising that and this is fascinating, I'm learning is because when the UK voted for Brexit, it sort of voted for borders and there was a dispute because, of course, the UK borders Ireland.
Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.
And Ireland, I think, wanted free transit back and forth.
And now Ireland's worried that these British migrants will come into Ireland.
Is that right?
Well, yeah.
So our Justice Minister, Minister Helen McIntyre, who I mentioned earlier, she said this week that 80% of asylum claimants coming to Ireland right now are actually coming from the UK.
So, you know, and Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, has basically used that figure as proof that his Rwanda plan is working.
He's like saying, look, guys, they're leaving.
And it's like, you know, that's great for him, but they're coming to Ireland and now it's our problem, essentially.
You know, again, that's such an analogy with Canada because a lot of migrants to the US come up across our unguarded border into Canada.
And of course, the United States is a very safe place.
There's no civil war there.
They're just obviously shopping around.
You know, I've learned so much from you about Ireland today.
And I'm glad you clarified for me a few of the stats there and that Rwanda is the UK project.
But I can see what you mean, because if you're an asylum seeker in the UK and you're about to be given the boot, if you're about to be sent to Rwanda, but you can say, well, I can just walk across the border into Ireland and it's a lot nicer in Dublin than in Keat Valley.
Well, who wouldn't?
I would.
If I had to choose between Rwanda and Ireland, I'd choose Ireland every time.
Isn't that interesting?
Well, do you think that these protests, these street protests are going to continue?
I mean, obviously, none of us want violence and riot and arson, but it's clear that these are such dramatic changes demographically, culturally.
There have been spectacular crimes in Ireland recently that have been attributed to immigration policy.
It's a sign of deep disagreement in the country.
And I don't believe we should give in to violence.
But there's obviously a lot of people who think those thoughts peacefully and feel like they're being ignored by the government, like they were ignored on all these other matters we talked about from free speech to the referendums on motherhood, etc.
I think that this issue is fascinating.
Is the boiling continuing?
Well, I mean, none of these protests happened in a vacuum, I think, is the issue.
Like people have been expressing peacefully that they don't agree with this.
Like I think the latest poll is that 79% of people think that the Irish government have taken in too many migrants.
A quarter of a million migrants arrived in Ireland in 2022.
That's between Ukrainians, other international protection applicants, and just regular migrants if they're working or studying or whatever it is.
A quarter of a million into a country of 5 million in one year is quite a lot.
That's crazy.
That's Canada number.
Yeah.
And then we have a like, I don't even know what adjective to use to describe it anymore.
We have an absolutely grinding housing crisis, which is ongoing.
And yet they're essentially letting in anyone who wants to come, like anyone who arrives on our shores and says the word asylum is processed.
So as long as the government is not going to obey the expressed will of the majority of people on this issue, I don't see what other alternative there is but to protest.
What else are they going to do?
Yeah, absolutely fascinating.
Well, you've been very generous with your time, and we follow Grip very carefully, at least I do.
I know the rest of the team here does.
We were impressed not only with your independence, but the fact that you still are able to put challenging questions to cabinet ministers.
I'm always impressed when I see your team putting questions to cabinet ministers.
And the cabinet ministers squirm a little bit.
Sometimes they answer well, sometimes they don't answer at all.
But you obviously have the respect not only of the grassroots people, but you actually do have the respect of the establishment in that they do talk with you.
And even if their answers aren't great, they do answer you.
And I think that you've achieved something really special at Gript in that you are loyal to the people, but you are still engaged with the establishment.
And that's a tough thing to do.
So congratulations to you and the whole team.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Nice to see you.
And once again, I'll just say to our viewers, if you want to follow GRIPT, you can go to their website, G-R-I-P-T.ie.ie is the country code on the internet suffix for Ireland, G-R-I-P-T.ie.
Most of their content is free, but you can also be a member, a subscriber, and they do written work as well as videos.
So I just think they're great.
And follow them on Twitter.
Fatima, all the best to you and the team and stay safe.
And I know you were very brave and you're being very careful about what you say about that pepper spraying incident.
And I hope it never happens to you again.
I hope so too.
Thanks so much.
Well, you heard me in my intro.
I was so excited and interested and engrossed with what Fatima said.
I talked to our friend Efron Monsanto, our head of video, and the two of us are going to go over there.
We're leaving Sunday night.
We arrive Monday morning.
We take the red eye.
We're flying economy.
We're staying in, you know, we're not even going to really stay in a hotel.
We're just going to sleep over.
We're there on the ground for 24 hours.
We're going to cover this as best we can.
I think it's going to be very interesting.
Anyways, here's a couple letters from you to me.
Tracer says, I would really love to know how much Soros money or NGO money is paying and coordinating all this.
You're talking about the campus uprisings.
I think it is completely fake.
And by fake, I mean Astroturf funded.
What a difference between genuine politics, which I've seen with the truckers two years ago, the anti-vaccine mandate protests, the anti-lockdown protests.
I was in Alberta a few weeks ago looking at the carbon tax revolt.
You ask those people what's on their mind, they'll talk your ear off.
They'll tell you 100 things, even if you only ask one.
They know why they're there.
Whereas when I've been going to, well, I've been to several cities now, and our team has even gone to many more.
None of the protesters want to talk because they don't know.
The Middle East is a very complicated history in politics, and they just know that this is a rebellion against the man, the man being anything.
That's what cultural Marxism is.
You rebel against any authority.
Global warming today, oil tomorrow, you know, America always is the bad guy.
Israel is the bad guy, whatever.
They don't know why they're there.
It's all prefab.
It's all paid and organized.
And many of the people are just anti-forthugs.
David Frager says, I'm really enjoying the on-the-ground reporting.
Well, I'm glad to hear it.
I was actually trying to get to Montreal today, but my flight was canceled.
So I stuck around and got some work done in the office.
But we've got great people on the scene.
Alexa Lavois is out there.
We'll have more from her later.
And David Menzies was at the University of Toronto protest.