Ezra Levant reports from Ireland’s open-border crisis, where Dublin’s migrant tent encampments—housing Somalis, Nigerians, Georgians, Afghans, and Brazilians—clash with 200,000 cancelled hospital appointments and €4,000/month rents for locals. Independent candidate Gavin Pepper calls all major parties "traitors" for prioritizing migrants over Irish citizens, citing school forced attendance and abortion policies while accusing elites of suppressing dissent. Levant draws parallels to Canada’s trucker protests, framing Ireland’s resistance as a warning: unchecked immigration, pushed by supranational forces like the UN, erodes national sovereignty before it’s too late to stop. [Automatically generated summary]
I'm back in Canada from my trip to Ireland and I've got more video to show you.
And I want to tell you some lessons I've learned from Ireland.
Obviously, not everything there is applicable to Canada.
They have a very different history and demography.
But there are some things I learned when I was over there.
I'd like to share them with you.
And I want to show you what I saw.
It was a feast for the eyes, as you can imagine.
So I really want to encourage you to get the video version of this podcast.
Go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month.
And not only do you get the rebel content, the video content every day, you know you're supporting rebel news.
And we need it because we don't get any money from Trudeau.
And it shows.
All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, what I learned in Ireland.
It's May 8th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious thug.
Hey, there's no place like home Sometimes I get to go to pretty cool places to report the news.
I was in Dublin, Ireland for exactly 25 hours, so there wasn't any time to do sightseeing.
But the sites we did see were political sites.
We were looking at the tent encampments of migrants who have no place to go.
We covered the big march against immigration.
I sometimes travel to places outside Canada to tell the stories of the world, but usually it's because we can tie those stories back to Canada.
You might recall about a year ago I went to Marseille, France, that was having riots because of Muslim extremists who weren't getting along with the ethnic French.
There were lessons to be learned there too.
In London, UK, we sometimes visit, especially to cover the trial, the ongoing trials of Tommy Robinson about freedom of speech.
What happens in London today is likely to happen here in a few years.
Same thing with Marseille.
What's interesting about Ireland is that they're ahead of us in terms of fighting back.
I've never heard of a mass march in Canada against immigration.
They sure had that in Ireland the other day.
I learned some interesting things about Ireland, things that maybe I knew but never thought about.
For example, the Irish are an indigenous people.
What I mean by that is they're the Celts.
They're the first people who were there.
They didn't colonize anyone.
They didn't kick anyone out.
And if you want to use the woke terminology, they've been the oppressed.
They've been fighting against outsiders for centuries.
So how does wokeness work in the argument?
Typically, in places like Canada or the United States, oh, you're evil white people.
You're on occupied land.
In the case of the United States, Black Lives Matter, there's a legacy of slavery, etc.
None of that really works in Ireland.
They are the ones who, to use their phrase, 800 years of rebellion.
I'm not here to talk about the battle between Britain and Ireland.
I'm not here to get involved in those old and ancient disputes of which I know very little.
My point by referencing this is to say the woke accusation that if you're a white person, you are inherently racist and inherently guilty of historical crimes that happened before you were even born.
Ireland is one of the places that just doesn't work.
Ireland didn't pick on anyone.
They didn't go on global adventures and enslave people.
Fact, as I mentioned the other day, the Irish were taken as slaves, including the amazing and incredible and terrifying story of the village of Baltimore Ireland, where a Barbary pirates raiding boat Muslim slave traders raided Baltimore Ireland, kidnapped every single person in the village, they emptied out the town and took them back to Africa to be white slaves.
That's the story of Ireland.
They were the slaves, not the slaver, and so it was interesting when I saw some counter protesters, the open borders types.
What were they saying?
What could they say?
Well, here's a clip of my encounter with them as I was walking along with the marchers behind me, the counter protesters, a line of guard eye that's what they call their police.
You can see that they're quite worried about the two sides coming into contact.
There's one guard eye officer filming things, I think for souvenir purposes.
I think the numbers on the other side, if I had to estimate, I'd say there's about 110 people, not more than I'd say I'm shy of 100.
I'd say there's about 90 people.
There's more police than counter protesters.
Most of the signs on the other side are prefabricated signs, as opposed to many of the homemade signs on this side.
And I'll tell you one other thing I just noticed on this side hundreds of Irish flags.
On that side I don't see a single Irish flag.
I see three Palestinian flags and I see a mysterious flag that I cannot identify, but there's not a single Irish flag on the other side.
And doesn't that tell you something?
I'm gonna step about a foot away from these big cops because I don't need to get caught in the crossfire.
Scum, NGO scum, NGO scum, NGO scum.
They're chanting NGO scum.
That's a very interesting thing to say.
The people in this anti-migration march think that their opponents are the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, NGOs as much as any domestic political party, and I think they're right.
Thank you very much.
Very friendly here.
Lots of rebel news fans, even here in Ireland.
I correct myself.
I see a single Irish flag on the other side on which is written Black Lives Matter.
As I mentioned before, this side has co-opted the phrase and says Irish Lives Matter.
I think both lives matter.
As I mentioned in my comments, there were no Irish flags on the side of the counterprotesters except for the one that was marked up Black Lives Matter.
Again, that's such an unusual thing to hear in Ireland.
I mean, yes, I believe Black Lives Matter.
Sure, I do.
But what a strange argument to come from a place that never had slavery, that does not have historic guilt, if even anyone should.
But they felt guilty about their own colors.
They had Palestinian flags and they had prefabricated signs and flags.
They were prefab leftists, which, you know, I think they were just taking instructions.
I saw a tweet that someone identified someone in the crowd, an actor from the hit TV series Game of Thrones.
I think the character was the Lord of the Onions or something.
If you were an actor in the Game of Thrones, I'm going to go out on a limb, given the success of that franchise, and say you're probably a millionaire.
It wasn't a small role.
So will a millionaire Irish fancy pants?
I mean, if you're a global success actor, you've got a few bucks, will he open his mansion to these migrants?
Or does he like to have an alarm system, a security system, and a high wall around the things that he protects?
What was interesting to me was seeing the responses and the reaction from the establishment, including from the left-wing political party called Sinn Féin, which in the past was associated with the Irish Republican Army.
So they're hardcore leftists.
And it was interesting to see how they described this mass populist movement.
They said it was foreign meddlers who were stirring things up.
I didn't see any foreigners.
I mean, I guess I was a foreigner, but I was there as a reporter.
I heard one person with an American accent give a speech, but she had moved to Ireland.
I didn't see any foreigners.
In fact, it felt extremely Irish to me.
Certainly lots of Irish flags.
The Sinn Féin also blamed Zionists.
And again, not that I can detect a Jew on site.
I mean, unless they're wearing conspicuous Jewish garb.
I didn't see any Jews in the entire crowd.
There's not a lot of Jews in Ireland.
Sinn Féin was denouncing the marchers as foreigners, as Zionists or Jews.
And I thought this was amazing, as British intelligence agents.
And I, again, I don't want to wade into territory I know little about, but of course, the British and the Troubles and Northern Ireland.
And I mean, obviously, Ireland and the UK have had a quarrel going back centuries.
I'm not here to take sides in that.
I just don't know enough about it, but it's quite something that that's the go-to insult.
Oh, if you're against mass immigration, you must be a pawn of British intelligence.
I mean, I guess Justin Trudeau reaches for, you're a transphobe, you're a racist.
I guess in Ireland, they say you're in League with the British spies or something.
It was sort of an ironic challenge, given that the open borders types, they're the ones in league with the globalists, which with the World Economic Forum types who want open borders and want Ireland to be the next sacrifice zone.
I liked the fact that those protesters were chanting against NGOs, non-governmental organizations like the UN and the World Economic Forum.
Men of the Protest00:15:31
That's sort of a sophisticated thing to say.
And if I had to pick which side is taking orders from outside the country, I'm sorry, the folks who aren't flying the Irish flag, the folks who are talking about the global Palestinian movement, and the folks who are in league with the NGOs, I'm going to say those are the ones who aren't representing true Irish.
You know, I think that I learned a lot in Ireland, even though I was only there for 25 hours.
I met a lot of friends, and I have things I'm sure I'll think about for many months.
In fact, I'm sure that there's things I witnessed in my whistle-stop tour to Ireland that I won't even know taught me something until something comes up in Canada.
And I'd say, oh, I remember when I was in Dublin and I saw this.
So I feel it's useful to see how the immigration battle is going over there.
And I was so glad that I was able to get there and back.
And my videographer Efron came with me.
Do you remember when Efron and I went to Marseille, France?
I mean, let me show you an interview that we stumbled upon that I've thought about a dozen times.
He was a man who, to me, on the outside, looked very modern and very assimilated.
He looked very Western in his attire, very sharp.
He wasn't dressed fancy, but he was dressed clean and modern and hip, and he had a ball cap.
Here, listen to what he said in that interview, which in some ways is a premonition of what we're seeing in our streets this year.
Take a look at this guy.
The world belongs to everyone.
Each human can live where he wants.
There is no problem with that.
We live where we want.
The earth belongs to the good God.
and visit the unvoused, I was only there for 25 hours, so I don't want to come across as a know-it-all.
There was no time for sightseeing.
I'd like to go back one day.
I mean, it's just when you go to an ancient place with castles that are runes of hundreds of years ago, you realize how new Canada is.
And in some ways, how lucky we are that we're not trapped by old quarrels that have gone on for, as the Irish say, 800 years.
We really have a wonderful opportunity in our country to make a fresh start.
And we did, I think.
I think Canada has always been harmonious, at least since the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, when the French and the English came to a working rapport.
And you can have your quarrels with Quebec.
Lord knows I do when it comes to politics.
But the country's worked out pretty well.
As it was said a century ago, we're a fireproof house far away from inflammable materials.
Canada has had no war on our territory since, I guess, the War of 1812 when we went down to sack the White House.
But I'm afraid that troubles have been imported here en masse, and I'm worried about that.
One thing that was very interesting was how friendly everyone there was to rebel news, which was a real surprise to me.
I don't think I've done 10 videos in my life on Ireland.
I did one on their constitution and motherhood being in there, which was wonderful.
I did one on their new hate speech law.
And we've interviewed some of their journalists, Ben Scallon and Fatima Gunning from Grip.
But I really think when I say I've done 10 videos on them, that really is it.
And maybe that sounds like a lot, but we've done 50,000 videos here at Rebel News over the years.
So for us to be recognized, I'm not exaggerating when I say 30 people probably came up to us.
And not just in the March, when you might think, okay, they're politically turned on.
When we went out to the encampment of the migrants in a totally different neighborhood, two, one guy just walking his dog, another walking by recognized us.
And we were later near a bus stop and someone walked by who was a soldier.
And he recognized us and shook our hands.
It was amazing and surprising because to be Canada, we've never really put any effort into Ireland.
I don't think it's that we were so amazing.
I think it's that Ireland is so craving of another point of view.
Now, they have that website called GRIPT, G-R-I-P-T dot IE.
That's Fatima Gunning and Ben Scallon.
We've interviewed them before and they're great.
The fact that they crave more content that is sympathetic and interesting and contrarian tells me it's a deep need.
I have to say, and I conferred with my colleague Efron, who really covered the truckers very deeply.
Efron and I both got that trucker feeling that these are often working class people, although people from all walks of life was there, that they were full of passion and love for their country and they were sick of being ignored and sick of being abused by the entire establishment.
The same way we despise the CBC state broadcaster here.
Oh boy, they felt the exact same way about the RTE state broadcaster over there.
There were very many similarities, including the fact that at least for now, no big establishment parties will give these people any time.
I haven't seen the polling in Ireland, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably the same as it is here in Canada.
People are fed up with overwhelming immigration numbers that just can't be absorbed.
And so you have the will of the people that is being ignored by the entire establishment.
That's sort of what the truckers were about too.
So I'm going to play a little bit more for you from the trip to Ireland.
And if you're not that interested, don't worry.
We've got it out of our system for now and we'll get back to covering shocking news in Canada.
David Menzie's going to the University of Toronto to see the anti-Semitism there.
There's always news.
We have reporters that you know in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa.
We cover the news wherever it is in Canada.
But what we saw in Ireland, I think, is what it might look like if Canadians finally have the courage to march against unbridled immigration.
That's just too much for the country to absorb.
Very interesting stuff.
Let me leave you with some more clips.
And until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home, good night.
and keep fighting for freedom.
I'm standing in front of a protest that has been here for weeks.
It is an encampment.
There are men who rotate through here.
There are flags.
There are signs.
Who are these men and what are they protesting?
They're Irishmen from the neighborhood of Kulak who are protesting an empty warehouse that used to be owned by a paint company.
It's a massive warehouse in which is planned a migrant residence.
What they plan to do, the government, is turn this warehouse, which used to store paint, into a home for 500 to 1,000 migrants, including some single men.
They seek to put modular homes into this building.
And these people in the local community are saying they can't bear that.
Some of them say to have this many single men in this neighborhood with nothing to do is a risk, especially given that right across the street is the bowling alley, the Burger King, the place where all the kids mill around.
Putting hundreds of military-aged foreign men unemployed right across the street could upset the neighborhood, could cause issues ranging from safety to access to services.
This is not a wealthy part of Dublin.
One of the complaints is who will service these newcomers.
I think the number one complaint, though, talking to some of the men who have staffed the protest around the clock, is that nobody asked them.
This was being foisted on the community.
A lot of people are happy to see us here.
In fact, we just met one man who recognized us from Rebel News and thanked us for our work.
He was very articulate, very passionate, and to use a phrase, severely normal.
I asked him if he would say anything on camera.
He said he couldn't because he's part of the army.
He's part of the Irish Army.
And for him to express himself could get in trouble.
We've met a lot of people who are familiar with our work, and it's a delight to hear that.
It tells us that the themes we talk about on Rebel News apply to other countries as well.
One of the things that these men remind me of are the movement, the freedom movement in Canada.
They're grassroots people, working class people who feel completely shut out by the political elites.
You can hear the horn honking in support as they drove by.
It reminds me of the truckers.
It reminds me of the anti-carbon tax protest that I saw by the side of the highway west of Calgary.
This same spirit of ordinary people fighting back, not just against their national government, but against some sort of globalist agenda.
Now, when you use the word globalist agenda, people in the establishment roll their eyes, but it's real because it's certainly not a national agenda.
Nobody in Kulak has voted to put 500 to 1,000 people in their neighborhood without asking.
Nobody here was asked, let alone proposed it.
They didn't have a debate in the Irish Parliament.
Where did the idea come from?
You could ask the same in Canada.
We went from a quarter million migrants a year to 2 million, to 2.2 million, 900,000 foreign students, 600,000 foreign workers alone.
Nobody asked Canadians.
There was no election on the subject.
There was no referendum on the subject.
So where did the idea come from?
The answer is it's a supranational elite.
They get together at places like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
They don't consult with working class blokes.
This is an incredible protest.
It's low-key now.
But a few weeks ago, 2,000 local Irishmen peacefully protested on this major walk.
They even came on horseback.
2,000 of them.
I heard one gentleman, we were just starting to film and someone was nearby and I asked him if he wanted to come on camera and he said he didn't.
But he used a phrase with me.
He said, Ireland is full.
And that's the Irish view.
It's a small country.
It's an island.
It has 5 million people.
And in the last two years, it has taken an enormous number of migrants, including more than 100,000 from Ukraine alone.
And remember that they're one-eighth the side of Canada, so that would be like a million people from Ukraine in Canada.
It'll be interesting to see what happens.
These folks are around the clock.
We'll be going downtown for what's expected to be a very large march today.
Last comment, these men warned us that the anti-fuss side, the Marxist side, and I think I heard him say the Gaza protesters, they're planning to come out with a counter-protest.
So you're going to have all these grassroots Irishmen saying Ireland is full.
No to the migrants, no to, you know, I mean, look at this: illegal male immigrants housed before 11,500 homeless people.
Well, in some cases, as we saw earlier today, they're not even housed.
They're in tents along the canal.
Ireland is in an immigration crisis.
The fact that these people have an around-the-clock vigil tells me that there's a passion.
The fact that I hear horns honking in the background tells me it is an opinion shared by people.
The fact that people tell me their thoughts but ask not to be on camera tells me that there's a danger to speaking up because you'll be marginalized or cancelled by polite society.
I suppose the massive march today is a way to change that and show the world that ordinary Irish people, not the far right, have deep concerns about what's going on.
I'll have more later today for all of my reports.
Go to migrantreports.com and if you think this is important citizen journalism, feel free to chip in a few dollars, pounds, or euros to cover our economy-class airfare and hotel to come out here.
It's actually Interesting day A lot of speeches, including by political candidates on various levels of government.
Here's one gentleman who wanted to say a word.
One, two, one, two.
Gavin Pepper.
And Gavin, what are you running for?
Independent.
And which level, which office are you running for?
Locals, Finglis and Ballymoon.
And that's a neighborhood in Dublin, is it?
It is a working-class neighbor.
And we just spoke with one lady who said that in the working-class neighborhood she's in, a very large number of the voters are foreign nationals, and she didn't think that she would have good luck there running on an anti-immigration campaign platform.
What's your district like?
Well, I don't know about her one, but it might want to be more Irish people in the community.
But there is people from different nationalities living there.
But people in Ireland, Edril, have had enough of this.
It's a joke.
Illegal immigration is affecting every country, but it's affecting Ireland really, really badly.
We've had 200,000 hospital appointments cancelled last year, right?
Including 650 chemotherapy sessions for kids.
You know, people are being left behind.
People are being means tested for medical cards and carers' payments and the government just keep hitting down on them, hitting down.
Look, Irish people are emigrating.
Nurses and doctors are emigrating because they can't afford rent in here.
You're down here, the UFFC is just down the road and you're looking at 4,000 euro a month, right?
To rent an apartment.
People Being Left Behind00:04:31
That's crazy.
Insanity on basic ways.
So people that walk at say Starbucks and McDonald's and all, they can't afford to live or rent in here.
But what's happening is we're bringing in thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants, right?
Okay, let me stop you there because you said that twice.
If you're bringing them in, are they illegal?
Like, how are they physically getting to Ireland?
Are they not being invited here?
I spoke to a couple of migrants down at the camp today who the way they described it, and they didn't talk to me a lot, but they made it seem like they were responding to an invitation of the Irish government.
So when you say illegal, what do you mean?
Because these guys say that they were invited.
No, no, no.
Well, when I say illegal, I mean they're being sent here.
So some of them are coming from Dover.
They're going on the boat, across over.
Over in the United Kingdom, and then they cross over the border.
Is that what you're saying?
So they go to Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and then they cross to Ireland proper.
Yeah, and then they come down to the I-PASS building and claim asylum, and then now...
So instead of claiming asylum in the UK, they come all the way through to Ireland?
Yeah, that's what they're doing.
And then also, they're arriving on the plane into Dublin, and then they're ripping up the documentations and then claiming asylum at the border.
And what countries are they coming from to do that?
Look, the Spade is bad.
They're coming from Somalia, Nigeria, Georgia, Afghanistan.
They're coming from them sort of countries.
You know, there's lots from Brazil as well.
A lot of the things they're doing as well, Ezra, is some of them are coming on what's called like a student thing that they're studying language.
We have the same thing in Canada.
It's a Mickey Mouse thing, you know, it's just to get it.
And then they start walking to say the Liverloo drivers and they're illegal in the economy, you know.
But at the end of the day, the ones that are arriving now in the thousands, they're coming across the border from Northern Ireland.
Some are landing on the plane.
They're going straight to the IPAS building.
The figures are up every single week.
And now, like, the singles, there's no room for them.
So they're in tents.
They're being put out in tents because most of them are in hotels getting free accommodation, breakfast, lunch, dinner, a weekly payment, right?
And they're working.
Some of them are getting jobs.
So, how is somebody that's a normal family meant to compete against that?
You know, we have 14,000 Irish families homeless.
We've 4,000 kids in emergency accommodation.
Like, they come first.
Like, they come first, and that's the way it is.
We need to look after our own people.
Well, let me ask you one last question.
Now, you say you're running for local office, and I wish you luck.
But it seems to me that the larger parties on the national level, now, you correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm certainly not an expert, but it sounds like all of them support open borders immigration.
Whether it's Sinn Féin or I don't even, I can't even pronounce some of the party names, but am I right to say that they all support open borders?
Well, every single one of them.
Sinn Féin are someone I voted for all my life.
They're traitors.
They play on the walking class vote.
But after the election, if they were to get voted in, they'd go into power with Fina Fall.
Another party member, if they don't get enough votes, they would go into coalition with them.
So that's what they are as populist parties.
But they're all agreeing with the EU on this.
So this is an EU thing that playing ball.
Pierre started the Sinn Féin only the other day flew over to the UK in London and he was agreeing with all the vulture phones.
These vulture phones are causing big problems here.
And he was saying, if we get in, we'll tame the so-called far right.
So what they call the far right in Ireland nowadays is concerned parents worried about the communities and services.
So we don't listen to it anymore.
You've got them all.
You're Fina Fall, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, people before profit.
They all agree on the same topic.
Open borders, flood the country.
We have no room.
We just don't have room.
Well, you need an Irish Trump.
I think he's — does he have some Irish blood in him?
I believe it.
Look, I'm the same as him.
You know what I mean?
Depart them.
I've no empathy.
Like, I did look after our own people.
I don't care how people feel about it.
I want to depart every one of them.
At the end of the day, her people come first.
My people come first.
Like, the kids over here should be forced in school.
The people on the hospital list, elderly people, you know, euthanasia, you only mentioned it on that.
These parties support abortion, right?
And I'm pro-life, and I'm not afraid.
I'm not ashamed to say it, right?
They support euthanasia, right?
And all these topics, anytime Adam comes up, the mainstream media drowns you out, doesn't want you to have a say, and they just agree with what the government is.
So there's no democracy in Ireland.
In fact, democracy is so bad in Ireland, right?
There's a station called Russia Today, they've banned that station on TV because they said, oh, it's one-way biased.
Like, that's them being one-way biased.
Democracy is like rebel news should be a mainstream TV.
Democracy's Reality00:00:57
Like, you should be able to.
There's been a lot of friendly folks welcoming us here.
It's been quite a pleasant surprise.
Well, that's because we all watches.
So that's the reality of it.
Ezra's a good-looking bloke.
No, but what it is, is you're going across the globe, right?
And you're trying to get the message out.
And this WHO nonsense are just, you see, the Build-A-Poger group.
Everybody knows what's going on.
It's their way of the highway.
And we're not putting up with it.
Like, we're saying, hang on a minute.
You're not going to destroy my country.
Yeah, not our hope.
I've six children, Ezra.
Right?
I've six kids.
Two years ago, I wouldn't have run in the election.
I just got away.
All we want to do is be left alone, go to work, bring our kids to the football games, but now you can't.
Just, I'm, I did an interview with a woman whose child they tried to snatch out of a garden the other day.
That was me that interviewed her.
Oh, wow.
Listen, my friend, it's been a pleasure talking with you.
Tell me your name one more time.
Gavin Pepper, Ezra, and it's lovely to have you over here.
And it's great to see that you are actually going to get a message out.