Ezra Levante examines Ireland’s rapid influx of 500 military-aged male migrants into Dublin’s Bok and Kulak neighborhoods, sparking protests with graffiti like "Free Kulak" and clashes over unconsulted housing plans. Despite a population of 5 million, the government issued 775,000 new passports in 2024, raising questions about motives—financial profits for hotels/NGOs or ideological shifts like "woke critical race theory." Street interviews reveal migrants’ hostility while locals, including doctors and nurses among asylum seekers, criticize Ireland’s role as a "sacrifice zone" under EU policies, with unvetted men posing safety risks. Levante suggests Ireland’s elite-driven immigration push may ignore public concerns, proposing Conor McGregor as a populist disruptor to challenge the status quo, with Dublin streets showing strong support for his potential candidacy. [Automatically generated summary]
Over the weekend, I went to Ireland, not even for one full day.
I think we were on the ground for like eight hours, but we did some more stories on immigration, and I got some very interesting little moments I'd like to share with you.
I went there with our head of video, Efron Monsanto.
I want to show you what that country is like.
I want to show you what people say on camera about mass immigration.
I don't think people in Canada are bold enough to talk that way yet.
Maybe it'll come later, but I really want you to see with your eyes what I'm about to show you, especially some conversations I had on the street.
To do that, you need the video version of this podcast, which we call Rebel News Plus.
Just go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe.
It's $8 a month.
And Bob's your uncle.
And by the way, that $8 a month might not sound like a lot to you, but it really helps us keep going.
All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, I've done a little bit of secret traveling over the weekend.
I'll give you a full update.
It's October 21st, and this is the Ezra Levance Show.
Shame on you, you sensorious bug.
Oh, hi, everybody.
It's great to be back in our world headquarters in Canada.
I love hearing what the staff is up to.
We've got so many stories across the country.
Very exciting news out of British Columbia, don't you think?
The BC Conservative Party coming within a hair of winning the election out there.
And frankly, things are just going to get worse for the incumbent NDP.
I'm also very excited about what this portends for the Federal Conservative Party because I think some of the support for the BC Conservatives is that the name Conservative has been revived under Pierre Polyev.
Obviously, there are policy similarities between the dude David E. B. just an atrocious NDP, socialist, environmental extremist, carbon tax booster, hard drug pusher, all these things backfiring on him.
I think it really is a test drive for the federal election that's coming up.
If the Conservatives can do so well in an avowedly progressive province, they'll be able to do even better in other more moderate places.
Drea, of course, is our woman on the ground in British Columbia.
There's also things going on in Saskatchewan.
And of course, our chief reporter, Sheila Gunrid, covering a lot of hearings.
She was covering the foreign interference judicial inquiry, but also hearings of Catherine Tate, the CBC poo-baugh, her latest just outrageous, charging taxpayers $1,000 a night to go see the Olympics in France when she was there on a personal vacation anyways.
Take a look at this clip.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Tate, Mr. Goodman, Ms. Tate.
I'm very pleased to see you here in person.
And in fact, you were there in person for the opening of the Olympic Games.
I just want to know whether this was during your personal vacation.
Yes.
Well, the media has indicated that you charge the Canadian taxpayers $1,000 per night for the hotel, as well as other expenses in the order of approximately $6,000.
So why charge $6,000 to Canadia if, Canadians, if you were there during your personal holiday, I was in France for my personal holiday during the Olympic Games.
But during those days, I was working for CBC Radio Canada.
And if you were to look at all of the newspapers, it was very clear there was no hotel room in Paris that was available at a lower price than that.
So this was the official hotel for the Games.
I was there with other delegates.
And I benefited from all of the services.
For example, the shuttle that enabled us to go to the opening of the Games because there were security issues at stake.
I understand.
But you just indicated that you were on a personal holiday.
But then you were no longer on a personal holiday.
It's important to have the true version.
Well, I was on holiday.
That's why I did not ask CBC Radio Canada paid for my airfare.
Nevertheless, when I went to the Games, I was working on behalf of Radio Canada, of course, CBC.
So you cut part of your personal holidays there because you were there two, three weeks a month.
It doesn't matter, but you cut those in half and you charge those prices.
And of course, our friend Avi Amini is crossing the United States.
He's from Australia, of course.
It's fun to see his take on the United States of America asking questions along the way.
He was in Vegas the other day and he had some fun man on the street interviews.
I got a real chuckle out of it.
I won't play the whole clip.
It's about 14 minutes, but here's just a moment of that.
The legals vote, Harris.
If it's an actual affair, I mean, it's Trump.
It's not even close.
He talks it, but he keep it real.
Camelo liar.
Are you together?
How do you ensure that what happens in Vegas?
We won't tell your wife.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Who's the Prime Minister of Australia?
I'm embarrassed to tell you.
I know, I heard.
Where are you from?
Primo, where you from?
Primo.
Election polls across this country say it's too close to call the election between Trump and Harris.
While betting agencies have Trump way in the lead.
So the billion-dollar question is, are the polls right or are the markets right?
We've come to Las Vegas to find out from the average punter what they think.
Because the mainstream media is working overtime right now to play down the markets.
This is on our tour at AviAcrossAmerica.com.
Remember, you can go there to see all our reports across the country.
I started in San Francisco and I will end up in Mar-a-Lago for Election Day.
Join us there and support our work if you like what you see.
So let's cut the hype and let's hear from the average person.
If you had to bet right now, who's going to win the election, Trump or Harris?
Trump.
Trump, all day.
Trump.
I hope it's here.
Spears.
Harris.
I bet on Trump.
Trump.
My wife is fooling me.
We don't.
You're not going to bet.
You're in Vegas.
That's okay.
Well, I haven't even covered all of our reporters, but we really are firing on all pistons.
Tommy Robinson's Arrest00:06:52
I like to be in the studio.
I also like to be on the ground covering things.
And sometimes I travel to other countries, but I am aware of the importance of our own home here in Canada.
And so when I do travel, I try and do so in a very lean way, not just economically, but not to take a lot of time.
And so I was in the studio, you might recall.
I did the show on Friday, and it's Monday, and I'm doing the show in the studio today.
But I have been to three countries since I saw you last.
It's sort of been a kamikaze run.
On Friday night, I flew with our videographer and head of video, Efron Monsanto.
I flew to Ireland because I got a very cheap ticket on the way to my final destination that had an eight-hour layover in Dublin.
And most of the time when you travel and there's a layover, it's sort of a pain in the neck.
You just hang out at the airport, right?
No, we rented a car and did real journalism about the crazy immigration crisis in that country.
And we got some very interesting clips.
There's two interviews on the street.
Normally when you interview someone on the street, it's a very light, quick interview, but these two were very serious, very in-depth.
They were in the exact same location talking about the exact same thing, but they couldn't be more different.
It was about mass migration of single military-aged men to Ireland.
And is that a good or a bad thing?
I tell you, to talk to these two people back to back, as I did in Ireland, was just incredible.
One of the reasons that I like covering the Irish immigration crisis is that the Indigenous Irish are pushing back.
Here in Canada, I haven't really seen that.
Oh, sure, I've seen some Twitter warriors online opposed to it.
I suppose I would be one of those Twitter warriors, but I have not seen a massive, organized, general, non-partisan street campaign, political campaign against mass immigration in Canada.
I haven't.
I've seen protests about immigration, but they are those foreign visa holders, either temporary workers or students who are complaining that they're being sent home.
There's about 2 million people that Justin Trudeau brought to Canada in the last year.
1 million of them alone are students.
Of course, most of them aren't really students.
They're just calling themselves that.
There's a lot of asylum seekers, fake refugees, etc.
You've seen them protest, but I haven't seen any Canadians protest back.
Have you?
I have not.
But I see that in Ireland.
So that's my main show today.
But I spent about eight hours on the ground in Ireland, and then I went on to a place I'd never been before called Alicante, Spain.
Now, I landed at night, and I left the next morning to go and connect with Tommy Robinson.
You might know Tommy Robinson.
He worked for our company a few years ago.
He's the journalist in his own right with his outfit called Urban Scoop.
I call him a civil rights activist because he's fighting for freedom of speech.
Anyways, he was heading back to the United Kingdom.
He's got a big rally coming on next weekend.
And there was a real sense that he would be arrested by the British police when he touched down.
So the reason I went to Alicante, Spain was not to hang out there, but to meet up with him, get on the same plane as him and fly back to the UK so that when he was arrested, when he landed, I would be right there in a position to film his arrest and help get him out of jail.
Incredibly, we landed and there were police at the airport, but they just waved him through, which is very interesting.
So I came right back here to Canada.
It was quite a long journey, three night flights in a row.
But the reason I cover those stories is partly because I'm very interested in them, partly because I enjoy going to different places and seeing how people do things elsewise.
But I always feel like I can bring lessons back to Canada.
And I would say in these two cases, in regards to Ireland, when, if ever, will Canadians stand up and say immigration is out of control enough?
Basta.
I mean, they're saying that in polls.
I don't know if you saw some of the polls recently, that a majority of Canadians are not just against mass immigration.
They think it is a hard negative for our country.
But where are they on the streets?
I haven't seen that yet.
Maybe the Irish way is the way.
And in the case of Tommy Robinson, the lesson is sort of the other side of that.
Things have gotten atrociously bad.
Just today, news comes of a 61-year-old man who was jailed for months.
Actually, I think he was two years, pardon me, he was jailed for two years in the United Kingdom for tweeting certain things and for, I think he was shouting at a cop or something in one of the recent race riots.
So he didn't commit any violence himself.
He just sort of was very noisy and angry.
He was put to jail for two years, and I understand he committed suicide, amongst other, I mean, when you're 61 years old and put in prison for two years in a prison that's run by Islamic gangs, you're not going to have a very good time of it.
I would say that it was a tantamount to a death sentence.
And you can imagine what that would be like if Tommy Robinson himself were jailed.
So those are two stories I jammed in over the weekend, but I'm back here in the office on Monday and I didn't miss a beat and I feel really glad about that.
There are other stories that we'll be covering in the days and weeks ahead.
I'll be here.
I do have some dental surgery later this week that's going to take me out of the chair for a day.
But it's great to be back.
And I want to show you some of the things I saw in Ireland.
And you tell me, are these trips to other places instructive?
Are they interesting?
Perhaps if you have a connection to Ireland or a connection to Brazil, where we were last month, or a connection to the UK, you find them more interesting.
But even if you don't have a connection, I have no connection to Ireland, but I respect that country as the only home for the Irish people.
And they never colonized anyone.
They never enslaved anyone.
They were, in fact, the ones who were oppressed.
And I think you can say that objectively, even if you're a bit of an Anglophile, like I am, you can acknowledge that Ireland is an Irish place.
It's different.
And what's astonishing to me is to see the Indigenous Irish who fought so hard to throw off foreign powers now throw open the gates to new colonizers who come as refugees.
I find that one of the most astonishing things.
Anyways, that's just a long-winded update of where I've been since I've seen you last.
So without further ado, let me show you what I got up to in my eight hours in Ireland.
Take a look.
Bok is a poor neighborhood in Dublin, but that doesn't mean it's not lovely.
And I'm standing in a mall just across the street from a residential area.
You can see there's a Burger King over there, an Odeon movie theater, and a leisure plex.
I poked my nose in there.
Kids Painting Factory00:07:58
It's Saturday morning and there's families in there.
There's a bowling alley.
There's an arcade.
There's a coffee shop.
It's actually a great little hangout.
And this whole area is made for families and for kids.
And I've been here three or four times now and there's lots of teenagers hanging around.
It's where the community kids hang out.
But look over there.
Right across the street, you see a few things.
First of all, you can see the three colors of the Irish flag.
Not only do you see a few Irish flags at half-mast on the light standards, but you can see some enormous concrete blockades.
They've been painted green, white, and orange.
And behind them is an abandoned paint factory, the Crown Paint Factory.
And that's the site of where the Irish government wants to put hundreds of military-age male migrants right smack dab in the middle of this family-friendly, child-friendly plaza.
It's an incredible contradiction, a family plaza made for kids and 500 foreign men, many of whom don't speak English, many of whom don't have papers.
In fact, some of them shred their papers when they arrive here.
And so it's been the scene of a great number of protests over the past month.
In fact, we came here in part because we saw footage of a fire.
And I thought, oh my God, they've finally done it.
They're going to torch the Crown Paints factory that is the proposed urban refugee camp.
We sent our drone over today and it looks like the fire was just on some debris, not the main building itself.
Why would people torch a would-be refugee camp?
I don't support violence of any sort, of course, but I think it's an expression of the frustration of the community in Kulak who really has no other way to speak out.
You'd think that putting a 500-person urban refugee camp in the middle of this area of town, especially it's economically challenged.
I've spoken to the people of Kulak.
They have challenges already.
Getting a doctor, getting services, social services, putting 500 needy foreign men smack dab in the middle of that is only going to make things worse for the neighborhood.
No consultations.
If you were going to build a high apartment building here, if you were going to build an office building here or a shopping center here, there would be hearings.
There would be zoning discussions.
There would be parking questions.
There would be traffic questions.
There would be environmental questions.
And the thing would take years to get through all the red tape.
But this strange approach that Ireland has chosen to put what the locals call plantations of hundreds or sometimes even thousands of foreign men right in the middle of residential neighborhoods is so stunning to me and so frustrating because there is no democratic feedback mechanism.
All the parties in the Irish parliament support this bizarrely, even though polls say that immigration is the number one worry in Ireland.
The numbers are staggering.
I mentioned in my video last night before we left from Toronto that the Irish government is boasting that in 2024 alone they have handed out 775,000 new passports.
There's only 5 million people in Ireland.
How do you do that?
Now, a number of those are Indigenous Irish people just getting their passport for the first time, I suppose.
But, you know, there's a saying, oh, don't get into the conspiracy theory of replacing the population, even though the United Nations published a document called Replacement Migration.
But you can't help but think of that when, for example, the little village of Dundrum, Ireland, population 200, has 280 migrants put in it.
Immediately, the Indigenous Irish are a minority in their own village.
And 500 migrants for this proposed plantation here won't make Dubliners a minority, but in this part of town, it certainly will.
And I keep thinking, why?
Why is this happening?
What's the motivation for this?
Why are they trying to de-Irish Ireland?
Shouldn't the Irish have a place?
The Greeks have Greece.
The Italians have Italy.
Why shouldn't the Irish have Ireland?
It's not like Ireland has any connection to the places where these migrants come from.
Ireland was never an empire.
It didn't colonize anyone.
In fact, it's fought for its own sovereignty itself to expel people it's regarded as overlords in the past.
The Irish Revolution of just over a century ago.
What is motivating this country's political class to bring in 1 million foreigners, which has happened over the last few years?
I find it puzzling.
And I'm going to try and find out some answers to these questions in today's visit.
We're here at Kulock.
We've been several times.
We've been here before.
Often there's men outside the colorful blocks there having a bit of a protest and a vigil, but I think we're here a little bit too early to see them today.
We're going to try and go to other places too.
The same problems we have in Canada, where do you put these people?
What do they do for a living?
Are very evident here in Ireland.
We're going to go to the canal area where I suspect we'll see a lot of these migrants just literally sleeping in tents.
I wanted to come here because I wanted to see what the fire was.
And it looks like it was just a fire of debris.
But this is a central battleground in Dublin.
The question is, whose Dublin is this?
Whose Kulak, that's the neighborhood, is this?
Does it belong to the Irish people?
Does it belong to the mums and the kids in the leisure plex?
Or does it belong to the 500 strangers, many of whom came here under false premises?
Who owns Kulak?
That's one of the questions we're trying to find out.
But look over there, a modest house, a small house in a fairly low-income residential community.
It's houses all the way down.
Obviously the paint factory didn't disturb anyone.
It was a place where workers came to make paint and it's been empty for some years now.
But imagine you live there and you're told, not asked, you're told that 500 military-aged migrant men are going to be your neighbors.
And if you don't like it, you're a racist.
And if you ask questions, shut up, they explained.
I'm across the street now, these huge concrete barricades have been brought here because this is where there was a protest encampment for months.
And they would walk right into the Crown Paints facility.
These were put to stop people from going over.
You can still see in between the concrete blocks, you can see some construction equipment.
And it's sort of a messy area.
When we were here once before, we saw one of those pieces of heavy equipment being torched.
You can see the graffiti, get them out, free Kulak.
Kulak says no.
I'm told by the security guard that there are, there is sort of a permanent protest here.
We're just here a little bit early in the day, as you know.
We're just here for the day, so I wanted to make this our first stop.
You can see some remnants of the camp, some chairs.
At times, there's up to hundreds of people here.
And in fact, one day there were literally thousands marching down the street.
Filming the Refugee Crisis00:15:19
We were here earlier several months ago, and the police or the Gardai, as they're called, the Gardee, they came with their SWAT equipment with batons and tear gas, and they had a bit of a melee.
Some of the local lads were throwing bottles at cops.
Police responded with batons.
It was actually quite brutal.
There's going to be an election in Ireland, pundits say, in the next couple of months.
I think immigration will be an unspoken issue.
The reason I say unspoken is that all the dominant parties support mass immigration.
And that's such a puzzle to me because I'm fairly new to the world of Ireland.
So I have a lot to learn.
But one of the things that I always thought is the Sinn Féin party was sort of the Irish nationalists.
They were the party that was sort of the peaceful political wing of the IRA.
I don't know my Irish history, but that I know.
So it's so bizarre to me that the Irish nationalists who helped give the boot to the British are so open doors when it's migrants from other countries.
I don't understand how you can have centuries of resistance to foreign domination when it's a Brit, but roll over and roll out the red carpet when it's people from Pakistan or Syria or wherever else the migrants come from.
I find that astonishing.
Ireland is changing before our eyes.
It's very confusing to me, but I think some of the ways the government is going about it here are things we should be aware of back home.
And some of the ways the protest is happening here, we should be aware of back home.
I wonder if any political party in this upcoming Irish election will make immigration an issue or if they'll all pretend it's just fine.
We'll keep you posted as we go our way around Ireland today.
To follow all of our reports and to chip into our crowdfunded journalism, please go to MigrantReports.com.
Dublin, Ireland is so pretty.
It's amazing.
There's so much history, gorgeous brick and stone buildings, churches.
And one of the beautiful features of the downtown, of the inner city, is the Grand Canals.
There's so many people who are just out for a walk or a jog or a bike ride.
It's so peaceful here, really a gem of the city.
But you can see all around it is ugly fencing.
You can really take a look at it on this side here.
As soon as these cars cross, let's walk over.
I want to show you what's all this fencing, this kind of riot control kind of fencing.
It's to block off the green grass.
Why would they do that?
Isn't that the best part of these canals?
Well, it's because hundreds of migrants camp here.
They just set up tents and they live here and they eat and drink and do all sorts of other things that I won't describe.
And it was becoming such a, not just an eyesore, but a danger to the neighborhood.
Would you want to be a young woman going for a jog by yourself, passing by hundreds of foreign men who have a culturally different approach to a young woman out for a jog?
And so bowing to public pressure, the government finally removed the tents.
But it's just atrocious what they've done, erecting these hideous fences.
I mean, this is a lock.
And look at this ancient bridge here.
This is so beautiful.
And then you've got these crowd control fences, but it's not really for a crowd.
It's for hundreds of foreigners that used to turn this into, well, really, an urban refugee camp.
So they're gone, at least for now.
But where are they?
That answer is even more terrifying.
See, when you had hundreds of migrants camped out here, you could see the problem.
It wasn't hidden.
And it caused stress and conflict because it was so obviously something was out of joint.
But where are these same migrants?
They haven't been deported.
What's happening across Ireland is that hotels and community centers and nursing homes and institutional buildings have been commandeered by the government at very high prices in many cases to provide free housing to those migrants.
So they're swept off the streets and into hotels.
And, you know, we were in the little village of Dundrum, a gorgeous four-star hotel and country club going to house hundreds of foreign migrants.
In fact, so many that it'll be larger than the village population itself.
Dundrum has about 200 people living there, and they're bringing in 280 military-age migrant men.
So they're moving from this bizarre display, the shocking display of urban refugee tent camps, into a less visible way of housing the migrants.
But it's still housing them.
It's still displacing, for example, Irish homeless people or Irish people who need help with accommodation.
It's driving up rent, of course.
And in the case of Dundrum, it's utterly changing the character of the village.
It's a lovely place.
You can see so many people coming out for a walk, people by themselves, women, the elderly.
I'm not sure how long that'll be the case.
Right now, they only have this eyesores to look at, but it may revert to what we saw earlier.
Here's a reminder of what it was like when I visited a few months ago.
Well, where are you from?
It's not your fucking business.
Why is it not my business?
I'm from Dublin.
You're from Dublin?
Yeah.
All right.
Is that good for you?
Sure.
I wonder if there's just men here, if they're women too.
Can I talk to you on camera?
Can I talk to you for a minute?
Where are you from?
He's shy, fair enough.
He looks like he is going into one of the tents.
I don't know where he's from.
I have sympathy for the people in these tents, obviously.
I would not want to be in one of these tents.
One of the things I would ask them, if I encounter someone who's willing to talk and able to speak English, is what were you promised?
And how do you feel with your current situation?
And how do you feel about hundreds of thousands more migrants being brought in?
Hi, how are you guys?
Do you guys live around here?
Are you in these tents?
Don't film me.
Excuse me, please.
Are you gonna help these guys or not?
Well, I wanted...
What's the point of filming them, please?
I want to know who they are and what they're doing.
It's all your business, bro.
If you're going to give them some help, give them some help.
Don't film me, man.
I already told you that, yeah?
Don't film me, brothers.
Don't film me.
Yeah, public place, but don't film me, man.
I'm telling you, yeah?
I'm telling you, yeah.
I'm telling you, yeah?
Don't fucking film me, yeah?
Fucking can't.
What's your name?
I'm talking to this guy, yeah?
What's your name?
Where are you from?
It's all your fucking business, man.
Well, why did you come up and talk to us?
Well, you filming people, are you going to give him help?
Are you going to help them, yeah?
Maybe.
Maybe, yeah, not maybe.
You're just making like what is it?
You just want to get your wages, man, you know?
Are you filming, yeah?
We want to know what's going on.
Well, go get a burger, yeah?
Well, there's a fella who wasn't happy with us here.
I, um...
I don't think I'm in a position to help these folks, and I don't think that's my job.
I think that's more the job of the Irish government.
There's an angry fellow who, I don't know why he reacted that way.
Perhaps he doesn't want attention being put on these people, but surely he can't think that this is good.
In fact, I know he doesn't.
He said, are we going to help them?
I don't think that's for me to do.
I think that's for the Irish government to do, the Irish people to do.
Perhaps he thinks that we're going to be biased in some way.
I don't feel like I have a bias other than I suppose my instincts are there's only so much absorption that a country can have.
Ireland is obviously being taxed and I think Canada is too.
You know, there was one fellow who said he was from Palestine.
Could be.
I don't think Ireland has taken anyone from Gaza.
That may have just been a fashionable statement by the refugee.
He was looking for a fight.
Aggressive towards me, a man.
I can only imagine how he would be aggressive towards women on this street.
Hi there.
Can we talk to you a little bit about what's going on around here?
Sure.
No?
Where are you from?
Well, where are you from?
It's not your fucking business.
Why is it not my business?
I'm from Dublin.
You're from Dublin?
Yeah.
All right.
Is it good for you?
Sure.
Okay?
Fuck off man, how you go?
Instead of filming people, go to jail man.
You know, you filming people, go to jail, fuck off yeah.
Fuck off you mother fuck yeah.
I don't know why Ireland is doing this.
I don't have a good answer for that.
Whenever I ask people why they say it's to please globalists at the UN or the World Economic Forum, I find it strange that people would sell out their own country for the appeasement in favor of foreign oligarchs.
Another answer that I find more credible is that it's just money.
Follow the money.
There's an industry that's cropped up around these refugees.
So for example, the people who own the hotels that are rented by the government, the people who are the social workers, the countless NGOs, they're all getting tens of thousands of dollars per migrant.
The lawyers, those who cater to them, people who like to see housing prices go up and like to see wages go down, which is what happens when you bring in massive numbers of low-skilled workers.
So I think that the answer is partly ideological, partly the woke critical race theory of Irish self-hatred, which has infected most Western countries.
But I think at the end of the day, it's just plain old cash.
Enough people are willing to sell out Ireland for the cost of a hotel or an NGO program, that that's how they're doing it.
It's very strange to me.
For all my reports from Ireland, go to migrantreports.com.
It's so lovely here.
I don't want to leave.
It's so rustic and hearing the sound of the little waterfalls on the locks.
And it's so peaceful.
This is one of the best places in Dublin.
And yet along the sides, there were hundreds of tents with military-age migrant men.
So you can see they put these fences to keep them out.
They've come back and then they shoot away, come back, shoot away about five times.
Anyway, I've talked to a couple of people because there's so many people just going for a walk or a bike ride.
It's the kind of place where you might go for a date and then sit down on a little park bench.
And it's notable how many young women are along this path.
And I mentioned that because when you have hundreds of military-age migrant men camping out here, it changes the safety dynamic.
Anyway, here's two Irish people who stopped to talk to me as they were walking their dogs.
Hi.
It looks like you're collecting some leaves.
Yeah, because my six-year-old friend is coming for pizza later, so she's very artistic.
So just to play with her.
Yeah.
But it also makes me notice the beauty.
Yeah.
It's absolutely beautiful here.
The sound of the rushing water.
You've got some doggies with you.
Can I ask you about these fences around here?
We were here a few months ago and there were lots of tents with migrants.
And I understand that they come and then they're kicked out and then they come back and they're kicked out.
What do you make of that whole thing?
I guess it's complicated.
My understanding is our government decided to stop providing housing for male refugees.
So the council gives them a tent, but then the council blocks anywhere that they could put the tent.
Do you think they're real refugees or do you think some of them might be taking advantage of Irish hospitality?
I don't think anybody would do that for a laugh or to take advantage of.
I mean, we know they're coming from areas of the world that are either wartone or have civil conflict or else they're, I guess some of them now even, if they are economic migrants, it's because the global north has caused climate chaos and people can't make a living where they are.
So you think climate change is why they're here?
No, I think that, but that's, I think we're playing out because of the reality that we put up the six, eight Hiroshima bombs worth of energy per second into our atmosphere.
It's big changes coming, like that will lead to civil unrest and about a third of humanity outside livable zones.
And so I think Fortress Europe is preparing itself to make sacrifice zones.
So we're like we're just closing our closing our doors, I guess.
But what's Ireland got to do with any of this?
Ireland's never had a colony.
Ireland's never oppressed anyone.
So why is Ireland, a tiny country, the only place for...
There are no other Ireland's for the Irish.
If Ireland's not there, I don't know.
Like it's the only place where Irel for the Irish.
And why is Ireland the place where so many migrants can come?
And some of them burn their or throw out their documents when they arrive.
That doesn't seem like a good faith move.
I just wonder if you're being a little bit, I don't mean to criticize, but you sound credulous.
What was credulous means believable.
Ireland's Unique Role00:06:57
Sounds like perhaps you're the kind of person that someone from a low trust society might take advantage of.
You look like a lovely, high-trust society, a wonderful woman who's collecting beautiful things.
I don't mean to be mean, but I think someone might take advantage of you.
Well, I'm not, I guess I consider myself to have a lot of privilege.
I'm not worried about being taken advantage of.
I'd happily pay more tax if the tax went to not funding fossil fuels and arms, but to creating a safe haven from people fleeing justice.
Injustice.
But there's 8 billion people in the world, and my guess is that half of them would love to come to this beautiful place if they could.
But you can't fit 4 billion people in Ireland.
You can't fit 4 million more.
You can.
And Ireland had 8 million before the Great Hunger and Famine.
So do you think maybe we could take, so maybe a few million more people from Pakistan and Somalia?
I mean, I think this, I think the narrative around migration is incorrect.
People aren't made aware that there's always been a movement of migration.
we migrated out of Africa to fill the planet.
I thought Ireland...
Yes, and then only since the nation-state has there been some notion of, which is only like a 19th century phenomenon, has there been some notion of like us and them.
But the Irish have had us and them.
The Irish have been throwing off occupiers and oppressors for centuries.
Exactly.
So the Irish have had to take refuge.
There are about 40 million people around the globe who claimed of Irish origin.
And they were people to leave because of oppression.
So I think that's why you find many people identify so well with the Palestinians.
And we're the only white nation in Europe who haven't been a colonial power.
And yet we are...
But you have a tremendous feeling of guilt about you.
You've...
You're self-abnegating.
Maybe things are too good for you, so you're looking for sort of luxury worries.
I mean, you look like a lovely woman in a lovely place, and maybe your life is so stress-free that you're importing it as a sign of good taste.
I run a crisis community mental health team.
My life is not stress-free.
Why are you bringing in, why would you support bringing in millions of problems when you have Irish problems to solve?
I have problems.
Most people who come here as refugees are highly skilled.
Are they really?
Yeah, there are lots of doctors, nurses, engineers.
Are they really?
Yeah.
A lot of them.
Really?
Yes.
In this park here, I met some of them.
I didn't see any doctors or engineers.
I saw a lot of people.
I was in Newtown, Mount Kennedy.
I saw a lot of people who walked across the border from Northern Ireland destroying their paperwork.
Their very first act on Irish soil was to break the law.
doesn't sound like a doctor or a lawyer some um doctors and lawyers um do you know a single doctor or lawyer who's been encamped here i know I know I have friends who had come from Romania who were doctors and engineers and they weren't allowed to practice because their qualifications weren't.
And in Ireland, because of direct provision, people aren't allowed to work.
So they're not allowed to contribute to the community.
But any place in the world where you have allowed that, refugees and people from poorer countries than us do all of the jobs that Irish people are unprepared to do, such as care of the elderly.
They work a lot in social care and nursing.
Are there a lot of single military-age migrant men who are nurses or in care in doing their work?
But isn't that the narrative?
Let's not call them victims.
Let's not call them people with PTSD.
Let's not call them people who've had to leave their families if they don't want to go killing in a war.
They're called cowards if they leave the war area and they're called terrorists if they stay.
So there's no win for them.
But this has been a far-right shift.
We're dehumanizing men.
If it was your brother or son who was in a war, a war, conflict area, you know, wouldn't you want them in a place of safety?
You have such a big heart.
Yeah, like we all are one.
But are we, though?
We are.
That's the only thing that's going to get us out of the kind of global interconnected crisis is to see our common humanity.
I welcome them, but I think we don't treat them well when they come.
Do you really welcome them?
I mean, do you welcome them in any personal way or like have you taken a migrant into your house?
No, but I do go.
So you welcome them in the streets or someone else's house?
Well, I don't have a situation right now because of family health where I can take people into my house.
But I do go out with food with friends to provide.
When they were up near Charliament, I have two friends who are Malaysians who live in Ireland and they were doing food distribution.
So anyway, I think we're wealthy and we have a very short memory when we realize only in the 80s we made movies and celebrated Irish economic refugees with fake green cards going to America because there were new opportunities in Ireland.
And we thought it was a good idea for them to cheat and get to America.
So we forget that even if so I would rather that view of like rather than block everybody out in case one guy is a cheater.
I was raised as a Christian.
My understanding is that God would say bring them all in rather than risk.
But just not into your own home.
I would take one into my own home.
And my first cousin took a lovely guy called Hajer out when he came out of direct provision into our house and his new girlfriend is now mining her house for a month because he got engaged and he had been stuck on a ship for three years until the Irish police boarded the ship and got him off to safety and he's from Syria so I would be totally up for that.
You know I would love to have you as a neighbor.
You have such a warm heart but I would be terrified of who you would let into the neighborhood.
I think that you are a very trusting person and you would leave your door unlocked and that would work until it didn't.
Yeah, but I'd rather stay open and vulnerable than shut down.
I pray that the consequences of your big heart never are rot upon.
I don't mind being hurt.
I can deal with that.
They want to become bitter and weird and twisted.
So open to suffering.
It's a pleasure talking with you, although you make me sad and worried.
Fences Taken Down, Migrants Come In00:04:15
Okay.
Take good care, guys.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
So what do you think?
I mean, last time I was here, there were all sorts of migrants camped out on the green spaces, but that's sort of being walled off with these fences.
Where have they gone?
Do you know?
They just moved on.
Some of them have been rehoused and moved up to Salah and so they just keep coming back here, you see, because the IPW is around the corner in Mount Street.
So that's why they come here.
So they come and then they're cleared out and then they come back again?
Cleared and come back again.
Are you in the neighborhood here, John?
Yeah, I live in the neighborhood, yeah.
So how often have they been cleared out and come back?
How many times has that happened now?
About five times.
And I mean, this is such a beautiful canal.
We're trying to get the fences taken down now.
But of course, if the fences are taken down, maybe the tents come back.
They have security on it now.
So they have security?
They have security here now to stop them coming back.
That goes up and down every day.
So hopefully this will be an end to it, you know.
Well, I saw in the papers that the Irish government is boasting that they handed out 775,000 passports so far this year.
Now, some of those are Irish, but it sounds like immigration is still going full tilt.
Oh, it is.
It's going full tilt.
Why?
Like, well, I don't understand that part.
Because the government are useless.
Well, but surely if a party wanted to get votes, I mean, they would be opposed to this because I think most Irish think things are a little out of control.
Why are all the parties the same on this issue?
They're all the same.
They're all linked in with Europe.
So that's what it is?
They're just bleeding puppies on a string, been told what to do.
By whom?
By the UN, by the World Economic Forum?
Who's the boss?
So my theory is that money is involved too.
For example, hotels get a lot of money to put up the migrants.
Is that part of it?
Oh, yeah, that's a big part of it.
Hotels make more money than they would normally.
Are you worried that if you criticize immigration, someone's going to call you racist?
Because that's what happens in Canada sometimes.
No, I'm not racist.
I know the people need somewhere to live.
And I won't say the majority, but a lot of them that are here, like they need it.
You know, like the likes of Ukrainians and things like that.
But all these young people coming over.
Well, that's the thing, eh?
I mean, Ukraine, everyone knows there's a war there.
And when you have women and children, you can understand it.
But that's different than these military-aged migrant men, single men from places like Pakistan and Somalia, isn't it?
Oh, it's totally different because we don't know where they're from.
They're not vetted.
There was a stage one time, like two of them were wanted in another country for crimes.
And they were living on this canal, you know what I mean?
There's a lot of young women jogging by and biking by.
I mean, obviously it's very, very safe right now, but I've got to think it wasn't particularly safe when it was hundreds of migrant men.
No, it wasn't safe with them all there.
As I say, it was all men.
And it was all young men.
And to me, and it's not been racist or anything, but young men, if they're saying they're coming from a war-torn country, they should be fighting for their country, not coming here.
And they know that if they come here, that they'll get social welfare, that they'll get paid.
They were getting paid every time they had to be moved on.
They were getting 35, 40 euro.
They're getting more money than the homeless in Ireland, which is, again, the government again.
It's all Sina God, Cena Fall and Finn Gael.
Like, they're just, you know, like, as I say, they're puppets and they'll do anything to keep any other government out.
Conor McGregor's Political Potential00:04:31
And that's the way it's going.
Like, they're stirring up trouble now against Shin Féin because people thought Shinn Féin might get the vote, but now there seems to be trouble in Shinn Féin.
So it's, you know, like it's a big catch-22 situation, you know.
You know, what do you do or what don't you do?
As I say, Ireland and the majority of people in Ireland have no problem helping out refugees.
But asylum seekers are the difference, you know?
Last question.
In a couple of weeks, there's going to be an election in the United States.
And Donald Trump has said he's considering mass deportations of migrants.
If he wins, do you think that might normalize mass deportations?
And do you think maybe the idea might catch on in other places?
Well, I don't know.
Not awful lot of people.
Like, personally, I don't know the man.
I think he's all right, actually.
You know, the fact that everyone is against him makes me feel he's probably doing right.
Because when you're doing right, they all turn on you.
And, you know, like, I couldn't see anything wrong that he's done.
So, you know, you wouldn't know them, you know, like it's the same with all of them, you know, all the great leaders, you know.
So if they don't get their way, well, then they get assassinated or whatever.
So they've tried that.
Yeah, they've tried that.
So, you know what I mean?
Like America is a funny country.
It is a funny country.
I've never visited it, but it's a funny place.
Great talking with you today.
Thanks for your time.
All right, talk.
Here you go.
Bye.
I'm standing outside the Black Forge.
That's Conor McGregor's bar in Dublin.
Walked inside, super friendly, met some political allies who knew Rebel News.
And a cabby saw us, and he had a few things to say.
So I chatted with him for a minute.
You're doing a great job.
I got a quick question for you.
Do you think we should draft Conor McGregor to run for political office?
Oh, yeah, 100%.
We have to do something because we're not getting any recognition off them without recognizing anybody, no matter what you're saying.
Take care, mate.
Thanks.
It doesn't look like it, but it's packed inside.
They actually need reservations days in advance.
So when we come back on a future trip to Ireland, we'll make sure we got reservations for the Black Forge.
We're not just into food and drink.
We like Conor McGregor.
And while some people write him off and say, oh, he's not serious, he's a political dabbler.
What does he know?
Well, that's precisely the point.
He's a populist.
He's a man of the people.
And I think Ireland's politicians need an enema.
Sort of like the way Donald Trump came in from outside the system and smashed the status quo.
I think that Ireland needs that.
A man of the people, not a man of the World Economic Forum or the United Nations, a guy who doesn't care what the naysayers think about him.
Donald Trump was the same way.
You know, the media loved Donald Trump until he threw his hat in the ring and then they turned against him because he had the wrong views.
Could be that way with Conor McGregor, but I sure hope he throws his hat in the ring.
We've got a petition, believe it or not, at draftconnor.com.
That's with one and draftconnor.com.
And I think we should dust that off and see if we can't get some momentum going for the lad.
For Rebel News in Dublin, I'm Andrew Levant.
What do you think of the idea of drafting Conor McGregor to help save Ireland?
Fucking go for that.
He's a man.
He's not for himself.
You could do better than any politician.
I'd say.
We're doing interviews with people on the street about Conor McGregor and should he run for political office.
What do you think of that?
Yeah, why not?
Why not?
Do you think he would shake up the political system a bit?
Yeah, because I think he's happy to say what the people want to say.
He's not scared of what the elite would think of it.
So why not?
Do you think he would sort of upset the apple cart and smash what needs to be smashed like he does in the ring?
Probably, I'd say.
No smash this me back.
Now, do you think the media would turn on him if he did that?
Of course they would.
You know what the mainstream media are like.
Granddads Speak Irish00:00:48
They're there for the elite.
They're not there for the people.
Do you think it would be, I mean, in America, there was a famous wrestler, Jesse the Body Ventura, who went on to be a governor.
And Arnold Schwarzenegger went on to be a governor too.
Do you think Ireland would take the leap and vote for a non-traditional candidate like McGregor?
Yeah, 100%.
100%.
If Connor didn't think that, I don't think he would say that.
And obviously you can tell from my accent, I'm not actually from Ireland.
Family are from Ireland, none and granddads.
But yeah, if you actually speak to Irish people Dublin us, they will tell you the exact same things that I'm telling you.