An article which tied together the views of populist pundits and mass-murdering terrorists has been denounced as a “hit piece” by one Eurosceptic leader in Ireland.
Hermann Kelly, who serves as President of the Eurosceptic Irish Freedom Party, has expressed outrage over an article published by the Irish Independent linking the ideas of populist figureheads to mass-murdering terrorists.
Titled “Great Replacement: the conspiracy theory that inspires mass killers and the Irish far right”, the piece pivoted between statements made by the likes of Kelly, as well as U.S. television host Tucker Carlson, and the ideas which allegedly inspired the killers responsible for massacres in America and New Zealand.
In a statement given to Breitbart Europe, Kelly — who previously served as the press officer for Brexit firebrand Nigel Farage in the run-up to the UK vote to leave the EU — expressed his outrage over the piece, emphasising that the article published by the broadsheet did not accurately represent his views.
“Lumping a call for a sane immigration policy with number control and vetting, like a normal nation state; with some crazed mass shooter really takes the biscuit,” Kelly said.
“To lump together QAnon (a non-group created in the feverish minds of campaigning journalists), Tucker Carlson and the Buffalo shooter is ridiculously unfair and untrue,” he continued, before noting that he himself was “happy to be criticised for being an Irish nationalist”, but that it “becomes ridiculous” when he is “brushed into the white nationalist bucket, especially given Ireland spent centuries if its history suffering under British (and in their eyes Caucasian) rule.”
“Our people deserve news articles based on reality, not the selective spin of pretend journalists who are really far left campaigners,” he went on to say, criticising the Irish press for its “lack of diversity of views”.
Kelly also revealed that he had sent in a letter to the editor to the Irish Independent responding to a number of points made by the piece, but that — as of writing — there was no sign of the broadsheet publishing it.
“I believe it unjust and dishonourable for a national newspaper to refuse a short rebuttal of its insinuations in a letter to the editor,” he said regarding the publication’s actions.
While the frequent comparison between the views of the likes of Hermann Kelly and Tucker Carlson to violent extremists has no doubt struck many as odd to say the least, the frequent reference to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s Aoife Gallagher throughout the piece is also worth noting.
Described in the piece as someone who “analyses conspiracy networks in Ireland”, Gallagher during her time in Storyful — a news “intelligence agency” founded by ex-Twitter bigwig Mark little that is now owned by Rupert Murdoch — was involved in a number of stories on the “Far-right” published by outlets such as The Times.
However, while the Irish Independent article portrays her as a relatively neutral expert reference for the topic in question, undercover journalism conducted by Irish student publication The Burkean appears to reveal that Gallagher seemingly has a considerable political bias when it comes to the topic.
Speaking to what she thought was a student hard-left Antifa organisation, Gallagher gave in conversation advice on how to best get the mainstream media to cover the leaking of information related to persons allegedly involved with the so-called “far-right”.
Disclaimer: The author of this article previously served as the Chief Project Coordinator of The Burkean, and was involved in the 2020 Irish Antifa Project Exposé mentioned above.
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