Hermann Patrick Kelly is an Irish journalist and politician. In September 2018, he helped found the Irish Freedom Party, of which he is now chairman. Kelly works in the European Parliament and has been press officer for Nigel Farage and Romanian politician Cristian Terheș (ECR, the European Conservatives and Reformists group).
In recent months there have been numerous protests in Ireland over the government’s open borders policy and the reception of refugees. What is the situation right now?
According to the police, the Garda Síochána, there were 307 protest rallies in 2022 and at least a further 117 as of March 2023. Concerned parents protested over the lack of provision of prior information to residents and the large number of unvetted male migrants from safe countries. Protesters also questioned the lack of women and children in some accommodation centres. The number of rallies died down over the summer, but these rallies have just recently restarted. They have been instrumental in starting a conversation about the impact of immigration in Ireland. The situation remains that the government’s open door policy regarding asylum-seekers is causing serious resentment and unease in towns and villages across the country, particularly in parts of Dublin. Protests are still ongoing, and people feel abandoned by a political establishment that refuses to listen. They are dumping bus-loads of unvetted, largely male migrants on communities without any form of consultation with the local people. The numbers are stark.
What is the profile of these refugees? In many European countries, Ukrainian refugees are mostly women and children, but this is not the case for refugees from Africa and the Middle East.
There are around 92,000 Ukrainian refugees in Ireland right now with a majority in state accommodation in the form of hotels and guest houses across the country. According to the Irish government, 39% of these are young males under the age of 30. The policy of hotel placement has severely damaged the tourism industry across Ireland. Some 32% of all hotel beds outside of Dublin are being used to house asylum seekers. In some counties, this figure reaches over 50%. It is estimated that over €1bn has been taken out of the tourism economy. The government’s own figures have suggested that over 10,000 jobs in the tourism industry have been displaced. The international protection system is accommodating over 23,0000 non-Ukrainian asylum seekers. These are mainly economic migrants posing as refugees. Many of them are allowed to work, so they are staying in accommodation at the Irish taxpayers’ expense and working. The government is facilitating a huge scam perpetrated against the Irish people. Many of these asylum seekers are from perfectly safe countries, such as Georgia and Albania. We even have a number of asylum seekers from the United States of America!
Has there been an increase in crime?
Yes, especially with asylum seekers from North Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, etc., and especially in crimes related to sexual assaults. It is the same as what is happening in the UK and other countries in Europe.
You mentioned the problem of rent; many young Irish people are forced to emigrate because of the price of housing, which has doubled in the last 10 years.
Many young Irish people see no future in Ireland. They are emigrating again in significant numbers. Figures released by the European Commission show that Ireland is the most expensive country in the EU. Goods and services are on average 46% more expensive than other EU countries. The average market rent in Dublin is around €2,324, and in Cork City €1,768 per month. There is a chronic shortage of available housing right across the country. Demand due to mass immigration is driving up rents for ordinary Irish families. Yet the political class constantly ignores this source of demand and focuses on delivering sound bites around the need for more supply.
How is such a situation possible when Ireland is experiencing an economic boom?
Yes, the GDP measurement keeps going up due to American pharmaceutical and tech companies. In Ireland, the population has increased by a third since 1990 so while it means a bigger cake there are more mouths to feed. The standard of living has fallen as inflation bites and the non-financial aspects of life, like crime, start to increase.
What do you propose to change this? Does the solution lie in leaving the European Union?
Our long term objective is for Ireland to be an independent and sovereign nation. By leaving the EU, we will be able to properly make our own laws and control things like immigration, energy, civil rights, and fisheries much better. Putting an end to EU open borders is necessary to get a grip on housing demand and bring down prices. We also have a number of policy measures that will increase supply in the market, and a strict policy of giving priority to Irish families on the public housing list. We must be in a position to provide for our own people first. This is justice and common sense.
We no longer wish to have the unnecessary and unjust carbon tax pushed on us from Brussels that will make our milk, beef, petrol, and heating oil more expensive. We have fantastic natural resources in Ireland on land and sea. As a free people in a free country, we are able to better use these natural resources in tandem with good education and technology in order to export what we make to the world. At the moment, EU boats alone have the quota to plunder 85% of fish caught in Irish national waters. Outside the EU, as a self-governing state, we’d be able to decide the quotas and sell the licences to utilise the natural resources of Ireland.
We’d only recently made people aware that the proposed anti-free speech legislation in the parliament at the moment is a spoiled progeny of Brussels. In the short term, the Irish Freedom Party wishes to act as the watchdog of the Irish people, not the lapdog of Brussels.
You say that without its Christian faith, its language, and its culture, Ireland is just a rock in the Atlantic. Can we still talk about Catholic Ireland? Is the Irish church aware of what the woke movement means?
There is a notable absence of strong leadership within the Church and far too often priests succumb to the fashion of the day in order to fit into modern woke society. Perhaps without being aware of its impact, the Catholic faith underpinned belief in the uniqueness of every person made in the image of God. This supported the right to life, the right to work, family life, and free speech. When a new anti-Christian woke religion has replaced the Catholic faith, things that were universally taken for granted—such as the right to life, that only a man can marry a woman, that a man cannot become a woman, not to teach sexual perversity or nonsense about the earth goddess to children, i.e. the rights of parents in education—are all under attack.
The new ‘woking’ class, heavily subsidised by the state, now wants to get rid of the words ‘woman’ and ‘mother’ from the constitution, and they also wish to remove the right to private property while flooding the country with unvetted Muslim male immigrants from Afghanistan. The Irish Freedom Party on the other hand wishes to campaign for personal freedom, free speech, a small state, low tax, parental rights to protect their children from predatory trans-ideologues, the right to private property, and national sovereignty.
We have a big fight ahead of us for sure and need all the help and allies we can get. The Irish like a good fight and this time it’s faith rather than drink that is needed to encourage us. We are a Christian and Gaelic people; it underpins our social cohesion and civilisation, and it is now time we all proudly stood up for it again. The barbarians are inside the gates of the Church and of the state. We need all human hands and God’s help in this fight.
