Derek Blighe

Following his return to Ireland in 2019, Blighe became politically active during the Irish anti-immigration protests, in which he acted as a self-described "citizen journalist".

His father, Denis Blighe, was a trade unionist and supporter of the socialist politician Joe Sherlock, a member of the Workers' Party and later the Democratic Left.

[1] Blighe became politically active in the spring of 2022, filming videos initially with an anti-lockdown focus before pivoting to anti-immigration as his main topic; targeting the arrival of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In August 2022, Blighe was amongst a number of protesters who taunted and jeered the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar during their commemoration of Michael Collins at Béal na Bláth.

[1][6][7] The Phoenix has reported that in 2022 Blighe shared a number of messages from British Neo-Nazi Mark Collett to the Ireland First Telegram channel.

[5] He has posted videos suggesting Ireland's minister for justice, Helen McEntee, should be "put back in the kitchen", calling her a "misandrist".

[11] In 2022 Blighe regularly claimed the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a "fake war publicised to encourage economic migrants to come to this country".

The men referred to by Blighe were, in actuality, six members of the religious order from West Africa visiting their Irish counterparts during a conference.

The Garda press office stated that while a report had been made on 6 June of a suspicious adult male, none of the other details given by Blighe were accurate.