Main protest speaker resigns from Irish Freedom Party
The main speaker at last Thursday night’s protest against asylum seekers and refugees being housed in tents in Columb Barracks in Mullingar tweeted his resignation from a right wing political group hours after he was questioned about his membership.
When contacted on Sunday evening to discuss his membership of the Irish Freedom Party and why he didn’t mention it when he spoke to reporters on Thursday evening ahead of the protest, which more than 300 people attended, Patrick Hussey said that he was at the meeting “as an individual and not as a member of a political party”.
At around midnight on Sunday, Mr Hussey tweeted that “I have as of today 5th Feb 2023 resigned my membership in the Irish Freedom party”.
“This is so that I can be a fully independent voice in the situation going on in Mullingar at the moment. (I had joined only in Nov ’22).”
When asked about the timing of the announcement of his resignation from the Irish Freedom Party just hours after speaking to the newspaper, Mr Hussey said he had tendered his resignation at around noon on Sunday.
In an email to the paper on Monday, he said that he had decided to resign after he became aware of “threats” over the weekend from “antifa” (anti-fascist) activists on Twitter relating to his links to the Irish Freedom Party.
“I wanted to be clear that I am attending these protests only as a private independent citizen.
“I am from a Fine Gael background and I have also been a member of Fine Gael in the past. I hold very moderate centre right political views. I am a libertarian politically. My Interest in the Irish Freedom Party comes from my view which is contrary with Fine Gael’s, that Ireland should leave the EU. I support an Irexit.”
Hours before he announced his resignation from the Irish Freedom Party on Twitter, Mr Hussey shared a video on the social media platform about reports that community groups who use Columb Barracks had been told that “they were no longer allowed on the premises”.
When asked on Monday morning why he shared a video with unsubstantiated claims, despite the fact that both local government TDs, Robert Troy and Peter Burke, has issued statements days before assuring the community groups that they would be able to continue operating out of the barracks, Mr Hussey said that it had been shared by many people around Mullingar and that he “assumed” that “was the reason why the gates of the barracks were closed”.
He said that it was a “casual assumption that proved to be wrong” once more up to date information became available.
Some 300 people attended a protest in front of Columb barracks on Monday afternoon organised by the group Concerned Residents of Mullingar/ Mullingar Says No, who also organised the protests on Thursday and one on Saturday afternoon that attracted a smaller crowd.