Cork general election candidate found guilty of threatening and abusive behaviour

Derek Blighe, the anti-immigration activist and election candidate has been found guilty of a single charge of threatening and abusive behaviour.

Mr Blighe, 44, of Croughevoe, Mitchelstown, Co Cork, appeared before Judge Colm Roberts at Fermoy District Court.

Court presenter Inspector Jason Wallace told the court it was alleged Mr Blighe, president of the right-wing Ireland First party and a candidate in the upcoming general election in Cork North Central, had engaged in threatening and abusive behaviour during an incident at Abbeyville House, Fermoy on December 22, 2023.

Witness Christopher Gomez said he was the duty manager at Abbeyville House on that day.

He said the building was being prepared as accommodation for asylum seekers and a protest had been taking place for several months outside by people who were opposed to its use as refugee accommodation.

Mr Gomez said he was alone in the building and had ordered an oil delivery but when the truck arrived at about 11am, Derek Blighe approached the driver and spoke to him.

Mr Gomez said Mr Blighe then told him “the driver’s not going to give you oil” and the truck left. Mr Gomez contacted the oil company and a second truck was dispatched.

When the second truck arrived, Mr Gomez opened the gates and the driver began making a delivery. Mr Blighe then began recording Mr Gomez on his phone.

The court was shown footage that he had uploaded to Facebook. In the video Mr Blighe can be heard saying to Mr Gomez:

"You are a guest in this country. Shame on you. You should be ashamed. You will go down in the history books. You will go down in the sewers of Irish history. Go back to where you came from."

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Mr Gomez said that Mr Blighe live-streamed the incident which he said “really traumatised me". 

He said that later that afternoon he downloaded the footage from Mr Blighe’s Facebook page and provided it to gardaí when he made a complaint. He told the court that he had been an Irish citizen for 20 years and had “never experienced anything like this before".

Garda Dane Murphy said that when he visited the protest at Abbeyville House later that day the atmosphere was “borderline volatile”. He told the court that Mr Blighe made a caution statement regarding the incident on January 9, 2024 but replied “no comment” to every question he was asked.

Mr Blighe told the court that he had spoken to Mr Gomez in the context of concerns about 56 single men being moved into Abbeyville House.

He said he did not realise that Mr Gomez had been an Irish citizen for 20 years when he made the comments and he refuted any suggestion he is a racist.

He added that he had taken down the Facebook post when he was made aware that “nasty things” were being said in the comments.

He said the protest was “against illegal immigration as we saw it".

Judge Roberts said he found the “black and white” attitude towards immigration “hard to understand” especially from an Irish perspective where generations had emigrated and “the vast majority of them illegally". He said that Mr Blighe’s reasoning was like the film Minority Report where people were found guilty before they had done anything.

He said that Mr Blighe had admitted that the Facebook post had encouraged negative comments and was therefore “accepting what you put up was, if not causing a breach of the peace, potentially leading to it".

The court heard that Mr Blighe had eight previous convictions including one for public order.

Judge Roberts ordered him to make a donation of €350 to the Irish Refugee Council and allowed him one month to make the payment.

The case was adjourned until December 13 by which time if the payment is made Mr Blighe will receive the benefit of the Probation Act. Default will result in a €400 fine and conviction.