Mayo TD Paul Lawless backs Garron Noone following backlash

MAYO TD Paul Lawless has called for a ‘healthy’ political debate following backlash directed at Mayo social media star Garron Noone over a video posted on his social media this weekend.

The Aontú TD described the criticism directed towards Mr Noone over his views on immigration as ‘unbelievable’.

Mr Noone received online backlash after he posted a video on his social media accounts - which have since been deactivated - discussing Conor McGregor’s recent St Patrick’s Day appearance in the White House.

Describing Mr McGregor as ‘not a good person’ Mr Noone insisted that there ‘absolutely is an immigration issue in Ireland’.

“That doesn’t mean that people feel like we shouldn’t take the refugees that we’re able to take. It doesn’t mean that people feel like people shouldn’t be able to come here for better opportunities.

He added that the ‘systems that we have in place are being taken advantage of’ and ‘the government continually does not allow people to express their concerns about that’.

The Ballina man claimed that Ireland’s towns and cities are becoming ‘much less safe’, but said this is ‘not just because of immigration’.

“There’s a lot of factors to that, but if you can’t see that that’s happening, then you have not left your house.

“Communities all over Ireland are concerned, and their concerns are continuously not being heard. And when you continuously suppress what people are feeling, you turn them towards more extreme beliefs,” he added.

In a later video, Mr Noone condemned the far-right, stating that extreme beliefs are ‘not something that we want’ and that ‘we need to hear people out’. He subsequently deleted his Instagram and TikTok accounts.

Addressing the controversy, Deputy Lawless said it was ‘unbelievable to think that someone could share a very middle-of-the-road take on immigration and receive such a heightened level of abuse’.

The Knock-based TD said that Mr Noone’s views on immigration were shared by ‘so many’ of his constituents.

Deputy Lawless said that a healthy debate across the political spectrum was needed for a functioning democracy.

“Every single one of us is entitled to share our opinion on a topic without facing thousands of insulting messages and abusive comments. It’s a horrible thing to go through and I hope Garron has the support of friends and family during this time,” said Deputy Lawless.

Echoing Mr Noone’s comments, Deputy Lawless said that ‘extremist views take hold when people are pushed to the fringes and feel as though they are locked out of society and unable to express their views in public’.

Some prominent social media personalities have spoken out in support of Mr Noone, including Mayo natives Alan Clarke and Stephen Kelly.

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Miriam Mullins, a presenter at Cork Red.fm, said that Mr Noone had been ‘bullied’ off the internet by the backlash he received.