Anti-immigration activist Derek Blighe, who was convicted of a public order offence last year after he refused to make a donation to the Irish Refugee Council has now been given the benefit of the Probation of the Offenders Act after the money was allocated to another charity.
Mr Blighe, of Croughevoe, Mitchelstown, Co Cork, was last year given the opportunity at Fermoy District Court to avail of the act by making a donation to the Irish Refugee Council. A conviction followed when he failed to donate the money.
At a sitting of Cork Circuit Appeals Court in March of this year, his then barrister Alan O’Dwyer said that it was “purely a religious matter”.
He said that his client’s difficulty was with the position taken by the Irish Refugee Council on the repeal of the 8th amendment to the Irish Constitution in relation to abortion.
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Judge Helen Boyle told Mr Blighe that instead of paying €400 to the Irish Refugee Council, Blighe could pay €500 to Nasc.
Nasc is an advocacy service which links migrants and refugees to their rights. Mr Blighe indicated his willingness to make the contribution.
However, Cork Circuit Appeals Court today heard that the money had not been paid to Nasc. When the case was first mentioned this morning, Mr Blighe told Judge Boyle that his faith did not permit him to donate the money to Nasc arising out of their stance on the unborn child.
When the case came back before Judge Boyle this afternoon, she asked Mr Blighe if he had the money in court. The 44-year-old said that he did, and she directed that he hand over €500 to the sergeant.
Judge Boyle then directed that the funds be allocated to the Irish Red Cross. Mr Blighe represented himself in court.
At a previous court sitting, Insp Jason Wallace said it was alleged that Blighe had engaged in threatening and abusive behaviour during an incident at Abbeyville House, Fermoy, on December 22nd, 2023.
Witness Christopher Gomez said he was duty manager at Abbeyville when it was being prepared as accommodation for migrants and a protest by people opposing its use for this purpose had been taking place for several months outside.
Mr Gomez said he had ordered an oil delivery from a local company. When the delivery truck arrived at about 11am, he said Blighe approached the driver and spoke to him. He said 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. He opened the gates when it arrived and the driver began making the delivery. Blighe then began recording Mr Gomez with his phone and the court was shown footage he uploaded to Facebook in which he castigated Mr Gomez.
In the video, Blighe can be heard telling 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.”
Mr Gomez said Blighe live-streamed the incident which “really traumatised me”. He later downloaded the footage and provided it to gardaí when making a complaint. He said he had been an Irish citizen for 20 years and had “never experienced anything like this before”.
Garda Dane Murphy said he visited the protest at Abbeyville later that day and the atmosphere was “borderline volatile”. He said Blighe made a cautioned statement regarding the incident on January 9th last, but replied “no comment” to every question he was asked.
Judge Roberts said he found the “black and white” attitude towards immigration “hard to understand” especially from an Irish perspective where generations of Irish people had emigrated and “the vast majority of them illegally”.
