Two Irish citizens had their travel expenses paid to attend the funeral of assassinated Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah and take part in an organised tour.
The duo have shared videos of their trip on social media, generating hundreds of thousands of online views.
Tara Reynor O’Grady, who describes herself as a human rights defender, and Tadhg Hickey, an Irish comedian with a high profile on various social media platforms, last weekend attended Nasrallah’s funeral in Beirut.
The long-time Hizbullah leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September.
Ms Reynor O’Grady flew an Irish tricolour flag during the funeral, which at one point was broadcast on two big screens at the front of the stadium packed with tens of thousands of Hizbullah supporters.
The pair made positive statements about Hizbullah and Nasrallah in social media videos and during local media appearances, including during a visit to war-torn southern Lebanon.
Ms Reynor O’Grady and Mr Hickey were reportedly among a number of international influencers invited by Hizbullah.
“I didn’t have to pay for my own flight. They took care of everything as soon as I arrived, and for my passage over,” Ms Reynor O’Grady said ahead of Nasrallah’s funeral last Sunday, standing beside a Hizbullah representative.
I cannot equate support for Hizbullah and its former leader with the defence of human rights
Later, she told The Irish Times she was not certain who covered her costs but it might have been a production company, as she was participating in a documentary film. “I’m sent tickets frequently and without knowing who paid,” she said.
Mr Hickey, who travelled alongside her, reportedly told journalists from French-language Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Le-Jour that his expenses were covered by Hizbullah.
In an email to The Irish Times on Wednesday, however, he said this was incorrect, and that his trip had actually been paid for, arranged and coordinated by the “media committee for the funeral of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah” which he said he believes is “an offshoot of the arts and culture group in Beirut, Rissalat”.
Rissalat has been publicly linked to Hizbullah.
A 2018 academic paper by Joseph Alagha, who has written multiple books about Hizbullah, described Rissalat as “a subsidiary non-profit organisation of Hizbullah’s Cultural Unit”.
In 2022, English-language Iranian newspaper the Tehran Times described Rissalat as a “Hizbullah-run centre” in a report about it holding an “Iranian cultural festival”.
Hizbullah did not respond to a request for comment.
The appearance of Irish citizens at a Hizbullah funeral comes more than two years after the Iranian-backed group was linked to the killing of an Irish peacekeeper.
In 2023, five people allegedly affiliated with Hizbullah were indicted in relation to the death of Private Seán Rooney, a 24-year-old serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Hizbullah has denied involvement in the killing.
Mr Hickey has 286,000 followers on Instagram, more than 147,000 on X (formerly Twitter), and more than 90,000 on TikTok. His X and Instagram accounts include links where he takes donations.
He posted frequent updates on his trip. He called Nasrallah’s burial site “exquisitely beautiful” and posted a photo of himself embracing Nasrallah’s longtime bodyguard Abu Ali, saying he had been granted an “audience” and given the chance to ask him questions.
Mr Hickey’s Instagram video from Sunday’s funeral received more than half a million views.
“To say I feel privileged and blessed to have been part of that experience is genuinely the understatement of my life,” he said in his post.
Mr Hickey also travelled to southern Lebanon while wearing a jumper with “PRESS” emblazoned on it, despite referring to himself as a comedian in his videos. This drew condemnation from Lebanon-based journalists who say misuse of these letters risks delegitimising working reporters, making it easier for warring parties to disregard their rights.
During Mr Hickey’s visit, he referenced the fact Hizbullah’s militant wing is designated as a terrorist group by the US, UK and others. In a video, he said meeting Hizbullah members convinced him it is necessary to have a “conversation” in the West about what terrorism means and to “self-reflect as to why there are resistance movements at all”.
If Hizbullah are terrorists, Mr Hickey said, “they’re the nicest terrorists I’ve ever met”. He said “young translators” were “working” with them all the time.
“They provide us with everything we need; they’re by our side helping us, giving us tea, helping us to understand Islam, taking us through the context of everything we’ve experienced.”
In response to Ms Reynor O’Grady telling The Irish Times she was attending the funeral as a “human rights defender”, Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, wrote to the newspaper, saying: “I cannot equate support for Hizbullah and its former leader with the defence of human rights.
“Nasrallah and Hizbullah demonstrated time and again their opposition to the foundational values underpinning human rights, including the right to life.”
In an on-camera interview with pro-Hizbullah TV station Al Mayadeen, Ms Reynor O’Grady wore a pin with Nasrallah’s face on it as she described him as “the epitome of a wonderful leader for his people” and “a man of very high principles”.
Mr Hickey called Nasrallah’s burial site ‘exquisitely beautiful’ and posted a photo of himself embracing Nasrallah’s longtime bodyguard Abu Ali
Asked by The Irish Times about Hizbullah’s involvement in Syria, where the militant group is accused of atrocities while allied with former dictator Bashar al-Assad, Ms Reynor O’Grady said: “I don’t have an opinion.” But she added that she hopes Syria will now have an “equal government that is a shared power”.
Mr Hickey received some public criticism when he travelled to Iran last year, where he was filmed chanting “death to Israel” in Farsi.
“That was literally bumping into a man speaking Farsi and me having full no Farsi [sic] and messing about… It wasn’t like I’d hit the streets, like trying to drum up anti-Israel sentiment,” he later told the Sunday Independent.
He said he was invited to a festival in Tehran as a result of his activism around Palestine. The trip coincided with the funeral of hardline cleric and president Ebrahim Raisi, which Mr Hickey joined mourners on the streets for.
