Love / Hate actor John Connors has hit out at Senator Eileen Flynn over her recent comments, claiming she does “not represent travellers or our values.”
This week, Senator Flynn, who is part of the Traveller community like Connors, said in the Seanad that she is “terrified” to attend any protest where the Irish “tri-flag” is present.
Speaking during a debate on fuel protests in the past week, Senator Eileen Flynn, who was previously appointed to the Seanad by the Taoiseach in 2020 and later elected to the Administrative Panel in 2025, said she did not attend the demonstrations as they had been “overtook by the far right”.
“I didn’t attend any of those protests,” she said. “And the reason why I didn’t, it was overtook by the far right. It was overtook by the far right,” said Flynn.
“Look, for me, where I see the tri-flag, I’m terrified to be part of any protest where I see a tri-flag,” she added.
Reacting today, John Connors wrote:
“Eileen Flynn. You do not represent Travellers or our values. That is precisely why they chose you. They wanted a Traveller in name but not in culture. They did everything in their power to stop my grand aunt Nan Joyce, from being elected, a great activist like her sister, my grandmother Chrissy Donohue Ward. You do not share any values with those great women.
“You were selected to uphold the status quo establishment views. I pray that the Lord opens up your heart and mind. God bless,” said Connors.
Others have defended Flynn from criticism. In her comments this week, Flynn said that it was “an absolute disgrace in the country as a public representative, afraid to go to any protest where there’s a tri-flag.”
“And yet, and yet, we have a health system that’s barely standing,” she said.
“And it wouldn’t be standing – I’ve said this numerous times – if we didn’t have migrant workers in our hospitals.”
‘I AM TERRIFIED RIGHT NOW OF IRISH MEN’
In a follow-up interview with Ocean FM, the Ardara-based Senator expanded on her comments.
“Obviously, there were ordinary people out protesting,” she said. “But I felt it got hijacked by the so-called far right. In my opinion, and from the work that I do, because I stand up for migrant rights […] I’ll always stand up for migrants and people fleeing wars, people who need international protection.”
She said she therefore wouldn’t attend protests attended by “idiots” who “have the tri flag, scaring people and intimidating people.”
The Senator said that Irish hospitals “wouldn’t be standing” without migrant workers.
Flynn went on to tell the radio programme: “I’m not afraid of migrants by the way. I am not afraid of any migrant man. I am terrified right now of Irish men – the ones from the far right in this country.”
She added: “I would be [terrified]. I wouldn’t walk the streets of Dublin anymore without having a bottle of deep freeze in my bag because pepper spray is against the law […] Isn’t it scandalous that you have to think like that? That you’re so scared of these people.”