Dublin-based activist Gavin Pepper says he is engaging with legal representation following a segment on the Dublin Riots broadcast on Virgin Media last night, November 30th. The broadcast, titled “Dublin on Fire” featured one of Mr. Pepper’s tweets from the evening of the riot, overlaid with an audio recording of a voice message urging people to “tool up” – commonly understood to mean to bring weapons – and to “just kill” any “foreigner” or “gypo” that they encountered. The segment, Mr. Pepper says, left viewers with the false impression that the voice being played over his tweet belongs to him.
Mr. Pepper is a well-known campaigner on immigration and housing issues and plans to run, he says, in next year’s local elections. This week, speaking under privilege in the Oireachtas, Deputy Paul Murphy described him as “far right”. TDs and Senators cannot be sued for comments they make on the floor of the Dáil or Seanad, as a result of parliamentary privilege.
Gript Media has confirmed that the voice in the audio featured on Virgin Media is not that of Mr. Pepper.
Mr. Pepper told Gript Media that the broadcast had inflicted a “devastating impact” on his family. “My wife gets her nails done by a lady from Nigeria, and we have friends all across the community”, he said. “This morning she was getting text messages from her friends asking if that was Gavin on the tape saying that foreigners should be killed”. Mr. Pepper also said that he feared for the safety of his family and his children, and that they had not slept at home after the broadcast went out, given the number of people who – he argued – may have been left with a false impression that he had urged violence against people from minority backgrounds. He said that his daughter – currently on a school tour overseas – was falsely hearing that her father wanted to kill migrants.
Mr. Pepper said that he had urged people to go into O’Connell street on the night of the stabbing attack in Dublin to take part in a “peaceful protest”, against what he said was the lack of safety in the North Inner City, and the impact of uncontrolled immigration. He said that once he arrived on the scene, and experienced the atmosphere, he worried that there might be trouble and immediately deleted his tweet. “All I wanted was a peaceful, respectful protest”, he said. “I never called for any violence, or anything like that, and that’s the truth”.
Mr. Pepper said that he felt that the comments from another man on the audio recording played by Virgin Media over an image of his tweet were “disgraceful”, and that “whoever made the comments, I hope he faces the full force of the law”.
Gript Media attempted to contact Richard Chambers, the primary presenter of “Dublin on Fire”, for comment, but our call was not returned.
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Oh my God! How low and what tactics will Virgin Media use to bait people?
Ye like the authorities liase with small communities before dumping a load of young illegaly entered men on them without even a back ground check to make sure they are not putting the community at risk? All the do-gooder will say the same thing until its one of there family that bears the brunt of this madness. It seems fine for counselors to want people shot in the head or beaten to death. I don’t condone the violence that occurred but I fully understand the rage people feel.
That’s how all the peaceful protests have been happening over the past couple of years. No liaising with anybody.
Stop wasting the space.
Stop wasting oxygen.
You’re encouraging response from Shaz. He is a troll. This is happening with new people like you. No problem before. Those with sincere views want to comment. No point when the page is taken up with useless stuff. Having to go through that to read decent comments make people go away.
So I guess I am aswell. And a racist into the bargain I suppose. Look lad if little kids getting stabbed in the street in Broad daylight doesn’t push you to say enough is enough then you do you. But I can’t be so tame about such things. As a nation we have had this bullahit foisted upon us by people who don’t give a shit about how we are effected. I won’t be told by you or anyone else that I am in the wrong. I’m not afraid of being called names. There where alot of people that felt the same as Mr Pepper that night and like it or not Virgin media has a case to answer here as they quire deliberately made it seem like it was Mr peppers words being spoken in the voice over.
Ignorant to what? Genuinely interested.
Stop wasting the space. You newcomers are destroying the site replying to Shaz who is a troll.
How long do ye have to be here before your opinions matter to Mary Reynolds. Newcomers ????
Your opinion matters to me but not Jack Shaz. A troll.
I anticipated snow this morning, but instead, the sun is shining.
The weather is not bad for the time of year,
My thoughts exactly.
How old is the “parliamentary privilege”? And, whose voice was used in the video?
I think John McGuirk upset Virgin Media too much, with his handling of them the other night. The whole degenerate left is beginning to derail.
Hey, Jack! Got nothing else to do but irritate others? Get a life, man!
Jack Shaz is a Bot. Ignore him/her.
The manipulation and tactics of the media to defame Gavin goes beyond horror. Putting him and his familyr in harm’s way and the terror and stress of that. Make sure to report them to their regulator too. Watch them squirm. They thought they’d never be found out. They are lower than a snake’s belly.
Folks, Jack Shaz is so obviously a troll that I don’t know why you entertain him Ignore.
I hope he screws virgin media to the wall…..
I’m an American writing from the US. I have visited Ireland. Your freedom of speech seems quite limited. Also, I don’t understand why Irish nationalism is supposedly manifesting in what is being called the “far right.” I don’t know if many who are expressing nationalism or concerns about immigration are necessarily far right. Maybe they are. From an American point of view, it’s surprising the Irish would be cavalier about preserving the Irish culture and nature of their small country after fighting hundreds of years to get most of it back.
RE: The racism and homophobia is appalling. One commenter has just referred to Varadkar skin colour, another question hazel chus parents status in this country. The obsessive focus on colour and nationality is based on racism and nothing more.
— I don’t think so. The Irish were very focused on wresting control of your county from the British, who are white. So saying it’s a racial thing does not hold up. It’s more of a cultural or tribal thing, It’s a very small country, and you risk losing your culture or hurtling it in experimental, who-knows ways by allowing for large numbers of incoming from anywhere. Why would you roll the dice on your future and your culture after you pushed so hard to get that land back? Do your leaders think Irish nationalism is just going to disappear? Don’t give your country away to anyone.
Hate crimes laws are broader and stronger in Europe. Much of your media doesn’t allow commenting. The Daily Mail wouldn’t even report who were the so-called racists in Scobie’s book. In the UK, there is more monitoring of what people say on TV than here. There has been very little public info about the suspect in the notorious Dublin stabbing and the info seems restricted. That info is much slower to get to the public than here. Those are just a few examples off the top of my head.
If I’m wrong, I’d be delighted. I don’t think I am. When I say hate crimes laws, I also mean laws criminalizing hate speech.
https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1989/act/19/enacted/en/print.html
Or what is perceived as hate speech.
I know the DM is British; I am talking of Ireland, the UK and Europe in general,
‘My wife gets her nails done by a lady from Nigeria’: I’m not sure that he intended to sound like a resident of Jim Crow Mississippi but that was the echoes that reverberated from that statement. He does seem like a decent person so if he does run for elected office he gets some PR advice. I wish him all the best anyway.