We Need To Talk
Many have rose-tinted glasses about 'it being easier in the past to express opinions publicly', but don't take personal ownership for we how we discuss issues online or cancel those we disagree with.
He is one of the few people that regularly makes me laugh out loud. I first came across Garron while doom-scrolling on YouTube, putting off my bedtime by his daft, over-the-top, expletive-filled criticism of awfully-presented Christmas dinners, bungee jumping and anything the English do in general. My Ukrainian wife immediately became besotted with his viral video clips and broad Ballina accent signing off his posts with “Follow me, I’m delicious”. I must admit when I heard Garron’s singing of ‘Raglan Road’, I was besotted too.
So when the man who shouts into the abyss about Americans ruining potatoes while then demonstrating how not to put together an IKEA table, was suddenly “cancelled” over a week ago, I felt this heavy but familiar dread. What had my hero gone and done?
Garron Noone, the Ballina musician and social media personality known for his comedy videos which gathered a huge online following, found himself at the centre of a heated controversy over comments he made on immigration in Ireland. In an unusually long and serious commentary, the influencer who normally just makes funny online clips explaining Irish culture, replied to a request for his opinion on Conor McGregor’s visit to the White House. Garron (I can’t just call him Noone as we’ve bonded remotely over how the UK commits crimes against biscuits) mentioned that people had concerns about immigration and the safety of Irish communities—remarks that quickly sparked a massive backlash across social media, despite his clear denunciation of McGregor.
Though he clarified that he was not anti-immigration and condemned far-right extremism, the critical response was swift and intense. Facing mounting denunciations, Garron deactivated his social media accounts, only to return days later to defend his stance. He admitted he hadn’t been clear enough initially, in distancing himself from vitriolic anti-immigration views, such as those of controversial personalities Katie Hopkins and Andrew Tate’s brother Tristan — which the Ballina man was horrified to find had since come out in force to defend his ‘right to free speech’.
Yet, supporters, including well-known Irish media and political figures, rallied behind him, pointing to the toxic nature of online mob pile-ons and the dangers of misinterpreting or deliberately twisting someone’s words. It was indeed heartwarming to see Ballymoney DUP Councillor Darryl Wilson find agreement with Sinn Féin TDs Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and David Cullinane, in thanking Garron for bringing joy to people’s lives while hoping he came back online, knowing he hadn’t “a racist bone in his body”. Rarely have Republicans and Unionists been in such agreement!
The whole affair raises deep questions about online accountability, free speech and Ireland’s evolving discourse on immigration. While many believe Garron was unfairly targeted, others vehemently think he crossed a line. An acting coach I know, originally from Australia but happily settled in Ireland for many years, took to his Facebook page to say that Garron should not have asked “to hear people out who have a problem with immigration” as they were only brainwashed “into thinking a Ukrainian barista or Syrian bus driver is ruining the country”, while he maintained “mega-rich power mongers” including Conor McGregor, Donald Trump, Simon Harris and Micheál Martin were stealing off us with impunity. Meanwhile, a friend of mine involved in local community development spat down the phone with his own disgust of the exact same people for the exact same reasons, while also advocating for a free and public exchange online of opinions on immigration.
My own belief — and I think one that Garron has come to realise — is that short-form social media (video clips and short posts) is not the best public space to discuss immigration or similar societal issues. Genuine debate is not possible here. But it is precisely because it is such a divisive issue that we need to talk about it. Preventing Gerry Adams “talking” by having his voice dubbed in BBC interviews in the early 1990s didn’t stop people supporting him or the Republican movement. Garron was right on this aspect. If McGregor is the only one left championing people’s genuine issues they will agree with him. Donald Trump thus won the U.S. presidency because many people believe he is the only leader who will listen to their woes and also fix illegal immigration.
I know and have met many people in Mayo who have serious concerns and questions over how immigration policy is decided and implemented in their communities, by our Government, state agencies and local authority. They are not brainwashed or bad people. Some have taken in Ukrainian refugees, some are Green Party supporters, some are actually naturalised immigrants themselves. All are terrified of saying anything in public about it, for fear of the verbal backlash and social ostracisation.
Despite the repeated claims of ‘we must have a national conversation’ on contentious issues during elections, our national media have too often failed to create the platform for fair and honest debate, without descending into ‘bothsidesism’, propaganda, ‘gottcha questions’ and sound-bite seeking badgering of nuanced argument, all sandwiched between commercial breaks. Yet, there have been genuine exceptions.
Eamon Dunphy hosted ‘The Last Word’ prime-time radio programme on Today FM until 2002. While often maddening and biased, he was rarely boring and always opened his show with “we welcome your comments no matter how acerbic they are” — which I believe he lived up to. He sought to understand his interviewees for our benefit (at least those he respected!) rather than catch them out or browbeat them. This was evident in his chats over soccer with former Loyalist Parliamentary leader Billy Hutchinson, but also in his conversations with strongly-opiniated guests as Kevin Myers, Lara Marlow, Robert Fisk and outspoken Republican political commentator Cal Thomas. With the program’s ‘Drunken Politician’ and ‘Navan Man’ sketches often skating delightfully past the limits of good taste, I loved The Last Word for the eclectic and often unpredictable content Dunphy delved into daily. Once he left, I quickly lost interest in the show under his competent but uninteresting and conservative replacement, Matt Cooper.
We need to talk about our problems as a society, but also take personal ownership for how we discuss issues online and not just cancel those we disagree with. We don't know how our words affect those we talk about. Every human, oppressor or victim, truth-teller or propagandist, is biased and we all can be wrong, so we should remember that before lamenting that social media is awful because of the actions of “the other side” or “the wrong group” (see the Facebook post above by someone I follow, who seems not to realise his own contribution to the ‘cesspool’ of social media).
Many have rose tinted glasses about ‘the public square’ of the past, where discourse used to be polite, generous and constructive — yet that was rarely ever true — even as we now live in a much more magnified and faster world. Knowing this, I aim to live up to my own promise to use my words to be effective rather than right, listen to constructive criticism (“no matter how acerbic”) and remember that it’s good to talk.
…and follow Garron, he really is delicious!
P.S. Correction to my article of ‘Our Economic Model Has Failed Rural Ireland’ of March 16, I incorrectly stated that county Mayo was a national outlier, losing 2% in population over 2011-2016 but on reflection, the correct figure from the Central Statistics Office is 0.2%. My argument is unaffected, as Mayo is still a national outlier in population decline along with Sligo and Donegal (basically the North-West of Ireland).
Originally published in the Western People, 1 April 2025