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EZRA LEVANT | How mass immigration is reshaping Ireland beneath the surface — Dr. Eoin Lenihan
00:41:32
Tonight, on The Ezra Levant Show, anti-immigration politics scored a major win in the United Kingdom last week. So what comes next in Ireland?
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- [00:00]
Ezra Levant
Hello my friends. What an interview today. Boy, I love this guy. His name is Dr. Owen Lenahan and he knows everything there is to know about Ireland or more to the point, the vandalizing of Ireland. In fact, that's the name of his book. We'll go deep on it. The politics, the problems with the media in Ireland and of course, immigration, the number one issue in that country. What a show. And I want you to see it, not just hear it. Please sign up for what we call Rebel News Plus. It's the video version of this podcast. Just go to Rebel News plus, click subscribe and not only do you get the video content, but you support Rebel News because we depend on that because we don't take any money from the government and it shows. Oh yeah, one more thing.
- [00:40]
Rebel News Announcer
Being a rebel today is simply being normal. So why not support normal news and look cool while doing it by buying yourself some Rebel merch and more@rebelnewstore.com and you can save by using coupon code DREA10 when you do. Hey, before we dive in, a quick thank you to our listeners who support our work through the Rebel Store. Every purchase helps fund the journalism that you won't find anywhere else, whether it's field reporting, investigations or holding the powerful to account. If you want to wear your values and support independent media at the same time, check out the Rebel store@rebel News store.com the link is always in the description and you can also use code TAMARA10 that's TAMARA10 to save 10% off of your total purchase at checkout. Now let's get into it tonight.
- [01:38]
Ezra Levant
Anti immigration politics had a huge win in the United Kingdom last week. So what's next in Ireland? It's May 18th and this is the Ezra Levant Show. Shame on you, you censorious bu. I love going over to Europe because I often say it's a dystopian time machine. What I see happening in places like Marseille or Paris or London today I think will happen in Canada in five years time. I'm talking about things like mass migration, censorship, things of that sort. And recently I've been fascinated by the case of Ireland, a rather small country, only about 5 million souls, and until recently a fairly economically poor country. Now it's one of the richest around huge surplus, big western tech companies there. It's certainly leading the way in some measures economically, but it's also leaping ahead in issues of mass immigration and censorship. I've taken a real fondness to the island being there, oh, at least half a dozen times in the Past couple years watching a grassroots movement muster against mass immigration. But there's no political class that has responded to it in the way that, say, in the United Kingdom, Nigel Farage has harnessed the upset there. I need help in understanding it. I'm trying to learn about Ireland because I'm curious about it, because I love it and I love the people, but also because I want to get lessons for Canada. So who better to talk to than our guest today? His name is Owen Lenahan. He's the author of Vandalizing Ireland, which is a great name. And that's what I want to talk about. Is this wonderful emerald island being vandalized and can it be saved? Owen Lenahan, thanks for joining us today.
- [03:30]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
Yeah, it's a pleasure to be on with you. And just at the offset. Thank you for all you've done, actually, for Ireland. You've really helped raise the profile of the country and what's happening there to an international audience. So I appreciate that. Thank you.
- [03:44]
Ezra Levant
Well, it's. It's been my pleasure. I've done it out of intellectual curiosity. I really knew very little about Ireland. The thing that strikes me whenever I visit there is how friendly the people are. And it makes me think a little bit about our Canadian province of Newfoundland. Again, a small, fairly homogenous culture. Great gift of the gab. I mean, in Ireland, they have the blarney stone. I mean, I think there's. There are some deep ties between Canada and Ireland, but I don't want to be confused by the myth or the history. I want to understand what's going on. Now. Help me understand. I don't get it, how Ireland could have such wonderful people but have such an awful group of politicians. Maybe every country says that, but Ireland feels especially cursed in the politics department.
- [04:27]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
I think you're right. Our biggest problem is that our two big parties, Fianna Fall and Fina Gael, they were birthed out of our revolutionary period. So they were pro the treaty which gave us our independence and anti. So Fianna Fall were anti. Fiana Gael were pro. Now, the problem is that once we got our. Once we became a republic in the late 40s, they kind of ceased to have any major ideological and economic platform differences between them. So we've had this unique charade whereby since the 1950s, we've had to pretend that they're different parties when in reality they aren't. And I don't mean that flippantly. So from the late. After the 1950s, we underwent economic crash. We. There was a spike in immigration, not seen since the famine and from the 1960s, both parties essentially came together and they devised an economic strategy based on going all in on the EU and all in on American, in particular, foreign direct investment. So they started down this path together, and they've stayed on this path together while giving the electorate the illusion of choice. There was never really any there. So what's happened now is that since the 1960s, the successive governments have abandoned domestic industrial growth in favor of the dopamine hit, the economic dopamine hit of American multinationals. So you mentioned it there in your opening that we're kind of considered one of the richest nations in the world, and we are on paper. So the IMF recently just announced that Ireland will pass Luxembourg as the richest country in Europe by 2030, and we'll have a GDP PPP. So purchasing power parity, excuse me, of €168,000 per person. So it makes us sound incredibly wealthy. But GDP isn't a great measure at the best of times, as you know, because it depends on how a government is going to ensure that that wealth trickles down. But it particularly means little in Ireland because our GDP has been radically inflated and distorted by the huge investment in American multinationals in Ireland. So, for example, in 20 alone, when Apple and other major big tech industries onshored intellectual property to Ireland, we saw a gdp spike of 26% in one year, which was. It's a record in post World War II GDP increases. So we have no. First of all, we have a distorted sense of how rich we actually are. As Paul Krugman put it, leprechaun economics. But secondly, we seem uniquely cursed, as you said, by our political class and how this supposed vast wealth is spent. So even though we're told on a daily basis that we're the richest nation in Europe, one of the richest on earth, we have 40% of working young people under the age of 35 who live in their childhood bedroom they can't move out of home. Three out of five people under the age of 25, for example, plan to emigrate from Ireland. Children who are on, children who are waiting for vital score. Scoliosis treatment can wait up to two years. Despite numerous scandals for treatment, 66% of people under 25 said they'd have a better life elsewhere. We have the highest rate cost for energy in the eu. We have the second highest cost of groceries, and so on and so on. Now, Ezra, I think you were there, or at least rebels certainly reported on the recent haulier and farmer protests that happened in Ireland. And this is becoming more and more visible again thanks in large part to your outlet. It gives people a sense of, while our government projects outwardly wealth, that there is this great disconnect with people who are feeling the bite at home. So for example, the Holliers, what they were protesting about, and farmers recently in Ireland, was that the government takes 50% tax roughly on petrol, over 50% and almost 60% on diesel. Sorry, the other way around, 57% on petrol and 48% on diesel. So again we have local businesses who on top of that will pay a 12.5% at least VAT and other charges, who are paying for exorbitant prices for electricity, for water charges, et cetera, et cetera. We have local industry been strangled while our government caters only to American multi nationals. Now there's an issue with that. Increasingly, since the early zero zeros, this multinational hiring has relied on foreign labor. Since 1995, we've outstripped our domestic supply of labor. Essentially in the early zero zeros we had a large influx from Eastern Europe as the Eastern European bloc joined the EU. But since the 2000 and tens, what the influx of immigration now has been in service of big tech in particular. Now companies like Microsoft, Apple and so on, these are hiring now at a rate of in the 90th percentile non EU workers, chiefly Indians. So this has an impact whereby just twofold. First of all, as you pointed out, Ireland, now a tiny nation of 4 million ethnic Irish, has 5 million people living in Ireland. So that's a million people who have immigrated in the last 20 to 25 years, which has created a massive housing crisis, a massive housing bubble which has led to that 40% of working young Irish under the age of 35 living at home. But also this bringing in people, particularly from India into this big tech sector, into upper echelon medical jobs, has imported a non Irish upper middle class which has allowed them to purchase, block purchase housing in any housing estate that they like, while native Irish are stuck at home dreaming of ever owning a house and knowing that it's an impossibility. So the seeds have been set for massive, massive social strife due to just political failures, compacted, compounded, sorry, decade over decade. But what it comes down to is the lack of any real choice in Irish politics.
- [11:14]
Audio Clip Speaker (Howard Lutnick or US Commerce Secretary)
Wow.
- [11:14]
Ezra Levant
Now you said so many interesting things there. I didn't know that on paper Ireland was as rich as Luxembourg. And in some ways I can see it here. Let me play for you a clip. This is Howard Lutnick, the US Commerce Secretary, talking about some of how American high tech companies use the preferential tax status of Ireland to reduce their American tax burden. Now, he's saying it in a slightly menacing way. He says he wants to bring that money back to America and tax it. But the reason I want to play this clip today is to try to explain that it's like you say, it's not really a real economy. I mean, there are real things happening in Ireland, but I think some of it feels like accounting tricks.
- [11:59]
Audio Clip Speaker (Howard Lutnick or US Commerce Secretary)
Let's go over what Apple does right now. Here's a simple example. They make the parts in China.
- [12:05]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
Yeah.
- [12:05]
Audio Clip Speaker (Howard Lutnick or US Commerce Secretary)
They put the parts together in Taiwan. Then they wave their magic wand and it floats over Ireland. Of course it floats over Ireland because that's where Apple does its products. And then it comes to America and they make, I don't know, something like 3% profit in America. They pay corporate tax on 3% profit in America. And Ireland announces a massive budget surplus for their 5 million people. HA ha. So it's just not true. So the concept is have them pay their taxes in America, and that is how you fix America.
- [12:39]
Ezra Levant
So that's. That's a little bit of tough talk. I don't think that either Secretary Lutnick or President Trump have acted on that. I think. I think they have a fondness towards Ireland. But I'm just trying to explain how you can have that much wealth on paper. But when I was in Ireland a few months ago, I met a fireman. So this guy is. He's working full time, frankly, in a government job. And he said he can't afford a house. He just can't afford one. And what strikes me whenever I'm in Ireland, especially Dublin, is how many migrants there are. There's this beautiful new boardwalk built along the canal or the river in Dublin, and 100% of the people on it. I literally went through and spoke to every single person on the boardwalk. I made a video out of it. Every single one of them is foreign. And some are there in good faith and happy and they love Ireland. But others are there. It feels like some sort of NGO project. Let's talk about that for a moment. We've talked about the economic changes in Ireland, which I half understand. But one thing that I think I do understand is the mass immigration being hustled into Ireland, of all places, by NGOs. Can you talk a bit about that? Because I know that that goes to your book, Vandalizing Ireland. There's. There's so many NGOs in Ireland, it's almost hard to believe I've heard a stat of 50,000. Is that accurate?
- [14:07]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
They say around 36,000, which is still absurd. And we should say that some of those do good work, right? Some of those will be maybe taking care of the elderly in local communities. They might be sports bodies or whatever else. But what has happened is that since the early 2000s, again with this first glut of mass immigration, there was a change in the type of NGOs that we saw up until the 80s and even into the 90s again the big two parties, just as they had the exact same economic policy, they both also outsourced social policy to the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church went through a dramatic collapse in the late 90s and the early zero zeros as various scandals and reports came out. That's ground well covered before. But the upshot of that is that the Irish Catholic Church had phenomenal power in the NGO sector, or what would have been traditionally what we call now the NGO sector. And into that void stepped a whole new generation of NGOs who were driven by radical left and social justice theory policies. And so we saw, just as there was a mass of immigration happening, illegal immigration happening, we had a justice minister in 2004 saying that 80 to 90% of all immigration under asylum schemes were bogus in Ireland. And that statistic has remained consistent. But in this time, as I say, these left wing social justice theory driven migrant councils and things like this also sprung up and helped frustrate the asylum system, bogged down the asylum system to help keep anyone who came to this country, came to Ireland in the country. So there has been terrific abuse of the asylum system from the early 2000s. And ironically the government, well, not ironically, I mean tacitly, they agree they are funding these NGOs to the tune of over 6 billion per year. So we've also seen a huge explosion in the number of courses in universities catering for these ngo, for the NGO sector as well. So this is a major problem. Ireland, we're going through a period where we are forcing our nurses, our skilled laborers, who can't purchase a house at home, who can't have a decent quality of life at home, like that fireman you spoke to, who are field or have to emigrate. And we're rewarding rubbish courses, let's be honest, empty courses are courses that lead to massive economic dependence on the state, first of all to pay their bills, but secondly a breakdown in social cohesion. So we're producing and giving a home to these NGOs at an alarming rate. Which is terrible for the country.
- [17:03]
Ezra Levant
Yeah, I went to a neighborhood in the larger Dublin area called Kulak, which is sort of a lower income area, working class, you know, not, not a powerful neighborhood, not a wealthy neighborhood. But the government announced and it was without consultation, let alone, you know, giving the locals a veto. They just announced they were going to turn a large former paint factory, like it was a huge facility and enormous complex. They were going to turn it into an urban refugee camp right in the middle of the neighborhood, right across the street from like a kid's arcade and a kid's movie theater. They were going to put hundreds of military age migrant men just plunk it in this neighborhood. And, and it was sort of a fait accompli. That's what surprised me about Ireland is there's really no consultation, there's very little disclosure. It's like an ambush on the local people. In the case of Kulak, they marched and marched and marched, and there was even a bit of a mini riot one day and to my surprise, the government blinked. But in other places where there hasn't been such a vigorous response, they just plow ahead like the, like. In County, I think it was Tipperary, there's this little town called Dundrum, town of 200, a village, 200 people. And, and the local country club was turned into a migration facility for 200 for. So immediately the Irish became a minority in Dundrum, Tipperary. And what gets me, what shocks me is there's no consultation, there's no veto, it's just announced, poof. Fait accompli. That sounds strange to me. How do the Irish, who are rebellious people, how do they abide that?
- [18:46]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
Well, you put your finger on exactly what's bringing everything to a boil right now in Ireland, and it was precisely this policy. So the first thing that enabled it is Fianna Fall and Fine Gael, these two parties who've been in power for over a century, they are losing support to such a point where they now can only rule together. Once upon a time, they could rule on their own. But the biggest issue is they have no actual opposition. Sinn Fein, who are the biggest opposition party, are actually silent partners. They are a socialist 32 counties Republican Party. And the thing is that Finna Fall and Fine Gael, they want open borders to keep feeding their foreign direct investment addiction. And socialist Sinn Fein want to open borders because, well, ideologically that's what they want. So their cause is the same. So there is nobody shouting stop. There is no political party shouting stop. But based on the comfort that Fianna Fall and Fina Gael in particular have of being in power. They've developed a very ruthless authoritarian streak. What you said there, no consultation, no veto. These were the precise words used by Leo Varadkar, first of all, the former Fine Gael leader and every leader since, to describe their policy of placing migrants, asylum seekers, who they know are overwhelmingly illegal and are abusing the system into small communities. So again, just last year, 2025, the leader of our country, Michal Martin, said that up to 80% of asylum claims in Ireland were bogus last year. Yet Ireland set a new record for the number of asylum claimants year that were accepted into the system. So it makes no sense. Also, we know that over decades there has been a de facto open border system in Ireland. We have one or two, a handful of really good politicians. Carol Nolan is one of them. She's an independent politician who asked our justice minister Helen McEntee back in 2024, January 2024, she asked her basically to go through the process of who is and isn't accepted into Ireland. And the answer was quite stunning. We found that for example, almost 30,000 people in 2023 and 24 showed up at Dublin Airport with no paperwork, no documentation, they just threw them in a bin, tore them up, whatever, and claimed asylum in Ireland. Now, under the laws of the land at that time, our 2004 Immigration act, they should have been deported on the spot, but they were all accepted through into the system. When the Justice Minister was asked about the vetting for people coming into the country, well, it was found at Eurodac that all of the various methods that the EU has in place to do background checks on immigrants, none of these were accessed by the Irish government for over a decade. In fact, we know they were never accessed. So the Irish government have run a de facto open borders policy. It doesn't matter if you're a legitimate asylum claimant or if you're bogus, you're allowed into the country, which is put phenomenally pressure on housing resources, which has led to the government then forcing groups of migrants into small, close knit communities like Kulak, like Dundrum. And the problem is people aren't stupid. People understand that these are people who have come illegally, who are lying to get into the country. And as you said, they have been forced into very small, close knit communities. So this poses an existential threat to these ancient communities that in some cases, like where I come from in County Clare we have Lahinch and Innis Diamond. Back in West Clare we have in some towns as many immigrants living there as natives. And we know that those people have entered the country under false pretenses. But the government has said, no veto, no consultation. You will accept this. And so naturally, what's happened is that there's been terrific pushback. There has been fires at asylum centers in over 30 locations since the middle of 2024. We saw just yesterday in the Netherlands a similar, where they have adopted a similar policy to the Irish of no consultation. And people, feeling their back to the wall, feeling not listened to, did the same thing. The asylum center went up in flames. To me, this is incredibly authoritarian and incredibly reckless governance. And so this is, as you rightly felt, this is the vibe in Ireland at the moment, that the government will run roughshod over the locals and whether they're getting their marching orders from Brussels. We hear that 70% of laws are dictated by Brussels, or whether it's of their own volition or whether it's being driven by NGOs. I suspect a combination of all three. What matters is that there is a clear wedge between our government and the electorate. Filling that wedge are the NGO sector academics and others who have the ear of the government and who are shaping government policy. But the electorate does not matter. They do not count, because the government understands that right now we have a crippled democracy whereby they can't really be voted out of power. So they are. While they can run roughshod over the people they are.
- [24:05]
Audio Clip Speaker (Howard Lutnick or US Commerce Secretary)
Yeah.
- [24:05]
Ezra Levant
You know, we just saw a week ago in the. In the United Kingdom, an enormous sea change in. They had a major election for city councillors and the Labour party lost almost 1500. And then reform gained almost the exact amount. And I've been watching Reform UK pretty closely. Their main message is, I went to one of their by elections. Their motto was freeze immigration, stop the boats. That couldn't be clearer. And I know in Ireland, they come either through Dublin airport or they walk across from Northern Ireland, which is part of the uk. They just walk over. Let me tell you why I love going to Ireland, though. Ireland has a lot of problems and some of them are heartbreaking. And by the way, migrant, you bring in military age migrant men. Migrant men are sexually active. And I hate to say it, some of these people come from countries where the way to approach women is very different. And there has been spectacular cases of horrific. I'm just gonna say it, sex crimes committed by migrants. And it goes back to vetting and what the heck are we doing? And are these real migrants? But let me tell you what gives me hope. And this is why I like going I go to Ireland because I'm fascinated by the problem which I see in Canada too. But let me just throw four quick things at you, doctor, and I'd like you to respond to them because these are four things that I'm sort of jealous of you mentioned. You call them hauliers. In Canada, we call them truckers. There was almost like a national strike of truckers and farmers together over gas prices. And it was amazing. They blocked highways everywhere. And there was, it was such a feeling of solidarity. Reminded me of the Canadian truckers, but it was bigger. So that was point. That's evidence. Exhibit A, let's say exhibit B is I have been to marches in Dublin and Cork with up to 50,000 people against mass immigration. And that's without any major party or funder. It's just grassroots people. And proportionately that would be hundreds of thousands of people in Canada. That's exhibit B. Exhibit C, there was recently a vote for president. And the presidential vote is, you know, it's a complicated system where you need support of incumbent politicians, that you can't just be a ordinary person. You need sort of permission from the establishment. And a conservative oriented woman tried to get on the ballot. She was blocked. And well over 100,000 people wrote her name in, which again is. They went to the ballot to write her name in, which is astonishing.
- [26:42]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
That was amazing.
- [26:43]
Ezra Levant
And then the fourth point, this is my favorite, and I'm just listing these because every one of these things tells me that Ireland's heart is in a different place than its mouth, let's say. And the last thing is there was a constitutional referendum to take out motherhood from the Irish constitution. I don't think most people around the world know that Ireland has a special section about mothers in the constitution. It's so surprising because when you think of constitutions, you think, well, the party of the first part, Article two, you think technical, legalistic. But this is a beautiful sort of national love letter to mums. And for some weird reason the government said, let's get rid of that. Well, you can guess the reasons. And even though the entire establishment supported it, this was given a third thumping by the people. So those four things, I'm telling you, those four things give me reason for hope. And that's why I keep coming back to Ireland, because I want to see how this story is going to end. I just want to know how it's going to happen.
- [27:47]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
I think what makes us very unique in a way is that we have no history of right wing politics. We have the narrowest Left right axis in Europe at the moment. All of our major parties are left to far left. Now, two small micro parties have emerged in recent years into who are economically very left but socially conservative around certain issues, particularly in abortion. And we have independent Ireland who are trying to, who are more populist orientated. I would say they're certainly both parties were there during the recent holier protests and they equated themselves very well. They stood with the protesters. There's a by election coming up in the west of Ireland in Galway this month. And it's a toss up at the moment between one of the establishment parties, the Phoenix Gael candidate and this independent Ireland candidate. Now he's a fascinating character because he was a member of Fianna Fall, one of the ruling 2. However, he stood with the people in Ross Cahill, which is a very small tourist town in the west of Ireland. This was one of the very early cases of an asylum center being blocked by locals, by farmers who put down barricades outside in said no entry here. Eventually the hotel was burnt in the middle of the night. But afterwards, this politician, he'd done nothing wrong. He just stood with the people of his constituency. He had his home raided by police. He eventually left the party, so he earned some credit there. But there over the past when the Hollier protests, the trucker protests were happening here over fuel costs two to three weeks ago, he again came to the fore and stood with the people. So he is a very interesting character. And there's a couple of characters in this independent Ireland who definitely have the populist touch. And what you said is that right now our biggest problem is right wing political dysfunction. But that's born out of a somewhat of a learned helplessness because we have never had a right wing party in Ireland. As I said, what we had was two parties who had their focus on nationalism, early 20th century nationalism, who outsourced their social policy to the church. But that's not the same thing as having a right wing party defined right wing principles. So that's where we are. We need to first of all overcome some of the cultural baggage that comes with that. For example, conservative is a dirty word in Ireland because if you say conservative, people's mind goes straight to Margaret Thatcher, it goes straight to hunger protests in the north. You're not a nationalist if you mention this word. So we have to get around certain booby traps there that we've inherited. I do definitely think that this wave of populism that's spreading across Europe and as you say, there we saw decisively win in England this past week with Reform and Restore both doing well, that I feel like there's a lot of people in Ireland who are just waiting for that moment to materialize. They're just waiting for the character to pull that all together. And I do believe that if somebody can step into that breach successfully, it'll catch on very strongly.
- [31:11]
Ezra Levant
Yeah, I sure hope so. You know, I'm aware that economic policy in Ireland is tilted left. I mean, it is in a lot of places and especially with the kind of money being injected there, it's almost like free money. Who wouldn't be socialists, right? To me, the, the issue of ethnicity, nationalism, borders, immigration is more important than every other issue combined. I would rather, and just speaking personally, I would rather support a socialist who protected the borders then, frankly, actually there's a lot of libertarian economists who believe in open borders. And so when I'm in Ireland, to me, whether you're a populist on the left or populist on the right, if you're listening, you can hear people like that fireman, working class guy, couldn't find a place to live. Is he right wing or left wing or is he just someone who wants to be Irish living in Ireland? And the thing about Ireland is, you know, there are expat communities around the world, but there's only one Ireland. It's a little place and the Irish are the indigenous people there. We use the phrase indigenous when we're talking about Canadian Indians or aborigines in Australia. But the Irish are the indigenous people and ought not they to have a homeland? I'm not saying that they should be enemies to other races or ethnicities. I'm just saying let them have Ireland for the Irish. Just like I love going to Italy because it's Italian, that doesn't mean I'm anti Swiss. I just think Italy should be Italian. And I think Ireland, they've got that woke mind virus where they sort of have gad saba called suicidal altruism. They want so badly to support the underdog that they're undermining themselves.
- [32:49]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
I think you've hit on something very important in our psyche. The problem is we're actually too nice. We're a bit like the Canadians. We're too nice for our own good. And people have sensed that and taken advantage of that, particularly in the NGO sector and in certain elements of hard left academia who have inserted to themselves as that wedge between the electorate and the government that they've understood. The Irish people are fundamentally very good, very warm Very open hearted. We're famous the world over for it. And I think that has been very effectively weaponized. But I would agree with you that all politics at this point is immigration politics. For me, I often put in similar terms to you what you just described there, that politics, left are right, socialism, whatever, that economic, they are essentially disagreements among civilizations, siblings, that's what within a nation. And that's okay. Sometimes you'll have economic ups, sometimes you'll have economic downs. But you see, once you're all of that same family, once you have a bad time, you'll come together and you'll say, hey, let's dig ourselves out of this hole. But that social cohesion breaks down when you have people from all over the world who are pursuing maybe personal economic goals, who are pursuing different goals, who have. You see, that's the big issue. A nation breaks down when you aren't all driven in the same direction. Absolutely agree that as all politics in all European nations at this point, in Canada as well is migration politics.
- [34:16]
Ezra Levant
Well, we're sure going to keep an eye on it. We enjoy coming over. The warm welcome we have. You know, I admire some of the independent journalists in Ireland, but there's very few of them. I've had a chance to meet many of them. I love gript, GRIPT ie. I think they're very credible, they do good journalism and they've really made a difference. There are some citizen journalists on the street with their iPhone cameras. But I think that in addition to a political problem, Ireland really does have a media problem. When I say I attended some of these large rallies, they were often completely ignored by the regime media or if the regime media, as I call it, reported on them, it was to denigrate them, to paint them as extreme, to downplay the size of the turnout. Like I, I, I know what it means to be in a 50,000 or 1,000person rally. I've been in them from Sao Paulo to London. The Ireland has mustered a lot of people and if it weren't for these independent media, no one would know. And I just, I think that just like there's a media cartel, sorry, a political cartel in Ireland, there's a media cartel too. Give me, give me a word on that before I, I know we've kept you for a long time, but just give me.
- [35:27]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
No, I'm immediate situation. Delighted to talk, don't worry. As I said, you do great work and I appreciate it. So I'm more than happy to be here. Delighted. But that's a very important Point again. A lot of people in a lot of countries will, in a troll way you'll say, ah, the media is bought and sold by the government. But the problem is in Ireland it's literally true. It's literally true, okay, that what we have in Ireland is that there's numerous ways that government buys off the national media. The first way is they scrapped vat, so your value added tax on newspapers which was at 12.5% and they got rid of it down to 0%. The second way is that there is a government, sorry, a politics journalist government advisor pipeline. So the leaders of the various parties and the leading figures in government all have multiple advisors around them to the tune for the two fianna fall and fine gay leaders. It's a million euro per year is being paid out to special advisors who are overwhelmingly drawn from politics politics journalists. So there's a massive incentive for them to be on side with the government. But then another very real and a very damaging way that the government owns or can do hands off editorializing of the news is through commission the man, which is our regulatory body for the media and this commission the man. And if you were to go to their website, you would see it again, highly ideological, their mission statement driven by social justice theory. They hand out substantial grants, large grants every year or twice a year. And these are handed out to the national media to cover topics that are fundamental to government policy. So for the book Vandalizing Ireland, I went through all of these and I looked at, looked to see did any national media outlet get any money, any grant money to cover migration or climate agenda or populism in any way critical fashion to the government. Not a single one did. So the government in this hands off way, but it's a very real way by controlling the purse strings. They literally control the national media in Ireland. And it's parallel our country in Europe
- [37:50]
Ezra Levant
and in Canada we have the CBC in Ireland it's RTE and it you can really feel the bias coming through. Well, let's listen. I love going to Ireland partly because people see us as an alternative source of information and because we're coming from Canada and because to be honest, I knew next to nothing about Ireland before I first set foot there a year or two ago. I think people can see I'm blank slate, I'm not on this side or that side. I'm just trying to figure it out, using my Canadian experiences to guide me. And one of the things we just say to point the camera, just show what the camera shows. And in these marches, one of these immigration march, a couple of them, we would walk by the open borders advocates and I would note the difference in flags the Irish marches had. They call it the tricolor. That's what they call the Irish flag. Thousands and thousands and thousands of tricolors. Like it was actually beautiful. And the pro immigration open borders counter protesters never had an Irish flag. They had the Palestine flag. They had the trans flag. To me, I know what that means. I know who is on the antifa destructive left and who are the. The real people. And I don't know. I just found when I passed by those counter protesters, I knew that I had finally groked what was going on. And of course, they were all paid to be there by the NGOs we talked about. Well, listen, Dr. Owen Lenahan, I. I'd recommend your book to our viewers. I'm proud to have bought your book even though I haven't finished it yet. But I'm going to. You know what? You've got me interested in this Galway by election. Maybe I'll read it on the plane over there. It's great to talk to you. Thanks very much for spending so much time. And what's your address on Twitter for people who want to keep in touch with Irish news and politics?
- [39:45]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
So it's just my name, Lenahan L E N I H A N All one Lenihan. And I like to just exactly like you say, keep everyone up to date with what's happening there in Ireland. But again, let me just reiterate, thank you for what you're doing. You know, you're really bringing awareness internationally of. Because I think most people still have this idea of Ireland of the rolling green fields and, you know, the quiet man and all of this. But I mean, I'm sure. Well, you are. I know from your reporting that you are stunned by the changes that are happening. So thank you for bringing that to a wider audience.
- [40:20]
Ezra Levant
Well, you're very kind and we love doing it. And I have two videographers who go with me and each of them wants to be the videographer on the trip because they so enjoy the visit. And by the way, it is absolutely beautiful. I mean, when I was in Dunbar from. I felt like I was in a storybook. It was impossibly beautiful. And to. To borrow a phrase from your book, to vandalize. That is so simple. It's like it really. You know, I sometimes say this when I'm in beautiful places. It makes me nostalgic for them even though I've. Even when I'm there, I feel nostalgic for. For how lovely they are. Thanks for your time. Keep up the fight, and we'll stay in touch, I hope.
- [41:00]
Dr. Owen Lenahan
I would love that. Thank you very much.
- [41:01]
Ezra Levant
Right on. Our pleasure. There he is, Dr. Owen Lenahan, and his book is Vandalizing Ireland. And I'll be back over there in the next week or so for a court case involving censorship, which is something we didn't have a chance to touch on today, but Ireland, unfortunately, is being known for its censorship, and we'll keep telling you that story. Well, that's our show for the day. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World headquarters, to you at home, Good night. Night. And keep fighting for freedom.