Garron Noone appeared to have deactivated his social media accounts after facing backlash for a video he posted about immigration.
The Mayo comedian and singer, who boasted over 1.7million followers on TikTok, drew controversy after speaking on Conor McGregor’s appearance at the White House and saying that Ireland has an immigration problem.
After clarifying the clips in a follow-up video on his Instagram, where he said that he doesn’t agree with or support the disgraced UFC fighter, Garron has appeared to delete his Instagram and TikTok accounts — with error messages appearing when one searches for him.
Itis unknown if the deletion is temporary, or if Garron has left social media entirely.
In the first clip, Garron said that he’s constantly asked for his opinion on political issues, particularly after McGregor was at the White House on St Patrick’s Day — saying that while he doesn’t think McGregor is a good person, the former fighter’s message on immigration resonated around some parts of the country.
"There absolutely is an immigration issue in Ireland," Garron said.
"That doesn’t mean that people feel like we shouldn’t take the refugees that we’re able to take. It doesn’t mean that people feel like people shouldn’t be able to come here for better opportunities.
"The systems that we have in place are being taken advantage of, and that is plain to see, and the government continually does not allow people to express their concerns about that.
"Along with this, Ireland continues to become one of the richest countries in the world, while most people’s quality of life is going down.
"Our towns and especially our cities are becoming much less safe. Now that’s not just because of immigration, there’s a lot of factors to that, but if you can’t see that that’s happening, then you have not left your house. Communities all over Ireland are concerned, and their concerns are continuously not being heard. And when you continuously suppress what people are feeling, you turn them towards more extreme beliefs.
"You increase their distrust in the government, and you push people towards racism and extremism.
"Now, no doubt, a lot of people in the comments are going to completely misconstrue what I’ve said here, but that’s the internet for you.
"Anyway. Stay delicious."
The video was shared online where it received backlash, with him clarifying the remarks by saying that immigration needs to be discussed openly — but rubbished claims that he was far-right or anti-immigration.
"What I said in that video, the point that I was trying to make, I stand by. So I was basically saying that things like immigration, Conor McGregor had brought this up, a lot of people were resonating with what he was saying, and what I was saying is that if we can’t discuss the negative aspects and the concerns that people have about immigration, and Ireland as a country that is growing very fast," Garron said.
"It’s all very new to people.
"If we can’t discuss those things openly, if people are regulated to talking about it in echo chambers and only really hearing about those concerns from more extreme people, that makes everything worse.
"It’s going to make people’s beliefs more extreme, and it fosters things like racism and stuff to get worse and makes us more divided, which I think we have witnessed in other countries. That was the point I was trying to make, some people came away from that video thinking that I was anti-immigration, which, to be fair, I didn’t say….but enough people misunderstood that I have got to take accountability for being the common denominator in that.
"I am not anti-immigration. Absolutely crazy to think that. Right after the Dublin riots happened, I made a video where I came out and completely condemned the actions of the far right, who I believe were just opportunists who wanted to vandalize things and cause havoc and do not care about the country at all. They didn’t have anybody’s best interests at heart and I condemn that absolutely, and I still do condemn them.
"But at the same time, to say that there are no concerns as immigration increases, to say that things haven’t been mishandled, and to say that people should not be able to express how they feel about those things, their concerns about those things, I just don’t think that does any good.
"I think people should be able to express those things and I think obviously more extreme beliefs are not something that we want, but we we need to hear people out. We need to know what they’re thinking, and hopefully that can keep everybody as reasonable as possible."
Garron ended his video saying "f**k the far-right and f**k the far everything."
Extra.ie have contacted Garron’s management for comment surrounding the deletion of his social media accounts. They previously told us: "Garron is going to leave it at that as he generally avoids speaking out about serious topics altogether."
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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