{"id":469936,"date":"2026-05-05T18:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/469936\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:32:12","slug":"gerry-hutchs-comments-on-immigration-described-as-absolutely-racist-by-dublin-central-candidate-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/469936\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerry Hutch\u2019s comments on immigration described as \u2018absolutely racist\u2019 by Dublin Central candidate \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two candidates in the Dublin Central byelection<\/a> have strongly criticised comments on immigration<\/a> by Independent candidate and gangland figure Gerry Hutch<\/a>, with one rival describing them as \u201cabsolutely racist\u201d. <\/p>\n

In a social media post over the weekend Hutch, who came close to claiming the fourth and final seat in the constituency in the 2024 general election said \u201cillegal immigrants\u201d who were \u201cmooching\u201d their way into the country should be interned in the Curragh.<\/p>\n

Hutch, who was being interviewed by Dublin<\/a> city councillor Gavin Pepper in the Corinthians Boxing Club in the city centre, said immigrants were coming into the country from Britain and France \u201cbecause it\u2019s a freebie and they\u2019re getting paid\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they should be all interned, they should be put in the Curragh camp until they\u2019re sorted, and fed, not given any money, not given any houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hutch appeared to draw a distinction between different nationalities as well as migrants in the workforce, mentioning Indians when he said genuine people were \u201cmore than welcome\u201d and to \u201cbring your toolbox\u201d as migrant workers were needed because Irish people had \u201cgone too posh\u201d to do certain types of jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want our kids working in McDonald\u2019s, we need foreign workers for them type of jobs, whether we like it or not, we\u2019re gone too posh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mentioning \u201cthe ones that are Somalians and them type of people\u201d, he said \u201cthe illegal ones, feed them, put them on the boat and send them back.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked about the comments at his campaign launch in Dublin on Tuesday, People Before Profit candidate Eoghan \u00d3 Ceannabh\u00e1in said the comments were \u201cabsolutely racist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGerry Hutch is trying to basically pander to a sentiment that is around but that I don\u2019t think is the overwhelming sentiment of people in the inner city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is basically a way of dividing people and it\u2019s something that we should be absolutely opposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Ceannabh\u00e1in said the Government was to blame for creating the homelessness crisis and resulting in hundreds of asylum seekers sleeping rough. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis rhetoric from Hutch, but also from others, opens up this space for people to be attacked and I think we need to absolutely oppose it and actually try to unite people on the basis of a fight on housing and a fight on cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Labour Party\u2019s candidate Ruth O\u2019Dea said she was \u201chorrified\u201d by Hutch\u2019s comments which she described as \u201cdespicable\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also said: \u201cI reject that absolutely [the idea of internment] and I\u2019m absolutely disgusted by that comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea continued: \u201cWe do not have detention without trial, and those days are long gone, and thank God, so for him to say that is just outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the People Before Profit campaign launch, Dublin Mid West TD Paul Murphy said the party was consulting with its legal team over RT\u00c9\u2019s decision to exclude \u00d3 Ceannabh\u00e1in from broadcast debates. <\/p>\n

He reiterated calls for a \u201cvote left, transfer left\u201d approach in Dublin Central and Galway West, but said PBP had been unsuccessful in persuading other parties who had supported the Catherine Connolly campaign for president last year to sign up to a formal vote transfer pact. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea was speaking as the Labour Party launched proposals for a \u20ac3 million pilot programme for a \u201cSafe Fund\u201d aimed at helping women trying to exit a violent relationship. <\/p>\n

With other left-wing parties running sitting councillors in the byelection it was put to O\u2019Dea that she has a mountain to climb to win a D\u00e1il seat in this month\u2019s vote. <\/p>\n

She said this was the case for every candidate, that it is a \u201ccrowded field\u201d and is \u201ccompetitive\u201d and \u201cnobody owns that seat\u201d. O\u2019Dea suggested her chances were as good as \u201canybody else\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two candidates in the Dublin Central byelection have strongly criticised comments on immigration by Independent candidate and gangland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,784,106968,18,13,14,92241,6,19,56,17,9171,11,12,15,16,5,27172,27171,1181,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-469936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin-city-council","11":"tag-dublin-central-constituency","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-gerry-hutch","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-immigration","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-labour-party","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-paul-murphy","27":"tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","28":"tag-rte","29":"tag-top-stories","30":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116523404303074252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}