Derek Blighe

Derek Blighe (born 1980) is an Irish far-right anti-immigration political activist. A construction worker by trade, Blighe was an economic migrant to Canada during the post-2008 Irish economic downturn. Following his return to Ireland in 2019, Blighe became politically active during the Irish anti-immigration protests, in which he acted as a self-described "citizen journalist". This involved him attending, filming and promoting anti-immigration protests across Ireland. As part of this activism, Blighe has promoted the great replacement conspiracy theory as explaining the basis for immigration into Ireland. In 2023, he became the leader of a registered political party Ireland First, with anti-immigration as the main plank of its platform. In April 2025, Blighe announced he had quit the Ireland First party and said he wanted to “resume other ambitions” and “cannot be involved in party politics at the moment”.

Background Blighe was born in 1980 in Rylane, The Phoenix has reported that in 2022 Blighe shared a number of messages from British Neo-Nazi Mark Collett to the Ireland First Telegram channel.

Blighe was the Ireland First candidate for the South constituency at the 2024 European Parliament election, with Philip Dwyer and Margaret Maguire standing in the Dublin and Midlands–North-West constituencies respectively. None of the Ireland First candidates, including Blighe, were elected in the 2024 local elections or European elections.

In April 2025, Blighe quit the Ireland First party and stated he was removing himself from party and electoral politics.

Views Blighe has stated Ireland is being "assaulted" by "unvettable fake refugees". He has referred to immigration as a "plantation" (in reference to the Plantations of Ireland), and linked migration to rape and violence. Blighe has spread false claims that children would be sharing buildings with refugees, something the Department of Integration later clarified was categorically false.

In 2022 Blighe regularly claimed the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a "fake war publicised to encourage economic migrants to come to this country".

In June 2023, the Garda Síochana issued a statement countering Blighe after Blighe stated online it was "100% confirmed" that an 11-year-old girl had almost been kidnapped by a "foreign man" in Kenmare, County Kerry. The Garda press office stated that while a report had been made on 6 June of a suspicious adult male, none of the other details given by Blighe were accurate. One source within the Gardaí told TheJournal.ie that CCTV evidence seemed to suggest that no incident had occurred at all, much less one involving a "foreign man".

On 23 November 2023, during the 2023 Dublin riot, Blighe shared misinformation (in a YouTube video of an anti-immigrant protest in Fermoy) claiming that a girl who had been stabbed in Dublin earlier that day had died.

Convictions and legal issues Blighe has nine criminal convictions, including one for public order offences.

In September 2022, Blighe filmed himself stealing clothes from a shelter for Ukrainian refugees. He was brought to court and charged with theft in March 2023, applying to have the court case struck out because of "personal difficulties" it was causing for him. The incident caused Blighe to lose his licence for possession of two firearms.

He was sued in March 2024 in the High Court along with his party by a businessman from Fermoy for alleged defamation.

In November 2024, Blighe was found guilty of threatening and abusive behaviour against a hotel manager.

In September 2025, Blighe was charged with harassing a member of An Garda Síochána.

Personal life While living in Canada, Blighe met and married a Canadian woman. She emigrated to Ireland with him and their children in 2019.

While Blighe's father was a trade unionist and supporter of the left-wing Democratic Left TD Joe Sherlock, other members of Blighe's family have reportedly expressed right-wing and anti-immigrant views. His half sister was named in an injunction for alleged involvement in protests at a housing development in County Cork, which protestors inaccurately believed were intended to house refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.