Comedian Garron Noone deactivates social media accounts after immigration video backlash

Garron Noone said he was 'not anti-immigration'. Picture: Andres Poveda

Social media star Garron Noone has deactivated his social media accounts following a backlash to comments he made about immigration. 

It comes as Mr Noone said he had been "inundated" with messages from his followers, asking him about Conor McGregor's visit to the White House. 

During that visit, Mr McGregor made comments about immigration in Ireland, claiming the Government was one of “zero action with zero accountability”. 

This led to a war of words with political leaders, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin saying his claims were “wrong” and did not reflect the views of the Irish people.

Mr Noone, who has more than 1.7 million followers on TikTok, responded to the controversy, prefacing his video by saying the "story of the world" was being told in poorly researched headlines and "40-second" TikTok clips.

The Mayo comedian and singer said to properly talk about the issue, he would have to first spend time talking about Mr McGregor, immigration, the Irish economy and the Government. 

He said his opinion of Mr McGregor was irrelevant and he did not think he was a good person. But, he said it did not surprise him to see people agreeing with what Mr McGregor was saying.

There absolutely is an immigration issue in Ireland," he 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.

He added communities in Ireland were 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."

After a backlash to his comments, he said in a follow-up video he "fell into the trap" of trying to condense complicated issues into short videos. He said it was "absolutely crazy" to think he was anti-immigration and said he did not support the far-right.

The comedian said: "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. 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.” 

He added: “I am not anti-immigration. Absolutely crazy to think that."

Mr Noone's representatives have been contacted for comment.