{"id":290021,"date":"2026-02-10T06:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/290021\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T06:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:21:13","slug":"anti-immigration-activist-derek-blighe-sent-forward-for-trial-on-garda-harassment-charge-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/290021\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-immigration activist Derek Blighe sent forward for trial on garda harassment charge \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Anti-immigration activist Derek Blighe has been sent forward for trial on a charge of harassing a member of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/an-garda-siochana\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/an-garda-siochana\">An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Blighe of Curraghvoe, Mitchelstown, Co <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cork\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cork\">Cork<\/a>, appeared before Cork District Court on Monday having previously been charged that on dates between February 22nd, 2023, and December 4th, 2023, he harassed a garda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The alleged offence is contrary to Section 10 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">During Monday\u2019s proceedings a book of evidence was served on Blighe. Sgt John Dineen reminded Blighe of his bail conditions in the case and that he not comment on the case online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cHe [Blighe] is skirting quite close to online commentary, especially in relation to commentary on this case online,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Judge John King sent the case forward to a sitting of Cork Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday when a date for the trial will be set.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Blighe was remanded on bail pending his appearance at the Circuit Court on Thursday. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Det Sgt Christopher Cahill had previously said that Blighe and his co-accused were involved in a \u201ccampaign of harassment\u201d against the garda. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said that in February 2023 the alleged victim in the case was walking outside Cork District Court having given evidence in a separate case when he was approached on Anglesea Street by the accused and two other people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The garda was wearing a civilian jacket as he walked down the street. He was allegedly recorded and live-streamed by the accused who also verbally abused him. A video of the interaction was posted on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">His co accused in the case, Ross Lahive, a former European election candidate for the Irish People Party, also appeared before Cork District Court on Monday. A book of evidence was served on him. Lahive was also sent forward to Cork Circuit Criminal Court for trial. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Lahive (46), of Church Street, Shandon Street in Cork, is charged that on dates between October 9th, 2022, and February 6th, 2025, he harassed a garda. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-immigration activist Derek Blighe has been sent forward for trial on a charge of harassing a member of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,46,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-290021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-cork","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}