People Before Profit candidate S\u00edomha N\u00ed Aonghusa has made her social media accounts private following backlash to a viral video in which she criticised and ridiculed Ryan Casey, the boyfriend of murdered schoolteacher Ashling Murphy.<\/p>\n
Casey, 28, who was in a relationship with Murphy at the time of her death, recently posted a series of messages outlining a visit to Washington DC, where he met with US officials to discuss concerns about Ireland\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n
In those posts, he said he had emphasised \u201cthe importance that the next 5-10 years will be in maintaining and preserving Ireland\u2019s historical homogenous society,\u201d describing it as \u201ca defining part of who we are,\u201d while also raising concerns about societal change and national identity in the context of mass immigration.<\/p>\n
In response, N\u00ed Aonghusa posted a video on TikTok this week in which she rejected Casey\u2019s remarks and criticised him directly, with remarks that many social media users described as \u201cdisgraceful\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the widely-circulated and reposted clip, she said \u201cno, no thank you to the homogenous society,\u201d before going on to make a number of comments about Casey\u2019s appearance, describing him as \u201ca cautionary tale of what happens when you have a fairly narrow gene pool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notably, she was responding to a photograph of Casey which depicted him leaving a full day of court during the trial of his girlfriend\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n
She continued by dismissing his concerns about immigration and social change, stating that \u201cthis fearmongering about changing composition of our society, it\u2019s not based on any real material concerns. It\u2019s based on racism.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also accused Casey of being a \u201cfascist\u201d with \u201cNazi views\u201d.<\/p>\n
Following criticism, N\u00ed Aonghusa posted a second video in which she acknowledged objections to her remarks about Casey\u2019s appearance, but doubled down on her attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do have a certain sympathy for the argument that I shouldn\u2019t be bringing somebody\u2019s looks into it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I do understand that and I do agree, but then I look at him again and I think, no, sorry, sorry, sorry, you can\u2019t be going around with a head like that talking about reducing the gene pool and reducing the diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on to say that \u201cyou need to be so hot if you\u2019re going around talking about reducing the gene pool in Ireland,\u201d while reiterating her opposition to his views.<\/p>\n
The videos accumulated hundreds of thousands of views across various social media platforms and prompted a large volume of responses online.<\/p>\n
One commenter wrote: \u201cI can\u2019t believe she proudly put her face to this video let alone post it. WOW.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another said: \u201cShe has absolutely no empathy for this man or the loved one he lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
A further response described the remarks as \u201ca disgusting thing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gript contacted both N\u00ed Aonghusa and People Before Profit for comment but received no reply.<\/p>\n
Murphy, a 23-year-old primary school teacher, was murdered in January 2022 while walking along the Grand Canal near Tullamore, County Offaly. The attack was described in court as random and unprovoked, with evidence indicating she was approached from behind.<\/p>\n
Her family outlined the impact of her death in victim impact statements delivered during sentencing proceedings. Her mother described how \u201cmy heart broke when I heard Ashing was murdered,\u201d adding that \u201cthere is such a void in our home. I\u2019m barely existing from day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her sister told the court that \u201cAshling\u2019s last 10 minutes on this earth must have felt like the longest 10 minutes of her life,\u201d adding: \u201cYou stole her life, took her voice and robbed us of our family of five.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casey also addressed the court, describing the long-term impact of her death on his life and future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lost everything; the pain of losing someone so important is indescribable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single plan I had for life is gone and cannot be brought back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jozef Pu\u0161ka, a Slovakian national who was on social welfare at the time of his incarceration, was convicted of Murphy\u2019s murder in 2023 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Members of his family were later convicted of offences relating to withholding information and destroying evidence.<\/p>\n
Casey has previously been the target of defamation, including a case taken against the BBC following comments made during a current affairs broadcast in 2023. The case related to remarks made by Irish Times journalist Kitty Holland concerning coverage of his victim impact statement.<\/p>\n
The proceedings were settled in 2025, with the BBC issuing a statement clarifying that it did not consider Casey to be a criminal or a racist, and acknowledging his tragic personal loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People Before Profit candidate S\u00edomha N\u00ed Aonghusa has made her social media accounts private following backlash to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14258,61,60,43,48241,165058],"class_list":{"0":"post-366346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ben-scallan","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-people-before-profit","13":"tag-siomha-ni-aonghusa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366346","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=366346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}