{"id":390367,"date":"2026-04-09T19:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/390367\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:27:08","slug":"protesters-manipulated-by-outside-actors-like-tommy-robinson-says-ocallaghan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/390367\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters \u2018manipulated by outside actors\u2019 like Tommy Robinson, says O\u2019Callaghan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fuel protesters are being \u201cmanipulated\u201d by \u201coutside actors\u201d, the Minister for Justice has said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon, Jim O\u2019Callaghan said: \u201cWhen you look online at present, you can see that many outside actors are seeking to manipulate these people for their own purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was \u201creferring to and relying upon these protests to advance his own political measures\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roads and fuel depots across Ireland have been blockaded by demonstrations against the rising cost of fuel since Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, the Government said the army would be called in to remove heavy vehicles blocking critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan told reporters: \u201cThe protests have gone on too long. People have made their point. The government has heard their point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re now being manipulated by outside actors who really want to damage Ireland as a country, and they should recognise that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if it was unfair to link comments made by Robinson with the demonstrators, O\u2019Callaghan said: \u201cAll I can tell you is Tommy Robinson, who has a big coverage and following online, is relying on referring to these protests, and I know the overwhelming majority of people protesting do not want to see themselves manipulated by people like Tommy Robinson.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

The minister said people on the protest lines had \u201clost control\u201d and needed to \u201crecognise the damage they\u2019re inflicting on this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

He \u201cwelcomed\u201d that protesters at the fuel terminal in Foynes in Limerick \u201chave recognised the importance of allowing chemicals out of Foynes for the purpose of ensuring we have clean water\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if protesters would face legal consequences, he replied \u201cthere, of course, are going to be legal consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey might not arise today or tomorrow, but people have licences to drive vehicles, those licences will be affected.<\/p>\n

\"MiddleHeavy traffic on Dublin\u2019s M50 (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of insurance, any insurance coverage, I suspect, will be void as a result of the owner of the equipment deciding to voluntarily get involved in such illegal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Fuel<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Fuel protests to continue on Friday as petrol stations run out of fuel<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Responding to criticism from opposition parties that bringing in the Defence Forces would escalate the situation, O\u2019Callaghan said it was \u201cobviously it\u2019s a very careful matter that was considered across Government\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Government is considering its response to rising fuel prices on an \u201congoing basis\u201d, he said, but \u201cthe country can\u2019t be held to ransom by a group of unelected people\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe live in a democracy where we can\u2019t have a situation where if somebody goes out and does something unlawful or blockades a critical piece of infrastructure, that immediately government says, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to respond to you, and we\u2019re going to give you what you want\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fuel protesters are being \u201cmanipulated\u201d by \u201coutside actors\u201d, the Minister for Justice has said. Speaking to the media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-390367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390367","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=390367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}