{"id":391242,"date":"2026-04-10T07:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T07:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/391242\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T07:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T07:31:13","slug":"national-british-activist-among-those-manipulating-fuel-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/391242\/","title":{"rendered":"National: British activist among those \u2018manipulating\u2019 fuel protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some fuel protesters are being &#8220;manipulated&#8221; by &#8220;outside actors&#8221;, including British far-right activist and convicted criminal, Tommy Robinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters this afternoon, the Minister for Justice, Jim O&#8217;Callaghan, said &#8220;when you look online at present, you can see that many outside actors are seeking to manipulate these people for their own purposes&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He added that British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) was &#8220;referring to and relying upon these protests to advance his own political measures&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So I think we need to recognise that people are being manipulated here, and we need to bring an end to these protests,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the Deputy Vice President of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Eugene Drennan, claimed rolling fuel protests had been \u2018hijacked\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>There is further disruption on Ireland&#8217;s road networks for a third day and Garda\u00ed have requested the assistance of the Defence Forces to remove vehicles blocking critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>The move was confirmed earlier in a statement from Mr O&#8217;Callaghan, who said the blocking of such infrastructure will not be permitted to continue.<\/p>\n<p>Mr O&#8217;Callaghan said large vehicles blocking infrastructure, such as the Whitegate refinery in Co Cork, will be removed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-sans font-semibold text-xl md:text-[30px] leading-9 text-primary w-full\">\n        You may also be interested in\n    <\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/huge-sadness-at-passing-of-little-blue-hero-cian-mulligan-629546\" class=\"block shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Huge sadness at passing of Little Blue Hero Cian Mulligan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/huge-sadness-at-passing-of-little-blue-hero-cian-mulligan.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-cover\" width=\"150\" height=\"112\"  alt=\"Huge sadness at passing of Little Blue Hero Cian Mulligan\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegaldaily.com\/news\/wind-warning-for-donegal-to-come-into-effect-at-noon-1-629544\" class=\"block shrink-0\" aria-label=\"Wind warning for Donegal to come into effect at noon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/wind-warning-for-donegal-to-come-into-effect-at-noon.jpg\" class=\"max-w-full w-full h-full object-cover\" width=\"150\" height=\"112\"  alt=\"Wind warning for Donegal to come into effect at noon\" \/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Owners of the vehicles are being requested to move them immediately, as they are denying people access to fuel, which was described in the statement as an &#8220;unacceptable interference&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The statement adds that owners &#8220;should not complain&#8221; about any damage caused to vehicles during removal by garda\u00ed and the Defence Forces.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full report on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/news\/ireland\/2026\/0409\/1567314-fuel-protests\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.rte.ie<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some fuel protesters are being &#8220;manipulated&#8221; by &#8220;outside actors&#8221;, including British far-right activist and convicted criminal, Tommy Robinson.\u00a0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-391242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391242","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=391242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}