Come Here To Me!

Interesting news today, in that it appears Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, is on his way to Dublin.

The Jewish Chronicle online was among the first news websites to run the story, it’s report noting:

Nick Griffin has been invited to speak at a Trinity College Dublin event.

A university spokeswoman confirmed that the British National Party leader is set to appear at a Philosophical Society meeting on October 20.

According to a post on the personal blog of the party’s media officer Simon Darby, Griffin was invited along with a “BNP delegation” for a debate titled: “This House Believes Immigration Has Gone Too Far”.

The university did not confirm if there would be any other outside guests at the event.

Mr Darby said: “Let’s all hope the students in Dublin hold their nerve against the inevitable, liberal fascist onslaught against free speech.”

Yet, we needn’t be worried by Nick. As far as he’s concerned, we’re more than welcome to pop over and back to the ‘mainland’ when we feel like it.

‘We are certainly not going to shut the doors to the Irish, because the Irish, as far as we are concerned, are part of Britain and fully entitled to come here.’

This could get interesting.

Update 1: There is a Facebook page in opposition to Griffin’s appearance at Trinity College Dublin over here.

Update 2: This great article on student activism in Dublin in the late 1980s includes information on previous controversial appearances from the far-right at Trinity. It’s well worth a read.

The previous year a provocation by the organized right in TCD also badly backfired when their invitation to David Irving resulted in hundreds of people blockading and then trying to storm the building where the debate was to take place. Again there was co-operation from campus unions, importantly security refused to cover the event leaving it up to a couple of senior academics to try and enforce discipline on the night. At this point in time we had the confidence to simply ignore them.