BNP's Griffin defends republican slur

Published Friday, 19 October 2012

British National Party leader Nick Griffin has defended the use of the term 'Fenian' in slurs he made against republicans on Twitter, in a statement posted on his party's website nearly three weeks on.

BNP leader Nick Griffin attending the Ulster Covenant event at Stormont. (© Getty)

The English Euro MP made the remarks on the social networking site at the end of September, following a visit to Northern Ireland for the Ulster Covenant commemorations in Belfast.

In a tweet, Mr Griffin claimed his pictures of the parade had upset his "republican stalkers" and went on to refer to them as "Fenian b******s".

He was reported to the PSNI by SDLP Belfast City councillor Nicola Mallon, who lodged a formal complaint as she felt the tweet amounted to "incitement to hatred".

But in the online statement issued on Thursday night, Mr Griffin insisted he "meant no offence to Catholics or the Catholic religion" and that the comments were aimed at specific people he claimed were "insulting the parade, him and his wife".

According to the politician, the BNP is not anti-Catholic or anti-Irish.

Keep Ireland Irish. Keep Britain British. Eirinn go Brach and No Surrender!
Nick Griffin, BNP

"While we are staunch advocates of the Union and the right of Ulster's loyalists to maintain their unity with the rest of the United Kingdom and to celebrate their vibrant culture and their Protestant faith, we are most definitely not anti-Irish," Mr Griffin said.

"We urge the peoples of the island of Ireland to bury the old sectarian divisions, to recognise the existence, culture and value of both native traditions, and to work together to reverse the tidal wave of immigration that, unchecked, will make them all foreigners in their own land."

Mr Griffin tweeted a link to the statement just hours after courting more controversy by tweeting the address of a gay couple in England, who had just won a discrimination case against a B&B owner who refused to allow them to share a double room.

The BNP leader first asked Twitter users to supply the address, saying: "If anyone can give us address of the 2 bullying 'gay' activists who've won case v Christian B&B owners, we'll hold demo ..."

A further tweet added: "... for rights of all home owners, gays included, to rent or not rent rooms to whomsoever they wish."

The post which included Michael Black and John Morgan's address has since been removed, but it was followed with a message that they would be given "a bit of drama by way of reminding you that an English couple's home is their castle".

Cambridgeshire Police are watching the couple's home as they investigate the incident. Officers are also liaising with Dyfed-Powys Police, who cover the area where Mr Griffin lives.

Comments

5 Comments

Anti Racist group in belfast wrote (214 days ago):

What an idiot , don't you realise that the fenians as you call them have been in the past EXACTLY LIKE FOREIGNERS IN OUR LAND because of english and scots planters , sick of people twisting history to fit their own agenda, Cú Chulainn anyone????????

Acknow in Philadelphia PA wrote (215 days ago):

Awsome. Lets all vote for the BNP

Ryan in Belfast wrote (215 days ago):

So one week Nick is attacking Irish Catholics and then the next week hes attacking homosexual couples? This man is a serious bigot and its time he wised up to himself. Its the likes of Labour, Conservative, etc politicans in Britain that have to sort their economy out and get things back on track because as we have seen already, british voters who are sick and tired of the old political parties are going to cast their votes for bigoted parties like the BNP.

Realist in England wrote (215 days ago):

"Keep Ireland Irish. Keep Britain British. Eirinn go Brach and No Surrender!" Maybe the guy should have taken ASNAC at Downing as his Irish grammar/spelling seems as dubious as his understanding of the law. Nevertheless, I think that most republicans would share the opinion he is trying to express there. As well-educated as the guy is, he seems at pain to make himself look ignorant and regularly contradicts himself, as demonstrated in this article. He also seems to be unaware of what Britain actually is which is rather ironic given the name of his party. His policies either ignore the will of the British people or views them all through some delusion-inducing glasses. No-one I have met over here has any time for his party at all. Calling people Fenian b's can only be meant to insult as the Fenians no longer exist as an organisation and he has no way of knowing the legitimacy or otherwise of people he doesn't even know. If you remove the possibility of a literal meaning, then the only remaining explanation of his prejudiced anachronism is that he meant the words in the way his loyalist friends use them. If so, the guy has committed a race-hate crime and should be prosecuted.

Mike in Belfast wrote (215 days ago):

Just when you though our home grown homophobic and bigotted politicans were blazing a trail, they get trumped by the BNP. What is NI politics coming to? The only hope is to use the ballot box to ensure that these clowns never get their hands on the levers of power.

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BNP's Griffin defends republican slur

British National Party leader Nick Griffin has defended the use of the term 'Fenian' in slurs he made against republicans on Twitter, in a statement posted on his party's website nearly three weeks on.