Inside Mayo’s Mise Éire festival: conspiracy, music and an uncomfortable atmosphere

The Mise Éire festival is taking place at Castlebar's Ivy Tower Hotel (formerly The Welcome Inn),  Saturday, August 23. My brother and I managed to get free tickets from people who could not attend the event, to give the public the inside scoop on what went on. 

The age profile of those attending appeared to be mainly people in their 50s - though I spotted a few children in the midst of the audience. There was a high proportion of people from Dublin in attendance, though I did hear Mayo accents dispersed around the place. At an event made up of hundreds, I only witnessed white people in attendance - except for a woman behind the bar. 

Read More: 'I am genuinely disgusted' - Locals respond to Mise Éire festival as line-up revealed

Security was tight, to say the least. I spotted eight different security staff on the premises. 

I caught the tail-end of John Waters’ panel and Q and A, which was held in the Ivy Tower’s upstairs function room. For this event, the room was full, and some people sat on the floor to hear Waters speak. 

When asked by a member of the audience for the solution to modern day crises, Waters said that people like himself who are volunteering and doing the work for free for years are the solution to society’s problems.  

After Waters’ talk, the conference room was emptied out for a panel talk by Louise Roseingrave, Una McGurk, and John Hamer - with Derek Domino moderating the discussion. This is when things became interesting. The talk began with a discussion about censorship. The speakers reached a consensus that the mainstream media is rotten and that citizen journalists such as Stephen Kerr or the Irish Patriot are more reliable sources of news. 

At one point, Derek Domino said that Mise Éire will be back next year bigger and better than ever, and that tickets to attend the festival will be scarcer than All-Ireland tickets. A speaker also thanked the Ivy Hotel owner for refusing to buckle to outside pressure and hosting the event. 

Then the discussion turned to immigration. John Hamer from Stroud in England said: “We are the dominant race in the world.”

Hamer said that he has been in Ireland for a few days and he believes the country has a similar vibe to the UK in terms of immigration. The panelist then began to explain the Kalergi plan, which the Institute of Strategic Dialogue describes as “a conspiracy theory that claims immigration is a deliberate tool used to replace white European populations.”

The Kalergi plan is a popular theory amongst white nationalists. 

Speaker and barrister Una McGurk spoke about a secret plan that the Irish government is plotting, which “people need to know”. Una said that the government plans to put an additional 2.6 million people in Ireland by 2040 - which in her opinion is a policy spearheaded by Fine Gael. 

To put these claims into perspective, - there are currently 1,554 people staying in International protection accommodation centres in Mayo, according to the Department of Justice, as of August 10. The census of 2022 estimates the county’s population to be 137,970 people. However, no information is safe; As one might expect from this type of event, a speaker on the panel questioned the legitimacy of the census population figures. 

McGurk - who unsuccessfully ran in the European elections in 2024 - has said in an election video that her career has been lost due to being cancelled by her comments relating to Covid in 2020. McGurk spoke against Covid PCR tests and the “destruction of the christian West” over the course of the panel. 

The barrister also mentioned “the protocols of the elders of zion” in her answer to the question of migration. The Holocaust Encylopaedia refers to the text as “an antisemitic book used to promote hatred of Jews”. The Holocaust Encyclopaedia - which is run by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - says that “it is the most widespread antisemitic publication of modern times.”

Louise Roseingrave was more subdued in her opinions in comparison to the other panelists. The writer focused on her catholicism in her answers to questions posed by Derek Domino. Roseingrave mainly spoke about her pro-life views and her commitment to her religion. 

In between the two panels, the workshop I briefly attended on self actualisation was uneventful. The event was relatively poorly attended, with perhaps less than twenty attendees in the audience. To the credit of the workshop, no conspiracy theories were discussed.

A plaque caught my eye in the room to the side where the workshop was hosted. It read that former President Mary McAleese had given a speech to the Mayo Irish emigrant liaison committee at the Welcome Inn. Her speech was in honour of all of the Irish living abroad. 

It is safe to say that once the protocols of the elders of zion was brought up at the panel, I had seen enough. Having given up two and a half hours of my Saturday to Mise Éire, I was ready to go home.