(Author’s Note: I forwarded the open letter calling for the cancellation of the first Mise Éire Festival’s booking at the Mayflower Community Centre to musicians I know to sign. I did not participate in any subsequent efforts to cancel Mise Éire events at commercial venues.)
The organisers of the controversial Mise Éire Festival have launched defamation proceedings against Ocean FM, broadcaster Niall Delaney and activist Meryl McGowan over a radio interview in which they allege McGowan defamed them.
Stephen Kerr and Roy Deal are the directors of Saoirse Sessions Ltd., trading as Mise Éire, the company behind the Mise Éire Festival originally scheduled to take place at the Mayflower Community Centre in Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim last year.
The event was billed as an Irish cultural festival for “those who cherish Irish culture and heritage, and are united in celebrating our shared values”, but local activists accused the organisers of using Irish culture as a front for a far-right political event.
Following a local petition and an open letter signed by hundreds of Irish musicians, the committee of the Mayflower announced the booking had been cancelled, citing a failure by the organisers to comply with terms and conditions.
The event subsequently went ahead on its planned date at a hotel in Mayo.
Many critics of the campaign to cancel the event denounced it as an attack on freedom of speech, with particular criticism for Kneecap in light of their own censorship battles with the British government.
Kerr and Deal each filed separate defamation suits in the High Court this month, naming North West Broadcasting Ltd. t/a Ocean FM, Niall Delaney and Meryl McGowan as the defendants.
In addition to his role as broadcaster, Niall Delaney is also the CEO of Ocean FM.
McGowan is a member of Leitrim and Roscommon Against Fascism, the activist group who initiated the campaign against the Mise Éire Festival in Drumshanbo.
She made the allegedly defamatory statements prior to the event’s cancellation in a live interview with Delaney on Ocean FM, during which she characterised some of those connected to the Mise Éire Festival as (among other things) far right extremists who support arson, want immigrants and queer people out of the country, and have links to loyalists in the North.
Ocean FM subsequently issued an apology and retraction to former journalist John Waters, one of the speakers at the Mise Éire Festival, for a “lapse in vigilance” during the interview and stated McGowan’s comments regarding speakers at the event were “unsubstantiated, comprehensively false, and had no basis in reality”.
They issued a further apology and retraction to Kevin Flanagan, founder of the Brehon Academy, in respect of the same comments, which McGowan made after Delaney played a clip from an advertisement for the Mise Éire Festival that mentioned both Waters and Flanagan as speakers.
Flanagan is also suing McGowan and two other members of Leitrim and Roscommon Against Fascism for defamation in Dublin Circuit Court.
The station also gave Stephen Kerr an interview alongside his partner, Susanne Delaney, in which they denied the Mise Éire Festival was a political event, stated there was no evidence for any of McGowan’s allegations, and disputed the Mayflower’s claims about failing to comply with terms and conditions.
Kerr and Delaney are the proprietors of the conspiracist agitprop website The Irish Inquiry, which has been fact-checked multiple times by The Journal for spreading misinformation and falsehoods.
Both unsuccessfully contested the local and general elections as independent candidates in 2024.
They published an unabridged version of their pre-recorded interview with Ocean FM on The Irish Inquiry after Ocean FM edited out certain allegations they made before broadcast.
The defamation suits filed by Kerr and Deal follow similar proceedings lodged against Ocean FM, Delaney and McGowan last year by Sean Wynne, the chairman of the Mayflower Community Centre who arranged the initial booking for Mise Éire.
Wynne – a retired schoolteacher who was previously McGowan’s vice principal – ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in the local elections in 2024.
He also acted as proposer and fundraiser for John Waters during Waters’ unsuccessful run for a seat in the European Parliament the same year.
Wynne and Roy Deal were both on Waters’ replacement list – in which candidates nominate substitutes to take over for them should they not be able to fulfil their term as an MEP – though Deal used his middle name, Clifford.
Wynne’s complaint also names a “Thomas Daly” with an address in Sligo as a defendant, but does not otherwise mention or refer to him, or explain why he is being sued.
Sligo businessman Thomas Daly was once a director of North West Broadcasting Ltd., the company that operates Ocean FM, but had already retired from his role years before he passed away in 2024.
“A fear of even talking about it lest I get sued again”
Meryl McGowan told Left in the Lurch that she intends to fully defend all proceedings against her.
“I have no interest in letting wealthier people silence me for speaking in the interest of my community. Whatever the outcome, I have my principles, and I won’t compromise them.”
McGowan, who has previously spoken out about the abuse she receives for being trans, says the lawsuits have brought increased attention to her both in person and online.
“Uncomfortable looks from people in my local area, even in further away places, threats on the street are more common than ever, seeing people talk about me online and spread my photos and details everywhere, writing threats and violent fantasies about me and my partners, digging up my deed poll to parade around my deadname.”
“Admittedly, it does have me looking over my shoulder a lot. I’ve been stalked by people before, watched Twitter reply chains of people tracking me and my girlfriend’s every move around Dublin one summer, their disgusting sexual and violent fantasies about me, and now every single bit of my personal information is out there and being shared openly amongst people who talk about harming us.”
“It’s a huge violation of my sense of safety, and it’s not something that anyone can effectively do anything about. I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of going to the guards about it given the treatment myself and my community here in Leitrim have faced from them before. It really is an isolating feeling knowing it’s just me, my friends and loved ones, and a fear of even talking about it lest I get sued again.”
She said she lacks the means to pay the costs and damages the plaintiffs are seeking, and has had to borrow money to meet her legal expenses. She noted she will have to pay twice as many court fees because Kerr and Deal are suing her separately.
She said getting sued by her former vice principal is “certainly something I never expected to happen”, but despite it all, she admitted to finding some “twisted comfort” in the situation.
“Trans people are stereotyped as weak, frail, easily bullied and offended, but the truth of it is that I’m not going to be silenced. Not to be up my own arse but I’ve suffered, I’ve struggled, and I came out of it regardless, whereas these men are suing because their feelings are hurt and don’t know what real struggle is. Ultimately I have my community, I have my friends and my loved ones.”
“So, I’ll challenge it. Whether they ruin me or not I’ll see it through. They may take the shirt from my back, but they’ll not take my tongue.”
“A blaze that consumes the challenges inflicted upon us”
The inaugural Mise Éire Festival ultimately went ahead on its planned date at the Ivy Tower Hotel in Castlebar following the cancellation in Drumshanbo.
The organisers subsequently held an event called “Samhain Sessions” in October last year, featuring many of the same speakers, and will return to the Ivy Tower Hotel with an event called “The Risen People” in September this year.
In contrast to the largely apolitical description of its inaugural event, Mise Éire’s website describes “The Risen People” as “a festival where We The People become collectively powerful and individually formidable” and an “antidote” to the “doom and gloom the globalists want you to perish in”.
Its lengthy “Mission Statement, Ethos & Proposal” says “Our Mother Éire is a highly sought-after prize for the globalists”, that “the Irish people must gather together to rise against a rapidly unfolding globalist agenda that, through deception, has been creeping upon us and…exposing us to the elements of anti-human darkness”, and that their event is “a spark borne out of the ashes of lost hope and helplessness”
It tells guests their attendance “can turn that spark into a blaze that consumes the challenges inflicted upon us”, but adds in an aside that there will be “craic agus ceol too – as these too are powerful tools in our arsenal to keep our spirits elevated”.
Among the speakers announced at time of writing are Mark Attwood, a conspiracy theorist and “wellness” influencer who advocates the consumption of industrial bleach as a medical treatment, and Ivor Cummins, another conspiracy theorist and “wellness” influencer whose anti-vaccine advocacy was implicated in the death of DUP councillor Paul Hamill.
Also appearing is filmmaker Terry McMahon, who criticised the campaign against the Mise Éire Festival in his remarks at Tommy Robinson’s far right Unite the Kingdom rally earlier this year.
Other speakers at “The Risen People” include a homeopath, a shaman, and Kevin Flanagan in his third consecutive appearance at a Mise Éire event.
Stephen Kerr, Roy Deal, Sean Wynne, Niall Delaney and Ocean FM did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Left in the Lurch 