‘Crack his head off the wall’: Leitrim Councillor focus of ‘serious’ online threats

Leitrim councillor Eddie Mitchell was the subject of threats online and an AI deep fake following a row at a fuel meeting in Manorhamilton over the weekend.

The meeting, which was aimed at gaining support for the national fuel protests this week, was held at the Bee Park Community Centre and attended by around 150 people, most of whom travelled from outside of Leitrim for the event.

Twice during the event, Councillor for the Manorhamilton municipal district, Eddie Mitchell, had a back-and-forth with the crowd and speakers regarding Palestine and the war in Iran.

The councillor has been subjected to physical threats in messages and comments under videos circulated by anti-immigration activists following the event.

“I don't want to be ever seen as someone that's a victim,” said the long-time Anti-Fracking campaigner. who stressed that he was not intimidated by the online threats, but was surprised by the intensity with which they came at him.

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“It's incitement to hatred and I wasn't expecting, you know, you get a certain amount of that, but there was loads of that, that just kept coming for 24 hours.”

The exchanges, which involved Cllr Mitchell and leaders of the national fuel protest, followed the councillor’s suggestion that the protest should have an anti-war message within it rather than simply focusing on the price of diesel, which was unwelcome in the room.

Later, he suggested that the protest should target American Multinational companies in an effort to pressure the American government into stopping its war with Iran, thus dealing with the cause of the fuel price increase.

This led to an exchange with Chris Duffy, farming contractor, internet personality, and leading figure in the national fuel protest. 

Since the event, a number of clips circulated by right-wing anti-immigration influencers online, which removed context, made false claims and representations of the councillors' position with one claiming that the councillor “scolded” Irish families for using fuel during the meeting.

The videos were then accompanied by the message “Stop Mega Mosque in Letterkenny” and an AI-generated advertisement for merchandise.

Meanwhile, a deep fake of the Councillor holding a sign stating his plan to deal with the crisis was to ask Trump “nicely” to end the war was published on the account ‘Ireland - Rising from the Ashes’ on Facebook, which some users confused for a real picture.

The Observer has verified that the picture is an AI-generated fake, with the original image being taken at an anti-goldmining protest in 2021 and published on The Irish Independent at the time.

On the left, an AI-generated image of a Leitrim councillor, on the right, the original published in 2021.

The meeting was attended by a broad church of people, of concerned farmers, hauliers, business people and politicians, along with a contingent of well-known anti-immigration influencers, who have since been spreading misinformation messages online.

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“I was as naive as I was a child going into that room. I didn't realise what I was meeting,” who was surprised at the rhetoric and attitude of the attendees.

“When a farmer stands up and mentions something that isn't in line with the far right, it means that they'll get intimidated,” he said, stressing that the term 'Far-right' is not perfect, and that it does not properly describe everyone who attended the meeting. 

“What I saw at that meeting was the beginning of us losing a struggle against the far right. It looks like they're going to take a space and they're not going to give up control over the over protest movement.”