Graham Carey, an anti-immigration activist, has been banned from social media after being charged with inciting hatred.
Dublin District Court’s bail conditions include ordering Graham Carey to avoid “any location housing refugees.”
A Dublin man who supported and helped organise anti-immigration protests has arrived in court facing charges related to inciting hatred.
The accusation relates to material that Graham Carey is accused of posting on social media.
The 39-year-old Mr. Carey of Dunsink Drive in Finglas was released on bail with a number of restrictions, including being prohibited from using social media and from planning or participating in any protests or meetings, whether in person or online.
Mr. Carey is accused of disseminating, exhibiting, or playing a recording of what are considered to be threatening, abusive, or insulting visual images or sounds that were meant to incite hatred or that were likely to do so. The Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, Section 2 is violated by the claimed offense.
Judge Michelle Finan also instructed Mr. Carey, who was detained on Wednesday in Finglas, to avoid “any location housing refugees,” as she granted him bail on his personal bond of €200, at Dublin District Court on Friday morning.
Judge Finan disagreed with the garda’s initial suggestion that Mr. Carey be prohibited from posting videos to social media because users could have numerous accounts with various names. Judge Finan called social media a “complex” area. “it is very much clearer for him if he is barred from social media,” she said.
When the charge was presented to Mr. Carey at 11.05 p.m. on Thursday, Detective Sergeant Eamon Hoey of the Special Detective Unit testified in court that he said, “In hindsight, it won’t be happening again, I will be taking a different approach going forward.”
Mr. Carey, who appeared in court wearing a black jumper and black jeans, must also adhere to a curfew that requires him to be at home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. every day as part of his bail conditions.
When asked about the curfew, Mr. Carey responded,“From 9p.m. at night will do because I do be at home from 9p.m. every night.”
In addition, the court mandated that Mr. Carey offer an assurance that he would not apply for any travel documents and turn over his passport as part of the bail requirements. Furthermore, he must sign in at the Cabra Garda station twice a week and give the gardaí a contact number.
According to Judge Finan, his new phone “is to be a button phone”. She also let him know he had “to stay away from all centres and locations housing refugees”.
He was released on bail and ordered to be present in Blanchardstown District Court on April 28th.
