WAS NOEL GREALISH VINDICATED ON NIGERIAN MONEY CLAIMS?

“We have to assure the people that the money leaving the country is not the proceeds of crime.”

That’s what Independent TD Noel Grealish said three years ago, back in 2019, during a Dáil discussion on people sending money abroad from Ireland.

Speaking to then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Grealish pointed out that €10 billion euros had left the country in personal transfers over the preceding 8 years – “a staggering amount of money,” in his own words.

At the time Grealish mentioned that these figures came from the World Bank, which in turn received its figures from the International Monetary Fund (or IMF).

He also pointed out that while substantial sums of money were sent to EU countries like the United Kingdom and France, it was highly unusual that the biggest destination for the finances was a non-EU country – namely Nigeria.

“Taoiseach, €3.4 billion transferred to one non-EU country is astronomical,” Grealish said.

“Have Revenue or the Department of Finance any way of tracking this money or where it is coming from? Are mechanisms in place to ensure the money that leaves this country in personal remittances has been fully accounted for within the Irish revenue and tax system and is not the proceeds of crime or fraud? We cannot have a situation whereby vast amounts of money leave the country with no proper controls or monitoring in place.”

Now, at this point in the discussion, you might share Grealish’s suspicions, or you may not. But I think most reasonable people would agree that it’s perfectly legitimate to wonder why vast sums of billions of euros in untraced money are being sent overseas to a non-EU country annually, and to wonder where all of this money is coming from exactly.

I mean, when you think about it, Grealish was doing exactly what Revenue would do – just on a bigger scale.

If you, as an individual, suddenly started to spend vast sums of cash on sports cars and planes and jewellery, and Revenue weren’t exactly sure where you’d gotten the money, they’d do some investigating – right? They would do their due diligence and at the very least ask the question: “Mr. Smith, how have you suddenly found the money to afford a Lamborghini?” And they wouldn’t be accusing you of anything necessarily – they’d just be clarifying the situation, as is their job.

And that’s all Grealish was doing – asking a question and clarifying, just on a national scale.

And yet what was the reaction to his question? Well, this is modern Ireland – what do you think?

For daring to question that certain people of Nigerian origin may have done something wrong, he was accused of “disgraceful racism” by then-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger, and called a “disgrace.”

“The Ceann Comhairle should call this out,” said Coppinger.

“He is suggesting that people who work here are criminals.”

She also dubbed him “far-right” and accused him of “slurring migrant workers.”

Grealish was also grilled by then-Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, who asked: “Where is the evidence for Deputy Grealish’s question?…Why does Deputy Grealish assume it is illegal money if it is not going to an EU country?”

As Grealish said at the time: “I am asking what proper controls are in place. I am entitled to ask the question.”

But of course, that was Grealish’s first mistake; in modern Ireland, you are certainly not entitled to ask questions – particularly about contentious issues like immigration. And so, he was harried and harassed from every direction, with the so-called Galway Anti-Racism Network NGO calling on him to actually resign for his “racist” comments.

Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly and journalist Donal O’Keeffe further accused him of racism.

An actor called for him to resign and called him racist. The Catholic Bishop of Limerick attacked him as racist.

A UN Special Rapporteur followed suit, as did most of the media with article after article about Grealish’s supposedly heinous views.

But amid all the howling and chest-thumping, almost nobody stopped to ask what one would have thought was the most pertinent point of all: what was the answer to Grealish’s question? Was the money legitimate, or was it of an illicit nature? Unfortunately, everyone was too busy crying and wetting themselves to consider that at the time.

Now, three years later when everyone has finally calmed down, we may finally have an answer.

As reported by the Independent.ie:

“Over €64m laundered through Ireland by Black Axe romance fraud gang”

The piece explains:

“Gardaí believe an international crime gang involved in human trafficking and murder have laundered up to €64m through Ireland.

Detectives have identified close to 1,000 people with addresses here who are linked to business invoice and romance frauds for the Black Axe gang.

This includes 16 criminals working at the highest tier, with a senior garda warning that money mules operating at the lowest level could face extradition if caught.

…Gardaí estimate that Black Axe have used Irish bank accounts to launder up to €64m stolen in business email compromise (BEC) or romance fraud.”

Now, who are the Black Axe, you may ask? Well, as explained by myself in a Gript article last year, they are a deadly and notorious Nigerian organised crime group:

“Italian police have arrested over 30 people suspected of being members of the Nigerian Black Axe mafia – a “black-liberation” group known for committing rape, mutilation and ritual murder.

…The Black Axe are one of the most notorious and prolific secret societies to emerge from Nigeria, with an estimated 30,000 members spread across almost every continent. The gang was originally known as the Neo Black Movement – on paper, a social justice group whose aim was to “liberate” the black race.”

And apparently €64 million has been laundered through Ireland by criminals, for the benefit of criminals in Nigeria, according to the Gardaí – exactly as Grealish had said.

In other words, his concerns have been borne out by the facts – he was absolutely right to be suspicious. There is indeed reason to believe that at least some of the over €3 billion sent to Nigeria annually goes towards illicit causes, and he was correct to raise the issue.

But will any of the people who smeared him as racist be taking back those accusations? Will those who falsely branded him as bigoted and far-right be apologising to the Deputy? You must be joking me.

In fact, if he dared to point out the facts outlined in this article, and raised the issue anew, they’d probably start up the lynch mob again and use it as an excuse to slam him as racist for a second time – even though his suspicions have been proved totally and utterly correct.

Once again we are reminded that something doesn’t have to be false to be considered “hate.” “Hate speech” is code for “speech that the establishment hates” – whether that speech is true or not. And they will happily try to shut up anyone – even elected representatives asking questions based on fact – in defence of their radical PC agenda.

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