Comedian Garron Noone has said Irish society needs to “take the middle ground with people” on difficult issues such as immigration or risk losing them to extremists.

The Mayo man shot to international fame thanks to his TikTok sketches reviewing food, urging people at the end to, “Follow me, I’m delicious.” 

In March, he posted a video about Conor McGregor’s visit to the White House in March in which he claimed Ireland was “at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness” due to immigration. 

The Taoiseach said McGregor's views were "wrong and do not reflect the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day or the views of the people of Ireland."

Conor McGregor speaks briefly to the media in the White House Press briefing Room in Washington, DC. Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News

In his video, Noone said he did not think McGregor was a “good person” but added that there “absolutely is an immigration issue in Ireland”. 

“That doesn’t mean that people feel like we shouldn’t take the refugees that we’re able to take,” he said. 

“It doesn’t mean that people feel like people shouldn’t be able to come here for better opportunities.

“But the systems that we have in place are being taken advantage of. And that is plain to see. 

“And the Government continually does not allow people to express their concerns about that.”

Following an online backlash, Noone deleted his social media accounts. 

On The Hard Shoulder, he said some people misrepresented his views. 

“There was a small group of people who maybe deliberately mistook what I said and tried to make it look a lot worse than it was,” Noone said. 

“There were a number of people that had a disagreement; most people understood what I was saying and, whether they agreed or disagreed, were fine about it.” 

Noone added that it is important that Irish society listens to and takes seriously the concerns of people who worry about immigration. 

“The primary point of the video was about if we’re not hearing people out with their difficulties that we’re having, we’re creating an environment where somebody who is badly intentioned can come in, tell people everybody they want to hear and dominate that conversation and make things sound worse than they are,” he said. 

“Whereas if we’re more willing to take the middle ground with people, with their concerns and stuff like that, I think we stop people from going down that path. 

“That was the actual message of the video.”

Garron Noone in the Newstalk studio.

Noone admitted that his video “could have been better worded” in parts. 

“I didn’t expect it to get as much attention as it did and I’m fine with people criticising me saying things poorly or that I should have been less clumsy in my delivery,” he said.  

“I think that’s completely reasonable.” 

Noone added that he believed some people condemned him without even watching the video. 

“There was another group of people, Twitter people, who took loads of things out of context, twisted it and then a lot of people started making videos having never even watched my video,” he said. 

“They had just watched somebody else’s dissection of what they believed I had said.

“That’s where a lot of the drama took off.” 

Noone has since reactivated his social media accounts. 

Main image: Garron Noone. Picture by: Newstalk.