Irish Antifa Project: People Before Profit GE2020 Candidate Conor Reddy

This is the latest part of an undercover investigation into the tacit and sometimes overt support for antifascist harassment among elements of the Irish media and political class. We advise you to listen to all leaked audio and read all leaked data in full before reading the below article. All audio can be found on our Youtube. Audio has been edited in parts for legal reasons, as well as to protect the names of third parties.

Conor Reddy is a leading light for the Trotskyist orientated People Before Profit party. Standing in the Dublin North West constituency in this year’s elections he garnered 1,215 (3.8%) of first preference votes, having made a name for himself across housing protests in recent years.

In 2017 he courted controversy by publicly removing pro-life posters around Trinity College Dublin, an action that was defended by the Party itself.

When it was announced that @IrishAntifa was run by reporters involved with this publication, Mr Reddy messaged @IrishAntifa saying that he would pursue the Burkean legally if his name or picture was published by this publication, citing GDPR. His previous direct messages to @IrishAntifa consisted in large part of the names and pictures of those Mr Reddy claimed to be involved in right wing politics. 

Interaction with Mr Reddy began in December of last year while he was protesting the Free Speech Rally on Kildare Street. Over twitter direct messages, he passed on the name and picture of a Trinity student on the free speech side of the rally to our reporters operating the account. Subsequently, he passed on another picture of a former student Mr Reddy claimed was engaged in right wing politics.

During a recorded phone call conversation, Mr Reddy appeared fully willing to assist with the aims of @IrishAntifa, including the cataloging and harassing of those accused of being involved in the ‘far right’.

Mr Reddy expressed anxiousness at the attempted establishment of a branch of the Irish Freedom Party on campus, as well as frustration at college debating societies for entertaining the far right on campus. Reddy described how these societies every year bring in ‘some awful c*nt’ to speak, and that he and People Before Profit frequently had to ‘mobilize’ against such people.

Mr Reddy also suggested @IrishAntifa aim to get Student Unions to adopt a ‘militant’ approach to tackle the rising right wing. He also made sure to express his anxiety that certain college officials, particularly TCDSU President Laura Beston, weren’t to be relied on.

Mr Reddy went on to attack The Burkean, describing the original people who set up the publication as ‘conservative pricks’. He then claimed that a more recent contributor to the publication vandalized at least one bathroom in Trinity College Dublin. When asked for comment, the individual Mr Reddy named rejected the accusation, and expressed complete ignorance as to what incident Mr Reddy was referring to. This publication, at the time of writing, has yet to see any evidence that such vandalism as described by Mr Reddy took place at all, let alone that the individual Mr Reddy named took any part in it.

In addition to Reddy, another TCD PBP member, Jacob Woolf, was implicated in this investigation compiling harassment material on fellow students and lobbying Jewish advocacy groups for funding for anti-racist activity. Mr Reddy described Woolf in the recorded call as being proficient as ‘cataloging’ various things involving the right.

Mr Reddy has yet to give comment on the above allegations, bar from the aforementioned citation of GDPR.

Recording link: https://youtu.be/O-sWM2GlaDA