Far-right dog-kicker charged after confronting Dublin crèche over kids’ rainbow painting

Self-styled ‘citizen journalist’ Philip Dwyer appeared before Tallaght District Court in Dublin on Tuesday, where he was charged with engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour at the Daisy Chain Crèche in the Eden Centre, Grange Road, Dublin 16, on June 30, 2021.

Fifty-five-year-old Dwyer, with an address at Tallaght Cross West, Tallaght, was remanded on bail to appear again on May 2.

After his appearance, Dwyer streamed a video from outside the court, describing the charge against him as “ridiculous”.

“This is Philip Dwyer here … ehm … citizen journalist,” he said.

“Here we go again! “I’m outside Tallaght District Court.

“I’ve been charged again with public order … threatening and abusive behaviour about an interaction that occurred nearly two years ago at the Daisy Chain creche in Rathfarnham … where I came across a window with posters that had been made by children around the age of no older than four.

“The pressure of getting these children to celebrate gay pride month!

“And I went in to ask questions.

“And, not even go in, I was outside the building and I went to try and ask questions of the management and the owner.

“I had an interaction and, ah yeah, there was no threatening or abuse or nothing of the sort.

“Ridiculous charges again but the thing about this is – this is another attack on journalism, freedom of expression that if you go after the ideology of this LGBT, the system and the regime will come after you.

“So, ahm yeah, this ridiculous charge.”

Dwyer continued that he found it “quite frightening that the gardai are openly and unashamedly in favour of the corruption of children”.

“And that’s what is going on here,” he said.

“When I asked the lady why she was doing this, she mentioned guidelines, government guidelines, and I asked her if the guidelines were to bring the children out into the traffic on the road, would you do that?

“And you wouldn’t, you certainly wouldn’t!

“I’ll leave it there folks, another charge, another spurious charge, another ridiculous charge and thanks for listening.”

Dwyer is one of the most prominent online activists aligned with Ireland’s far-right anti-immigrant movement and regularly live-streams protests from across the country.

A former postman, he was dismissed from An Post in May 2010, with the company citing dereliction of duty and failure to comply with their instructions.

During a subsequent unfair dismissal case taken by Dwyer, it emerged he had kicked a number of dogs, including a friendly black collie he kicked in the head with a steel toe-cap boot, and threatened another woman that he would kill her family’s dog.