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Dublin City councillor Gavin Pepper, an Independent candidate in the three-seat Dublin North-West constituency, has often been described as “far right” and “anti-immigration”.
So has Independent Ireland councillor Philip Sutcliffe, who is running in the November 29th election as an Independent Ireland candidate across the river Liffey in Dublin South-Central.
Both men, first elected to Dublin City Council in June, vehemently reject these portrayals; they say they are not opposed to immigration in theory but are strongly against illegal immigration.
Describing himself as “a decent, working-class person” who wants “the best of things” for his community, Pepper claims illegal immigration is “of course” exacerbating the housing crisis and leading to more pressure on the health service.
Last week, in a church car park in Whitehall, north Dublin, he unveiled his new “mobile clinic” – a caravan painted in the shades of the Irish Tricolour and displaying his contact details alongside slogans such as “Pepper for Better” and “Time for change”.
He feels his community in west Finglas has been “punched down” at by media and politics for decades, and he has been unfairly represented by mainstream news outlets.
“The media has never given me a fair shout at it,” he says. “They have never been fair with me. I look up to the likes of [the late] Tony Gregory and Christy Burke [well-known Dublin Independent politicians]. They are who I want to emulate.”
He says if it weren’t for social media, “working-class people would never get a say”.
He wants to talk about how communities such as his are “plagued with drugs”; how elderly people are “freezing” in their homes and why young people are leaving school early. He wants funding for a boxing club in Finglas, which he says has been “promised for years”.
“People are struggling with ESB bills while the data centres get subsidies. I am going into elderly people’s homes who can’t afford their heating. These one-off payments aren’t going to do anything,” says Pepper.
“There’s not enough [special needs assistant] teachers. Our roads are in bits. The city is not safe any more. We don’t have enough guards,” adds Pepper, who is a taxi driver.
“I have been talking to nurses. They can’t afford to rent, buy a house. The bread-and-butter issues; they are the main issues.”
A former Sinn Féin supporter, he is hoping to take a seat from Dessie Ellis, the party veteran who topped the poll in 2020. “[Sinn Féin] turned their back on the working class to try to a get a middle-class vote. They don’t listen to the community, done nothing for the community,” he says.
Pepper has six children, including a son with autism. Among the supporters at his launch was Terry Riordan, who in 2018 asked Pepper to help with a local children’s football team, which had several children with disabilities, including autism and ADHD.
“We had children from Balseskin [direct provision accommodation]. We had children from the Philippines, India, Nigeria, Cameroon. Gavin would finish work at 5am on Sunday morning and at 9am, would be back up to take kids to the football matches so they could play football. To me that doesn’t sound like someone who is far right, who is racist or a fascist. It is somebody that cares,” says Riordan.
Pepper rejects a view that, in many of his social media posts – including earlier this year when he posted videos from in front of tents sheltering homeless asylum seekers and using the hashtag #Irelandisfull – he is blaming immigrants for social problems not of their making.
“I don’t blame the illegal immigrants. I blame the Government who are not listening to the people and don’t have proper border policies,” he says. He stresses he has no links to the National Party.
[ Less ‘heat’ in the general election campaign may lower chances of anti-immigration candidatesOpens in new window ]
He does not believe political parties adequately articulate the suffering in communities like his Working-class communities “have been left behind for years”, he says. “Well, this time the working class are coming for them.”
Inside Crumlin Boxing Club, Philip Sutcliffe’s mobile phone has not stopped ringing. It is Tuesday afternoon and the boxing coach is between organising fights and campaign work, while his phone pings with messages about an endorsement from Gerard Hutch on a recent Sunday World podcast.
Hutch, who was granted bail by the Spanish high court on money laundering charges to permit him run in the election, described Sutcliffe as “a good lad” from Crumlin who had helped people from the community, adding “the best of luck Phil, if you’re listening”.
Sutcliffe (65) says he has known Hutch for a long time, “from boxing, not crime”. A former Olympic boxer and member of the Defence Forces, Sutcliffe says he plans to meet Hutch in person before polling day.
In the local elections in June, he took the final seat in the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh electoral ward, unseating Fianna Fáil’s Daithí de Róiste, the then lord mayor of Dublin.
Sutcliffe acknowledges that concerns in the area about immigration secured his election. “I don’t think that, I know that,” he says, insisting he is not against immigration in theory but opposes “illegal immigration”.
“They [immigrants] can come in and work,” he says. “They have to go through a system. You wouldn’t get into another country without a passport.”
Earlier this month, the councillor was criticised for linking immigration with crime in Dublin city centre while also using the term “coloured guys” when discussing crime during a Dublin City Council meeting.
Sutcliffe says he is not racist and dismisses the suggestion the term “coloured” may be outdated as “ridiculous”. He says members of his boxing club – who are “all types of colour” – will be helping him canvass over the coming days.
He also rejects descriptions of him being “far right”, adding: “I’m not far anything.”
A former boxing coach for Conor McGregor, he says while he coached the MMA fighter as a youth and remains close with him, McGregor has not helped finance either of his election campaigns.
While Dublin South-Central is considered the most left-wing constituency in the country, with no Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil TD, Sutcliffe will need to win over a lot more voters outside his bases of Crumlin and Drimnagh to be in with a chance of winning.
Furqan Ulhaq, who is originally from Pakistan and has been living in Ireland for 20 years, is one of the first people Sutcliffe meets while canvassing around Windmill Road in Crumlin. Ulhaq says he knows the local councillor because his daughter was previously a member of the boxing club and will consider voting for him.
Elsewhere, Joe Doolin (72) says he will be voting for Sutcliffe and cites his anger at the €336,000 Leinster House bike shed. “You [can] buy the same shed up on the Naas Road in the shed place for €3,000,” he says.
“The whole system is wrong.”
Aaron Daly (30), owner of Gloss Nails, says he doesn’t know who he will vote for and that he would like more support as a small-business owner. Daly is living at home with his grandmother and says “we need real leaders, leaders who aren’t robots”.
Sutcliffe’s stepdaughter, Rebecca Hendrick, is also running as an Independent Ireland candidate in the same constituency. “It’s a chance we’re taking,” says Sutcliffe. “This crowd have done nothing for two decades … There’s no one saying anything for our people – the normal Joe Soaps who are working, trying to make a living.”
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