The Irish far-right’s association with ‘hateful loyalist’ Tommy Robinson is hypocritical, TD Bríd Smith has claimed. 

Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, is Britain’s most famous far-right activist and has spent time in prison for violence and fraud. 

Robinson has complained of British towns being "plagued by Islamic extremists" and set up the anti-Muslim English Defence League in response. 

This week, he is in Ireland to film a documentary about the anti-migrant protests that have taken place here in recent months. 

Some of the rallies have been condemned as linked to the far-right and People Before Profit’s Bríd Smith said Robinson’s arrival was bad news for them. 

“I think this is going to cause major problems for the far-right organisations,” she told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“[They] are already divided among each other anyway - they’re always squabbling and fighting among each other. 

“But the fascist organisations in this country claim to wrap the Green Flag around themselves, to be the best republicans, the best patriots and Tommy Robinson is a hateful [person]. 

“He is a fascist leader in Britain and he is a hateful loyalist; he eulogises the Royal Family, he eulogises British nationalism.” 

Robinson has previously described himself as a ‘loyalist’ who ‘loves the Royal Family’ and was previously a member of the far-right British National Party. 

Deputy Smith said associating with him was a strange thing for an Irish republican to do. 

“I’m pointing out the contradictions between the far-right here, who claim to be Irish patriots, inviting a loyalist like that over who normally spouts hate about the Irish and has supported the loyalists and the British Army in the North,” she said.

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Main image: Split of Tommy Robinson and Bríd Smith.