AN ANTI-IMMIGRATION campaigner has posted a picture that appears to show a dinghy boat full of men with light-brown skin drinking cans of beer on the River Liffey as Dublin floods.

The image is fake — likely generated using AI to push a particular image of non-white people — and gets features of Dublin City Centre wrong.

“Spotted in Dublin today #StormChandra,” wrote Derek Blighe above the image posted to his Instagram and Facebook accounts on 27 January.

The image appears to show six men with dark hair and light brown skin, sitting in a dinghy on the Liffey, drinking cans of beer — one of the men has a can in each hand.

In the background, numerous features of Dublin can be seen, including the quays, the Ha’penny Bridge, and the Spire.

The post on Instagram received more than 2,800 “likes”, while the post on Facebook has been shared more than 420 times since being posted.

Derek Blighe is an anti-immigration activist and failed political candidate from Co Cork who has ran for public office numerous times, including in local and European elections.

Multiple comments under the posts make reference to the ethnicity of the men in the boat, and many appear to think that it is a real photo. 

“We are full your [sic] not welcome here you have your own countries so turn your plastic boat around ffs,” reads one comment. 

Blighe has regularly spread misinformation about immigrants, and had been convicted for crimes committed during his activism. He is currently charged with harassment of a member of An Garda Síochána and due to go to trial next month. He is expected to plead not guilty.

Blighe has only recently begun posting AI-generated images, including one he shared on social media the day previous to the one above.

The older post showed an imagined Irish version of America’s controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, including a logo that includes a shamrock embedded on an eagle.

“My mass deportation policy, Same as ICE except,” Blighe’s post begins. His list includes proposals such as “seize property”, “sell non-vital organs,” and “hard labour”, to pay for “claimed welfare”.

The AI image of Dublin has multiple tell-tale signs that it is fake. Most notably, while it includes actual Dublin landmarks, they appear in the wrong places.

The AI-generated image.

The image appears to show the Ha’penny Bridge from a point on the Liffey with the Spire in the background, to the right. However, there is no such view where this is possible.

If you look towards the Ha’penny Bridge from the west, that is to say, in the direction of the Phoenix Park, the Spire is to the left. If you look at the bridge with O’Connell Bridge behind you to the east, the Spire would not in your view at all.

To be far enough east for both the Ha’penny Bridge and the Spire to be in front of you, the Ha’penny Bridge would be obscured by O’Connell Bridge.

Other features in the image are also giveaways. A green dome, similar to that of the Customs House is also in view, but without the tower of Liberty Hall next to it, or the Loopline Bridge in front of it.

The level of flooding seen in the image is also inconsistent with reports from Dublin city centre that day, which did not see the banks of the quays burst.

The Journal has previously debunked claims by Blighe, often involving false accusations of immigrants of committing crimes.

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