Irish Man Was Likely Detained for Reasons Other Than Filming Police

On April 25th, a video appeared online of the Garda, the Irish police, attempting to expel Irish churchgoers from a Catholic mass. The man filming the video, supposedly Pat Sweeney, speaks to the police, protesting their actions. At the very end of this video, a child appears on a pew next to the man recording, apparently his child. 

One week later, on May 2nd, 2021, a second video appeared online. In this video, a man, who has been reported to be Sweeney (and who sounds almost identical to the man talking in the first video) speaks to different members of the Irish police. The video appears to come from within Sweeney’s home and takes place at night. In the recording, one of the police officers states that they are getting Sweeney medical assistance. Sweeney asks why. The police officer tells Sweeney that he is being detained under an Irish mental health law. Sweeney then asks for the whereabouts of his children. The officer responds that the police have invoked a childcare act and have taken them into care. 

This footage then appeared on Twitter, where it gained over 160,000 views. Reports of the incident spread to other social media sites and conspiracy theory websites, with claims that Sweeney was arbitrarily detained and that his children were forcibly removed because of the footage he posted of the Catholic mass.