Garron Noone
Musician, comedian and social media content creator Garron Noone caused a stir recently when he announced his decision to cancel his nationwide tour and several dates in the US, following a few challenging months. Scrapping the tour is likely to disappoint followers of Noone, who is known for his whimsical commentary and customary video sign-off catchphrase: “Follow me, I’m delicious.”
Sadly for the 31-year-old Mayo man, who is generally considered likeable and a tad eccentric, things went wrong a few months ago when remarks he made on social media about immigration were considered to be not quite as appetising.
With 2.2m followers on Instagram and 2.1m on TikTok, Noone has a massive following and generally posts about pressing issues such as the rising cost of Freddo chocolate bars and whether chocolate digestives should be eaten upside down. Back in March, however, he strayed into the area of social commentary and had to temporarily deactivate his social media accounts after a video he posted blew up in his face. Noone should have known things had taken quite the wrong turn when right-wing outlet Gript issued an op-ed in his defence, entitled: “The vile attempt to cancel Garron Noone”.
The issue occurred following the controversy generated by Conor McGregor’s White House meeting with Donald Trump, during which the fighter declared that the “illegal immigration racket is running ravage [sic] on the country”.
Telling his followers that he had been asked to comment on the issue, Noone weighed into the debate by declaring that “there absolutely is an immigration issue in Ireland”.
He went on to say: “The systems that we have in place are being taken advantage of, and that is plain to see, and the Government continually does not allow people to express their concerns about that.”
Noone argued that Irish towns and cities were becoming much less safe “not just because of immigration, there’s a lot of factors to that” and he also said that, if you increase people’s distrust in the Government, you “push people towards racism and extremism”.
While some people thought his comments were measured and reasonable, others were appalled that someone with his huge following was adding fuel to the already incendiary debate on immigration.
Suggesting that “the systems we have in place are being taken advantage of” was not considered to be helpful by various factions, given the recent upsurge in racism and violence.
The drama around Noone’s comments caused him to be ‘cancelled’ by those on the left and he deactivated his social media accounts due to the criticism that came his way. A few days later, Noone returned to social media to say he stood by his first video and he was “not anti-immigration” and it was “absolutely crazy to think that”.
Saying that he was clarifying any points that were taken up differently to how he meant them, Noone admitted that he could have communicated his points better as they were “too open” to misinterpretation.
However, his protests weren’t helped by finding himself in the unenviable position of being championed by a number of high-profile anti-immigration figures associated with the far-right, including the less-than-delicious mouthpiece Katie Hopkins and Tristan Tate, brother of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate.
Hopkins’s contribution to the debacle came via a post on X: “Don’t apologise. Don’t look back. The crowds are in advance of you, cheering you on. You ARE delicious. Katie.”
While being bracketed in the same wheelhouse as McGregor, Hopkins and Tate would sound the death knell for many people’s careers, a swathe of celebrities and politicians rushed to defend Noone, including singer Imelda May, Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane and Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín.
As he made them, Noone predicted that his comments might be misconstrued, which caused Maria Maynes from Gript to declare that “the mob was warming up” for the comedian’s impending cancellation.
Speaking on Newstalk, Noone said he deactivated his accounts as he received “hundreds of messages” quoting things he had never actually said and linking him to people he didn’t want to be “associated with”.
He told the Indo that he “lost a lot of sponsors” and didn’t leave his house for a week.
Noone was relatively unknown prior to the pandemic. The eldest of four, he grew up in Ballina and spent a lot of time on the sheep farm owned by his mother’s family. He dropped out of school at 15 – which he later said was due to anxiety and agoraphobia – and attended Youthreach, which provides personal development and training guidance for 16-20 year olds who left school early.
“I’m quite passionate about helping people from disadvantaged backgrounds who have dropped out of school. That’s the background I came from,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
His mum could play guitar and his dad was in an Elvis tribute band and Noone began playing music in pubs, combining it with working in a fuel card company, a phone shop and as a salesman for a software company. He uploaded music tutorials on social media at the start of the pandemic, which led to people asking him for lessons and a UK university inviting him to teach modules on a master’s course.
When he started posting more light-hearted videos, his star ascended and he was named one of Ireland’s “breakthrough stars” for 2023 on TikTok. He appeared on BBC show Big Comic Energy, which went well but, so far, this doesn’t appear to have led to more work from Auntie.
He launched his own podcast, Listen, I’m Delicious, in October last year, which is structured around the theme of guests’ favourite foods and snacks.
Some say there is no such thing as bad publicity and Noone’s following on TikTok went from 1.7m to 2.2m in the wake of the ‘trouble’.
The comedian has spoken about experiencing anxiety, panic attacks and agoraphobia, and the rescheduling of his tour dates to 2026 centres relates to issues he dealt with in the past. This meant that he had to cancel his appearances at various Irish venues as well as Paddy Reilly’s in New York City, the Milwaukee Irish Fest, Chicago’s Gaelic Park Irish Fest and McGonagle’s Pub in Boston.
“It has gotten to a point where I really need to put all of my energy into getting back on track,” he told followers.
Noone has learned the hard way that he is better off confining his material to light-hearted topics to avoid causing a social media storm. While the cancellation of his tour is obviously disappointing, the good news is that he is getting to do some sponsored content for brands such as Apache Pizza, IKEA, Uber Eats and Fit Foods.
As a consolation prize, this must be rather delicious.
