Oliver Anthony speaks about Charlie Kirk, hits out at migrants during National Stadium gig

During his National Stadium gig last night, American country singer Oliver Anthony spoke about the killing of American conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk among other political topics.

It was, you might observe, anything but your standard gig.

Anthony paid his respects to Kirk first with a passage from the Bible's Book of Matthew: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

While the crowd attempted to digest that one, he spoke directly to them.

"I don't wish any harm on anybody," Anthony said. "I hope that nobody ever gets killed again, but that's just not the world we live in."

Asked for his thoughts on the killing as he spoke to the audience off-stage after the show, he sounded somewhat rattled.

"It's all crazy," he answered, adding, "They'll probably get me next."

Needless to say, he wasn't advocating against the NRA, and the "right to bear arms." His social media posts showing him shooting off similar guns to that which killed Kirk say as much.

As he has done at shows in the UK last year, Anthony spoke about similarities – perceived! – between the United States and, well, wherever he is playing. In Dublin, he addressed what he talked about as the oppression of free speech. And no, he wasn't talking about pro-Palestine protestors being thrown in jail.

"I just see the correlation, the similarity between what's going on in this country and really in this whole continent and what's going on back at home," he said.

"And it just seems like it's always a case of oppressors oppressing people who are undeserving of oppression. This [next] song doesn't represent anything to me, except that the same people in my country that won independence and their freedom and their ability to speak without being oppressed is the same thing as here."

The song in question was a rendition, with a country twang, of Irish rebel song 'Come Out Ye Black and Tans' – a song about the oppressive British army, rather than the oppressive "wokeness" Anthony so often talks of – which was followed by another cover, this time of 'The Foggy Dew'.

Later, he seemingly took direct aim at migrants, which he framed as a problem in both the U.S. and Ireland.

"Nobody gives a shit about us," he complained, somewhat bizarrely, "just the people coming into our countries.

"Every year, I just watch us get shoved further and further down," he added, "and I just pray that once in my lifetime I see somebody stand up and shove them back."

You'd wonder if he has ever heard of a fellow called Donald Trump, who is doing a little bit more than "shoving."

That speech led into a performance of his best-known song, the TikTok-viral single 'Rich Men North of Richmond'. The track has been dubbed an anti-elitist blue-collar anthem, with lyrics criticising rich and out-of-touch politicians. But it also punches down, complaining in terms many would consider inherently prejudiced, about 'welfare abuse', as he sings "We got folks in the street ain't got nothing to eat and the obese milking welfare / If you're five foot three and you're three hundred pounds, taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds."

The lyrics have earned him criticism, including in a review in The Guardian by English musician Billy Bragg, who said he initially "figured the song was a parody." But, of course, it isn't.

"Homeless hungry people need help, but not if they’re overweight?" Bragg asked, rhetorically.

While acknowledging Anthony's claim of being apolitical, Bragg compared the narrative to the identity politics pushed by anti-union advocates; unions being something Anthony, a self-proclaimed "working class hero", has oddly ignored.

His insistence that he is apolitical notwithstanding, Anthony has associated himself with conservative and right-wing groups on multiple occasions.

He performed and delivered a speech at the 2025 Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference — an international 'traditionalist' organisation whose board notably includes controversial commentator Jordan Peterson, GB News chairman Alan McCormick and many UK Conservative MPs.

Meantime, he has been publicly endorsed by conservative commentator Jack Posobiec (who is known to be linked to neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements) and right-wing podcaster Matt Walsh. Maybe Oliver Anthony is apolitical, but lots of people don't seem to see him that way.

Dublin was the first date on Anthony's European tour, and he's set to play the Nerve Centre in Derry tonight before going on to perform in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Norway.