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The accounts are believed to be linked to a person associated with the Republic of Ireland-based charity The Society of the Apostles of Mary and Joseph (SAJM). An article branding the Holocaust as a “fairy tale” and dismissing historians who documented the genocide in Nazi Germany as “Holohoaxers” was among the content shared by the accounts. The revelation comes weeks after Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown published a note in bulletins sent to parishes across the county warning parishioners that elements of the group were operating in the area.
The organisation is a loosely organised splinter faction of the wider SSPX group, which split from the Vatican in 1970 citing concerns over the church’s perceived move away from traditional beliefs. The loosely organised Resistance was founded by convicted Holocaust denier Richard Williamson circa 2012 and operates around the world, with its Irish headquarters based in Co Cork. An account believed to be linked to a person associated with the SAJM had been advertising what was described as a ‘Latin Mass’ at a community centre in the Shantallow area of Derry as recently as Christmas Eve — although it’s understood masses have taken place at the location as far back as 2022.
The account, which used a pseudonym, was removed shortly after this newspaper began investigating the link. A post from an X account also believed to be linked to the same individual,previously advertised masses held on a regular basis in the city in 2023. These are thought to be among those described by Bishop McKeown as “illicit” in his message to parishioners.
Both posts make reference to premises in the Leafair Park area, with addresses posted that match Skeoge House and the Leafair Well-being Village — both run by Leafair Community Association. The association did not respond to requests for comment. The posts have raised questions over the charity’s relationship with the ultra-conservative Catholic group the Society of St Puis X (SSPX) Resistance.
Documents filed with the Republic’s Charity Regulator in 2018 list Giacomo Ballini as the SAJM chairperson. Mr Ballini was removed as a trustee in 2020 and in 2021, the regulator said it had been unable to find any link between SAJM and the SSPX Resistance. Ballini acts as a bishop within the SSPX Resistance movement and is understood to have travelled to Derry to lead some services there.
The Belfast Telegraph approached the SAJM for comment on its alleged links with SSPX Resistance and the posts shared by the social media accounts. They declined to comment on the claims. The Resistance has attracted controversy in the past over its links to far-right ideology.
Former leader Richard Williamson, who died in January this year, was convicted of Holocaust denial by a German court in 2009 after claiming no more than 200,000 to 300,000 Jews died during the Holocaust and that Nazi Germany did not use gas chambers. In Ireland, the movement is understood to be operating from a compound in rural west Cork. ‘Bishop’ Giacomo Ballini led an exorcism outside Dáil Éireann in late 2020, when the UK and Ireland were under pandemic regulations.
The group also branded the virus a hoax. In a sermon delivered last month in response to Bishop McKeown’s comments, Ballini appeared to indicate he had been undertaking masses in Londonderry. “Today, I am a bit upset, because I have to change the sermon, which normally would be the normal, boring sermon about the Mass,” he said.
“But now I have to switch to another sermon. “And that, the cause, now it’s going to cause trouble, because wherever I go around, I have to bring a paper for Dublin and Longford, and another paper for Derry, because you will be one sermon late, unless I just jump through the Mass and get you towards the end.” Ballini added that he disagreed with the bishop’s description of the group’s activities as “illicit”.
“We lack that paper and that stamp. But does it mean that we are not doing it properly and responding to a necessity that comes from you?” he said. “If you don’t have a licence as a doctor, you cannot act as a doctor.
That is the law. “Sometimes it happens that the law is applied in a wrong way, and the licence is taken away from a doctor for something that the doctor has not done or for something that the doctor has done rightly. “But the judges of this are corrupt.
And so that doctor cannot act legally. There’s no papers.” SSPX Resistance Ireland has also been approached for comment.
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