Meet the pole dancing mum who's leading a crusade to stop mass immigration into Ireland

Sunday World

22-04-2025

Orla Campbell – AKA Orla Aerial – is one of the leading organisers of protests at Belfast City Hall aimed at drumming up support to stop what she calls 'mass illegal, unvetted immigration' which she claims is 'tearing our communities apart'.
This is the pole-dancing mum who's leading a crusade to stop mass immigration into Ireland.
Orla Campbell – AKA Orla Aerial – is one of the leading organisers of protests at Belfast City Hall aimed at drumming up support to stop what she calls 'mass illegal, unvetted immigration' which she claims is 'tearing our communities apart'.
Banned from TikTok because of her unsubstantiated posts, this week she posted false claims on X that Somalians had stabbed local white kids at a beach in County Down and left the post up despite her being told this was not true.
But when she's not frantically posting about the 'threat' mass immigration poses to our children, she runs a polecdancing school in Ballynahinch which holds classes for adults and children.
Aerial Junkies says it's an 'aerial fitness studio focusing on gaining strength & muscle, body confidence & a strong female community'.
The 33-year-old, who's a strong advocate for women's rights, spoke at a recent protest – taking to a park bench in Belfast's Donegall Place to address the tiny crowd – and she's helping to promote a similar protest next Sunday at the same venue.
With her dyed red hair, Orla is unmissable and at the last protest she spoke to our reporter.
Orla Campbell aka 'Orla Aerial' addresses the small crowd at Donegall Place
On social media she is extremely outspoken and also reposts conspiracy theories as well as retweeting posts from known far right campaigners like Tommy Robinson and Britain First.
She reveals she's been kicked off TikTok because of complaints about her posts – many are so unsubstantiated it's not even clear if the person targeted in the post is a migrant or just someone who isn't white.
This week she's flooded her new account on X, formerly Twitter, with false claims about an incident at Ballyholme beach in Bangor last Friday.
Just like in the summer when fake claims about the Southport killer who murdered three young girls at a dance class sparked mass rioting across the UK, there were false claims that a brawl on a beach in Ballyholme had been started by asylum seekers.
There were fake claims that violent Somalian migrants were hell-bent on attacking white kids and had even stabbed one child and the police were even forced to come out and warn people about false speculation when some social media posts claimed a boy had been killed.
Orla shares a joke with our reporter Hugh Jordan (left) at the protest rally
That didn't stop anti-immigration campaigners like Orla Campbell from jumping on the claims and putting them out as proof that migrants are trouble.
On April 12th on X under her account 'OrlaAerial', she posted the following: 'Ballyholme Beach Stabbing by Somalian group of children yesterday. Are we safe? Multiculturalism is working?
'Videos circulating online – they are easy to find. I'm disgusted in our governments.'
The County Down campaigner recently posted her outrage that a Newry school had sent home homework which taught about the Qur'an and urged parents 'Remove your children from these lessons and say NO!'
Yet learning about different religions is part of the current Religious Studies curriculum in school and kids are also taught about Christianity and Judaism, among others, to show kids the differences and similarities.
We wanted to offer Orla an opportunity to put her reasons for being so against immigration but she didn't respond to our requests for an interview.
She's promoting next week's anti-immigration rally in Belfast by posting a poster entitled 'Time to Rise'.
The poster reads: 'Our men, women and children cannot be exposed to anymore harm. We stand in unity as one. We oppose mass illegal unvetted immigration and the dangers it is bringing to our communities, A peaceful gathering – bring your banners!'
dangers
The poster also advertises a similar protest which is taking place in Derry on Saturday at 1pm.
During the last protest at Belfast City Hall, the anti-immigration protesters were massively outnumbered by a counter-protest organised by unions.
During that event Orla told the crowd she was not against immigration which she describes as a 'good thing' and a 'way of life' but was opposed to the mass, illegal and unvetted immigration she said was taking place in Ireland.
'We want to show our opposition to the mass, illegal unvetted immigration... this is not about anything else but keeping women and children safe because in our communities there are lots of things happening that shouldn't be happening and it's putting people's safety in danger.
'The way our borders are at the minute, they are open, they are letting everybody in, it's proving time and time again it's tearing our communities apart.'
She goes on later to deny that she is racist and says: 'I'm a normal woman, a normal mummy who is being contacted daily with things that are happening to women and children and there's nothing being done about it. It's time we stand up and say enough is enough.'
She claims all the male migrants come to Northern Ireland so they can take advantage of the benefit system.
March's anti-immigration protest at City Hall
According to Companies House, Orla's own business is subject to a compulsory strike-off after failing to file any accounts since she started the pole dancing gym back in 2021.
According to the most recently published Home Office figures, a total of 2,248 asylum seekers were in receipt of support in Northern Ireland as of March 31 2024.
The vast majority of those live in Belfast while there were just 43 asylum seekers in receipt of support living in Orla Campbell's local authority area of Newry, Mourne and Down.
As for the trouble at Ballyholme beach, police say they are continuing to investigate what happened and said at least two people had attended hospital for treatment to injuries but said there had been no reports of anyone being stabbed.