An elderly man pictured talking to a young activist in a viral image from a Black Lives Matter protest has been unmasked as a notorious IRA sympathiser and conspiracy theorist with links to Holocaust deniers.
Jim Curran, 73, an Irish nationalist and 9/11 Truther, was photographed deep in conversation with single mother Rosie Grace Smith at the demonstration in London last weekend.
The image was hailed as a symbol of tolerance. It went viral online before Mr Curran was outed as a terrorist supporter who has dismissed child victims of IRA bomb attacks as ‘collateral’.
A picture of Rosie Grace Smith, left, and conspiracy theorist Jim Curran, right, went viral
Rosie Grace Smith, left, and Jim Curran, right, engaged in a long conversation at the protest
Rosie Grace Smith, a Black Lives Matter activist, encountered Jim Curran in London
When attacked online for her defence of Jim Curran, Rosie Grace Smith enraged her critics by writing ‘the Jews are not innocent’, which was slammed as anti-Semitic
In another tweet, Rosie Grace Smith said she always thought that America was behind 9/11
The retired London Underground worker, who told MailOnline he was an old friend of Jeremy Corbyn, has long held IRA sympathies and supported conspiracy theories, such as that the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury was a hoax.
And he has said that he believes that ‘agents from other states’ were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, not Al Qaeda.
Speaking to MailOnline last night, Mr Curran blamed the controversy over the picture on ‘Zionists’ who were targeting him online because of his ‘anti-racist’ views.
‘The Zionists are now trying to say that I’m anti-Semitic,’ he said. ‘Jewish people are being racist. They don’t like Irish Republicans and they are trying to demonise me.’
Describing his encounter with Ms Smith, he said: ‘I was telling her about history, that lots of bad things have happened to a lot of people, not just Jews.
‘What happened to a black people through slavery was also a crime and a Holocaust. This is what I’m trying to teach the new generation of activists.’
And in an astonishing rant, he added: ‘Other people play down their sufferings, but the Jewish people don’t. You have to ask yourself why.
‘They make more of what happened to them than anyone else. Jewish people have used the Holocaust for their own ends.’
Mr Curran, right, was also pictured talking to other demonstrators in pictures that went viral
The 73-year-old conspiracy theorist has been involved with fringe groups and radical campaigns for 50 years and has frequently courted controversy.
As chairman of the radical Irish Civil Rights Association, he turned his back on Margaret Thatcher’s funeral in 2013 and jeered as her coffin passed, holding a sign that called the IRA ‘freedom fighters’.
In 2018, MailOnline has learnt, he was banned on air by furious LBC radio host Nick Ferrari when he phoned in to defend IRA terrorists, calling the killing of a schoolboy and toddler in Warrington in 1993 ‘collateral’.
And in February this year, he was filmed saying ‘the British have a primitive instinct for violence and killing’.
The radical firebrand regularly attends meetings of an anti-Semitic conspiracy group in London called Keep Talking.
Its leader, the disgraced academic and Holocaust denier Nicholas Kollerstrom, has spoken of his belief that Auschwitz inmates ‘sunbathed by the swimming pool’.
Mr Curran was also present at a raucous meeting chaired by Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament in 2013 where a Jewish grandmother was abused by a ‘loud jeering mob’, which MailOnline exposed at the time.
And he opposed the extradition of Abu Hamza, the hook-handed hate preacher who was sentenced to life imprisonment by an American court on terror charges in 2015.
Jim Curran, right, showed Rosie Grace Smith, left, a newspaper report of when he turned his back on Margaret Thatcher’s coffin as it passed him, and jeered
Rosie Grace Cullen found herself attacked on Twitter for apparently siding with Jim Curran
Rosie Grace Smith eventually apologised for any offence caused in the controversy
During last weekend’s demonstrations, Mr Curran and young activist Ms Smith spoke several times, both during and after the protest.
Moved to tears by their conversation, Ms Smith took six page of notes. She wrote on Twitter: ‘He is an activist and a beautiful man… He said the genocide the Jews went through was nothing on slavery.’
In comments that have been slammed as anti-Semitic, she continued: ‘I judge him on our [conversation] and from his vibe and his work. The Jews are not innocent.’
The single mother later apologised for her comments, saying: ‘I support equal rights, and will never again attempt to compare others (sic) struggle to make my point, this has upset many, and for that I send my apologies.’
But she did not remove pictures and videos of herself and Mr Curran from her social media accounts, which she made private last night.
Ms Smith declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.