Philadelphia Bar Bans Conservative Columnist Over Offensive Comments
People who post "all lives splatter" are apparently not welcome at Fergie's Pub.
Left: Fergie’s Pub owner Fergus “Fergie” Carey (photo by Steve Chris) | Right: Conservative columnist Thom Nickels, who posted “all lives splatter” among other memes on the Fergie’s Pub Facebook page, earning him a ban from the bar (image via LaSalle TV video)
Late in January, in response to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents in Minneapolis, protesters called for a general strike scheduled for January 30th. Business owners around the country were confronted with questions from their workers about whether they would participate, as was the case at Fergie’s Pub, the popular Irish bar in Philadelphia.
Owner Fergus “Fergie” Carey considered the matter and decided to open that day, posting the following on social media:
We remain open today. However, we are in support of the strike and want to make it clear that we believe that America is a diverse, beautiful patchwork and we are stronger together. Between Fergie’s and The Jim, we have donated thousands of dollars over various events to @vamos_juntos_ and will continue to support them – they are an excellent community resource and are doing amazing work. Please check out their page and support their efforts as well, if you like. #iceout
Facebook being Facebook and 2026 being 2026, comments (many of which no longer appear) were swift to follow, some standing in solidarity with Fergie’s and the ICE protesters and some not so much. Falling decidedly into the latter category was longtime Philadelphia columnist Thom Nickels, who these days writes for the conservative Philadelphia outlet Broad & Liberty.
- A photo of Alex Pretti with the message “Staying Home Saves Lives”
- An image of a monkey labeled Renée Good approaching a sleeping lion labeled ICE with the message “Everything happens for a reason: Sometimes the reason is you’re stupid and make bad decisions.”
- A cartoon of an SUV hitting people on a road with the message “All Lives Splatter: Nobody Cares About Your Protest. Keep Your Ass Out of the Road.”
“I just very quickly tapped into my photo gallery and posted some conservative memes,” Nickels tells Philly Mag. “As I was doing it, I noticed that they kept disappearing. I thought, oh well, they don’t like them.”
They sure didn’t. The social media manager alerted Carey to the Nickels comments, wondering who Nickels was. It turned out that Carey and Nickels met, as far as Carey remembers it, long ago when Nickels wrote for The Philadelphia Irish Edition and interviewed Carey for a story. He patronized the bar occasionally over the years, and was a regular for a bit.
The name rung a bell to Carey, so he looked in his cell phone and, sure enough, “Thom Nickels – Philadelphia Irish Edition” was in there. Carey dialed the number but Nickels didn’t pick up. It went to voicemail, so Carey left him a message, which Nickels later deleted. Both men agree that the point of the message was: You’re not welcome at Fergie’s Pub anymore.
“I couldn’t believe it,” says Nickels. “I always liked Fergie. But we’re so polarized as a society. People want to turn everything into a federal case, as if I committed a horrible sacrilege.”
Nickels wrote about the conflict with Fergie’s – not naming the bar – at the bottom of a Broad & Liberty column he wrote on February 8th about the local conservative influencer Frank Scales:
Last week I came across a Facebook post from a certain bar in the city, condemning ICE and calling for its abolition. I posted my opposition with a few colorful memes from my photo gallery, all in support of ICE. This is something a zillion people do on a daily basis when it comes to debates about ICE. Now, I’ve always liked this bar. I’ve read a few poems there at sponsored gatherings, and I’ve interviewed the owner for a number of publications over the years. He has always been a fine gentleman.
A day after my post I received a phone voicemail message from the bar telling me the staff no longer wishes to serve me, and that I should not have posted such “hate.”
Hate? I love the hamburgers there, yet I confess the pub’s interior has always made me think of Mary Queen of Scots imprisoned in the Tower of London.
But “hate” in this day and age course is anything they – the left – doesn’t agree with. As Hitler said, “I want fanatics.”
Earlier this week, Carey alerted me to the Nickels column and identified the bar in question as his own.
“I don’t want him in my fucking bar,” Carey insists. “Things are too serious now for that kind of stuff. Unfollow, unfriend, fuck off.”
I asked Nickels about the “All Lives Splatter” meme, clearly a takeoff on Black Lives Matter and the post that Carey told me had him the most riled up.
“I think that’s taken out of context,” Nickels says of the reaction to the post. “All lives splatter when you put yourself in the face of ICE… The two people who were tragically killed, which was a, you know, horrible thing, um, they still interfered with ICE… It seems to me that if you interfere with ICE, if you go into the road and try to get in their face, you’re asking for the worst.”
Nickels also wondered if Fergie’s was going to start interrogating customers when they show ID: Do you support ICE? Do you support Trump? But Carey insists that all sorts of people come into Fergie’s and that he doesn’t disrespect customers because they believe differently than he does. Posting offensive memes about dead people on his social media page, though, is different, he argues.
“If Donald Trump posted that image of the Obamas as apes on my Facebook page, I would call him and tell him to fuck off too,” Carey says. “I’m sick of all this.”
