Tag: ireland

Irish LGBT City Councilor Resigns After Allegations of Abusing Teen Boy

A young Irish man’s accusations that a Galway City Councilor groomed and sexually abused him since age 16 led to a politician’s resignation.

The alleged victim shared two videos on Twitter accusing Galway, Ireland’s first openly LGBT city councilor, Owen Hanley, of grooming and abusing him, according to a Post Millenial report.

“I am a victim of sexual abuse, catfishing, and underage grooming. Owen Hanley did this to me,” alleged the Twitter account using the name Jaimie Mac Giolla Bháin on New Year’s Day. “Mr. Hanley operated a fake Twitter account under the name Irish Jock, using the handle @leftmuscle. He posed as a teenager and reached out to me on Twitter, knowing who I was from previous engagements in the Social Democrats.”

Bháin described being coaxed into transmitting explicit images of himself over “a long period,” beginning after he turned 16 and continuing until February 2022.

After he discovered Hanley was behind the Twitter account, Bháin said he confronted the councilor with his evidence. Hanley denied the allegations, the alleged victim stated. He added that all traces of the accounts Bháin claimed Hanley operated were erased from Twitter and his profile pictures removed.

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Ireland Considers Enacting A Bill Criminalizing The Possession Of Hateful Material

We recently discussed a troubling conviction in Great Britain of a man for his “toxic ideology.” Now Ireland appears ready to replicate that case a thousand fold. The proposed Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 would criminalize the possession of material deemed hateful.

It is a full frontal assault on speech and associational rights. The law would allow for sweeping authoritarian measures in defining opposing viewpoints hateful. Ireland appears to be picking up the cudgel of speech criminalization from Britain, an abusive power once used against the Irish.

The law is a free speech nightmare.  Even before addressing the crime of possession of harmful material, the law would “provide for an offence of condoning, denying or grossly trivialising genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace.” The crime of condoning, denying or grossly trivailising” criminal conduct would make most autocrats blush. The lack of any meaningful definition invites arbitrary enforcement. The law expressly states the intent to combat “forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.”

What is so striking about the law is how utterly unapologetic it is in the use of criminal law to curtail not just free speech but free thought. It allows for the prosecution of citizens for “preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics.” That could sweep deeply into not just political but literary expression.

The interest of the Irish in assuming such authoritarian measures is chilling given their own history under British rule, including violent crackdowns on nonviolent protests like “Bloody Sunday.”  Free speech is now in a free fall in Great Britain and Ireland appears eager to follow suit.

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‘No One Wants These Laws’: Ireland to Jail ‘Hate Speech’ Offenders for Up to Five Years

Those who use so-called “hate speech” will soon be jailed for up to five years under new legislation published on Thursday.

Any individual found guilty of using “hate speech” in Ireland will soon find themselves facing up to five years in jail. The country’s Justice Minister, Helen McEntee, has been at the centre of the country’s push towards implementing effective “hate speech” legislation, with her department announcing on Thursday that the first draft of the new laws would soon enter the country’s parliament.

Under the rules as proposed, those found guilty of “any intentional or reckless communication or behaviour that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or persons because they are associated with a protected characteristic” would face up to five years in jail.

What’s more, any individual convicted of such an offence would be branded a “hate criminal”, a label which the minister says is designed to “follow an offender in court, in garda vetting, and so on”.

“[H]ate speech is not about free speech,” McEntee declared in a statement published by her department.

“Hate speech is designed to shut people down, to shut them up, to make them afraid to say who they are and to exclude and isolate them,” she continued. “There is nothing free about that, and there is, frankly, no place for it in our society.”

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Irish Teacher Gets Jail Time After Refusing to Use a Transgender Student’s Preferred Pronouns

A teacher in the Republic of Ireland has been suspended from teaching and later jailed on contempt charges after he refused to address a transgender student by their preferred pronouns.

Enoch Burke was arrested on Monday for violating a court order that barred him from teaching at Wilson’s Hospital School in Westmeath, the news site RTE.ie reported. In addition to being barred from teaching, Burke is not allowed to set foot on the property, per the court order.

Judge Michael Quinn later found Burke guilty of violating the High Court’s mandate. He was then sent to Mountjoy Prison, where he will remain until either he purges his contempt, or the court gives further orders.

The teacher stood by his refusal even when faced with jail time, telling the judge that “it is insanity” that he would be arrested and taken to prison for refusing to violate his Christian beliefs. “I love my school, with its motto Res Non Verba, ‘Actions not words,’ but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl,” Burke told the court.

The saga began when Burke, who teaches politics and German at the school in Multyfarnham, County Westmeath, refused to address a transgender pupil as “they” instead of “he.” He was soon placed on administrative leave by school officials pending the outcome of an investigation and disciplinary process.

Burke refused to stay away from campus, however. He continued to refuse despite an injunction that barred him from teaching or even setting foot on Wilson’s campus.

On Friday, the judge issued an order to arrest Burke after he was found sitting in an empty classroom at the school. He was arrested at the school on Monday and taken directly to court, where he told the judge that he would not comply with the injunction.

“I am a teacher and I don’t want to go to prison,” Burke told the court. “I want to be in my classroom today, that’s where I was this morning when I was arrested.”

“Transgenderism is against my Christian belief. It is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school,” he added.

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Monkeypox Outbreak Caused by Climate Change, Professor Claims

Climate change is to blame for the recent outbreak of monkeypox, an Irish professor of epidemiology claims.

After the Republic of Ireland saw its first two monkeypox cases last week, Dublin City University Professor Anthony Staines surmised the zoonotic disease represents a climate change catastrophe.

“Climate change is driving animal populations out of their normal ranges and human populations into areas where animals live,” Prof. Staines said on the NewsTalk program On The Record with Gavan Reilly. 

“There’s a very detailed analysis of about 40 years of data published in [the journal] Nature a few months ago that documents what has happened and predicts what may happen in the future and it’s very much driven now by climate change – and to an extent by human population growth. 

“But climate change is pushing people into cities, it’s pushing animals into closer proximity with people and we’re seeing connections that we never saw before. 

“So this is what living with climate change looks like.” 

The professor’s assertions come as billionaire globalist Bill Gates warned there’s a 50 percent chance the next pandemic could be caused by climate change, or be the result of a man-made virus released by a bioterrorist.

Commenting on whether monkeypox could pose a threat to humanity on par with Covid-19, Gates said “there’s very little chance” it will have a similar impact, but cautioned there’s a potential for it to mutate into a more virulent disease.

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Grandmother Who Violated Mask Mandate to Spend Christmas Behind Bars

An Irish grandmother who violated the nation’s mask mandate is to spend Christmas behind bars after being sentenced to a year in prison.

Margaret Buttimer, a 66-year-old grandmother, will spend this Christmas behind bars after being sentenced to one year in prison for violating Ireland’s mask mandate, with six months of the sentence being suspended.

The grandmother was initially imprisoned last week after breaching her bail terms by going Christmas shopping, having been ordered to stay away from stores.

According to a report by the Irish Examiner, Buttimer was sentenced after being found guilty of not wearing a mask in a restaurant.

The judge presiding over the case made reference to what he called the grandmother’s “absurd selfishness” and “willful disregard of others”.

He also refused to hand down community service to the woman, claiming that it would be contradictory to do so as she was engaging in “persistent community disservice”.

The 66-year-old now has multiple convictions for breaching public health guidelines, having been jailed twice for her actions.

Buttimer had no previous convictions prior to the pandemic, according to the Irish Independent.

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Irish senator proposes vaccine passports should be needed to buy groceries

A Senator in Ireland has said that the government should consider banning those without a vaccine passport from public transportation and supermarkets, in one of the most extreme Covid proposals to date.

“Why not supermarkets? Why not public transport?” Senator Gerry Horkan asked. “I know it is difficult to police some of these things, but really, if you want to participate in society, you need to be vaccinated.”

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Ireland Suspends AstraZeneca Vaccine Amid Blood Clot Reports

Irish health officials on Sunday recommended the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of serious blood clotting after inoculations in Norway.

Dr. Ronan Glynn, Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer, said the recommendation was made after Norway’s medicines agency reported four cases of blood clotting in adults after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

He said that while there was no conclusive link between the vaccine and the cases, Irish health officials are recommending the suspension of the vaccine’s rollout as a precaution.

Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic authorities have taken similar precautionary steps. The World Health Organization and the European Union’s medicines regulator said earlier in the week that there was no link between the jab and an increased risk of developing a clot.

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President Michael D Higgins signs mandatory quarantine legislation into law

PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has signed into law the legislation to bring in mandatory quarantine in a designated facility for certain passengers entering the country. 

The Health (Amendment) Bill 2021 was brought forward to the Dáil by the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly last month. 

It was passed in both the Dáil and the Seanad and has now been signed into law by the president. 

The Bill provides for a system of mandatory quarantine at designated facilities. 

People arriving into Ireland from certain countries will have to stay at designated hotels for up to 14 days.

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Irish Man Sentenced To Two Months In Prison For Failing To Wear A Face Mask

Andrew Heasman was traveling from Dublin to Knock in the Republic of Ireland on July 14 to lay his relative to rest when he was asked by a bus driver to wear his mask properly.

Garda police officer Thomas Bowens told Castlebar District Court that Heasman was wearing his mask “like a hat” and refused to follow orders to cover his mouth and nose, prompting other passengers to exit the bus.

Mr Heasman told authorities he was medically exempt and that under data protection laws, he was not legally required to provide evidence.

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