Revealed: Shankill Butcher's cousin leads far-right protests in Dublin and Limerick
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Journal
7 minutes ago
- The Journal
Tánaiste says any gardaí showing 'brazen' disregard for roads policing 'letting colleagues down'
ANY GARDAÍ WHO have shown a 'brazen' disregard for roads policing are 'seriously letting their colleagues down', Tánaiste Simon Harris has said. The Fine Gael leader was responding to comments by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, about a report that found some gardaí showed a 'blatant disregard' for roads policing duties while they knew their actions were being reviewed. The Journal / YouTube It comes amid a focus on road safety in Ireland, with the Government introducing new speed laws and after the Garda Commissioner mandated that frontline gardaí dedicate 30 minutes of road policing duties per shift. Simon Harris said he did not want to 'tar any one group with one brush', and said he has the utmost respect for gardaí. 'Indeed, it's not that long since we were at a funeral of a member of An Garda Síochána killed while on road traffic policing duties,' he said at Government Buildings. 'Having said that, I am concerned with what I've heard, and I'd like to be in a position to read it. So I think it's important that what the commissioner said he intends to do does happen, that he publishes the report so that we can actually see this and analyse it directly. 'Because any member of An Garda Siochana who is acting in the way that the commissioner outlined is seriously letting their colleagues down in the first instance, colleagues who work every day to keep us safe and would absolutely be undermining our road safety efforts in this country. 'There are far too many empty seats at far too many kitchen tables in Ireland. We've worked extremely hard as a country, I don't just mean as a government, as a country, to improve road safety over many years. 'That progress had stalled in recent years and indeed we'd seen a negative trend, and this is disappointing and concerning. 'But I think it's important that we have the opportunity to see the report, rather than to comment on a comment about the report.' Advertisement Asked if he was surprised that a member of government had not seen the report, considering the policing authority had seen the report in June, he said: 'I am somewhat, but I haven't had an opportunity to discuss this with colleagues in government yet, and I'd obviously like to discuss it in the first instance with the Minister of Justice.' Sean Canney, a junior minister with responsibility for road safety, said the reported findings were 'shocking' and 'serious'. 'There's no point in us bringing in laws, reducing speed limits, doing all of this kind of thing, if we don't have a functional enforcement section within the Gardaí,' he said on RTE Radio. Canney said his thoughts were with the families of the 95 people who had died on Irish roads so far this year. He said he had not read the report from consultancy firm Crowe, which has carried out investigations on behalf of An Garda Síochána previously, but planned to meet Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan and both the outgoing and incoming Garda commissioners. 'I'll be talking to the commissioners to express my deep concern with what is in this report,' he said. He said the independent Crowe report was conducted while the reviewer was 'sitting in the car with a garda that wasn't doing his duty and didn't seem to have a problem with that'. 'So I think there is definitely a serious case to be answered here as quickly as possible.' Harris said he commissioned the examination after he received an anonymous report from a whistleblower. The chairwoman of the Policing and Community Safety Authority, Elaine Byrne, said the report was 'shocking' and found some gardaí showed a 'blatant disregard' for road policing while they knew their actions were being reviewed. 'They were openly hostile to doing their job,' she said, in what she described as a 'wake-up call' for An Garda Siochana. She also described an issue with fear among Garda managers of carrying out poor performance management, which she said Harris agreed was an issue.
Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Lies spread on social media led to attack on man in Limerick
An Afghan man was assaulted in Limerick after baseless claims were spread about him on social media. The 64-year-old man received injuries, including a broken nose, in the attack in early July, following claims online that he had been behaving inappropriately towards children, a claim which was later debunked by gardaí. Analysis of the online discussions around the incident, conducted jointly by the Hope and Courage Collective and Doras, shows how social media, racial profiling and co-ordinated vigilante activity led to the attack. The man, who is seeking international protection in Ireland, was harassed, filmed, and publicly identified before the assault following a fabricated Facebook post which accused him of inappropriate behaviour towards children. Within hours, the claim was pushed across TikTok, Instagram and X with one video reaching over 249,000 views. On July 1, he was surrounded and assaulted in public, sustaining a broken nose and later relocated for his own safety. Self-proclaimed 'community watch' groups filmed the man, circulated his image and framed the assault as a 'citizen's arrest". The report's authors say that "despite multiple reports, violent content remained online". 'This was not a one-off incident. It is the result of a disinformation network that uses fear and racism to justify violence,' said Edel McGinley, Director of Hope and Courage Collective, which monitors far right activity. What we're seeing is the rise of co-ordinated vigilantism in Ireland, hiding behind the language of community safety. In the days prior to the attack, the victim was harassed in a local park, and filmed, with footage posted to social media. A false allegation began on the afternoon of Sunday, June 29, when a woman uploaded a photo of the man alongside a fabricated story. This led to a member of the self-styled "community watch" group Sinne Na Daoine calling on the "men of Limerick" to "protect its own". By the following day, a prominent Irish far right account on X claimed in a post that a 'Muslim was cat calling children in People's Park' and said the slow Garda response was 'pushing society into vigilantism'. The post was viewed 190,400 times before being deleted. After the original post was circulated, a group confronted the Afghan man and called the Gardaí while filming, but the man walked to the station himself for his own safety. Later, a video showing him leaving the station was misrepresented as a 'citizen's arrest'. 'This man was seeking safety in Ireland and instead found himself at the centre of an online disinformation campaign that turned violent,' said John Lannon, chief executive of the migrant support group, Doras. He was treated with suspicion, fear, and hostility simply because of how he looked. The report found that the victim was later re-identified and harassed again in a different city. The authors of the report said that "what is evident in this case is that the Irish far right uses neutral incidents to frame a false and dangerous narrative that is used to justify profiling, harassment and violent assault". Ms McGinley said that disinformation is amplified online and called on European Commissioner Michael McGrath to intervene. 'As a matter of urgency we need to tackle the toxic recommender system that pushes hate and disinformation into people's social media feeds. People should be able to have control of what they see, not companies, driven by profit."
RTÉ News
6 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Tánaiste to meet family of Private Séan Rooney next week
Tánaiste Simon Harris has confirmed that he will meet the mother of Irish peacekeeper Private Seán Rooney, who was killed in Lebanon in 2022, after he was criticised for speaking publicly on the case before talking to her and her family. In a statement, Natasha Rooney criticised what she said was a "sham trial" in Lebanon that convicted and sentenced those involved in his death. She also referenced Mr Harris, saying: "In a country where victims' rights ought to be paramount, it would perhaps be wise for the Tánaiste to speak to me, before seeking to speak for me, in his public statements". In response, the Tánaiste - who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence - said that he accepted the point made and will "reserve any further comment" until he meets Pte Rooney's family next week. "I'll be meeting Natasha next week and I'm going to reserve any further comment until I meet her. "Natasha is a grieving mother fighting for justice for her son who died while serving with absolute distinction. "He has my absolute and total respect, as does his family, and I'll reserve making any further comments until I engage with Natasha directly," Mr Harris said. Pte Rooney, who was 24 and from Newtowncunningham in Co Donegal, was killed when their armoured vehicle was fired on in Lebanon on 14 December 2022.
