Senator Catherine Noone, a candidate for Fine Gael has issued an apology for calling Taoiseach Leo Varadkar “autistic” during an election canvass. The Times last night reported that Ms Noone, a candidate Dublin Bay North, said of Mr Varadkar “He’s autistic like, he’s on the spectrum, there’s no doubt about it. He’s uncomfortable socially and he […]
In some ways it’s not surprising that the Immigrant Council of Ireland (2018 income: €1m, most of it from Government and EU grants) would be taking an active part in the general election campaign, trying to make the case for policies that favour immigrants and asylum seekers. That is, after all, their job, and the […]
The most striking aspect of Charlie Flanagan’s proposed “hate speech” legislation is the extraordinary alliance that has formed in its favour. As previous reports on Gript have shown it not only seemingly includes the entire “range” of parties within Leinster House, but everyone else from Pollyanna overseas charities to the “New IRA.” The latter, which […]
When someone declares we need new laws to restrict and curtail “hateful” opinions, the absolute least that person can do is make sure their own track record is squeaky-clean. Fine Gael’s Justice Minister, Charlie Flanagan, has been doing the rounds in recent months, insisting that Ireland should expand its current definition of “hate speech”. However, […]
In a letter sent to Canada’s Minister of Heritage, Trudeau calls for ‘significant penalties’ to be imposed on social media companies that fail to remove content perceived as hate speech within 24 hours.
What a difference a year makes. Here’s the Irish Times’ own Kitty Holland, almost exactly one year ago, approvingly reporting on proposals to introduce a hate speech law: And here’s the Irish Times’ own Kitty Holland an hour ago, reacting to the news that that nice Mr. Corbyn had not achieved a majority for socialism […]
The Department of Justice’ public consultation on reviewing the legislation on hate speech comes to a close on Friday the 13th. (You can make a submission or answer a survey here) No more suitable day for the shambles of a process that it has been. In parallel, the Irish Human Rights Commissioner Emily Logan stated […]
About once or twice a year, the Irish Government and a bunch of friendly NGOs head over to Geneva in Switzerland to report to the United Nations on Ireland’s “progress” in a range of human rights areas. This week, it was the turn of the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination (CERD). The last time Irish […]
JOHN WATERS: “If you don’t give unadulterated praise to certain groups of people, you will be guilty of hate speech” #gript
Before we get in to the rights and wrongs of this, it’s worth looking at what the state’s equality commission believes is a racist comment: “It points to recent examples which have caused it concern, including ….. Galway West TD Noel Grealish’s description of refugees from Africa as “economic migrants” seeking to “sponge off the system here in […]
On Thursday 24 October, the Government formally signalled its intention to introduce draconian hate speech legislation in Ireland. As was the case with many people, I felt a sudden alarm that our fundamental inalienable human right to articulate opinions and ideas was going to be removed, so I took to Twitter to ask people if […]
The full interview can be viewed here: