Next Wednesday, Green Party TD for Patrick Costello is hosting a briefing by a new group, Coalition Against Hate Crime (CAHC), that has been created within the NGO swamp to push for censorship and restrictions of views that conflict with theirs.
One of the listed speakers is Luna Liboni of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties who previously worked for the European Council.
The fact that this is being facilitated by a government TD, in support of government legislation makes a complete joke out of the claim of the coalition members to be “non governmental.”
In any other democracy the likes of the ICCL would at the very least be challenging any restrictions on free speech on the very civil libertarian principles they profess to protect.
In common with most of the Leinster House parties, the so-called civil rights groups here support the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill which was passed at second stage on November 16 last. The only TDs to oppose were 9 independents, mostly from the Rural Independent Group, along with 4 of the People Before Profit group.
Gript and others have previously examined what the Bill is proposing to do, and its implications for free speech and indeed the rights of people who dissent from the current establishment consensus on key issues to express themselves and even engage in normal democratic activities.
What I would like to do here is to briefly look at some of the “Non Governmental” Organisations who are members of the new coalition being hosted by the Dublin South Central TD.
Costello claims in his email that there are 22 organisations affiliated, “whose members represent groups commonly targeted by hate crimes.” The 21 whose logos are attached to the ICCL’s promotion are:
Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI), Trans Gender Equality Network (TENI), Irish Traveller Movement, National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI), ICCL, National LGBT Federation, NASC, Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI), Doras, Age Action Ireland, Immigrant Council of Ireland, Pavee Point, Outhouse, Belong, Inclusion Ireland, Bród, LGBT Ireland, Intersex Ireland, LGBT Travellers, and the National Traveller Women’s Forum.
Let us establish first principles, given that we are talking about groups who define themselves variously, or both, as NGOs or charities. The first of these is that none of them would be able to function without the support of YOUR money, channelled through various state agencies or recycled through other NGOs and charities.
What they are not, is independent of government. Quite the opposite in fact.
They also in many cases receive funding from a variety of billionaire left liberal foundations including Open Society. As for the charity aspect, if you read most of their reports, the “charitable activities” they reference correlate remarkably with the amount of money they spend on their own wages.
Charity indeed. YOUR charity to them, mostly.
The Irish Network Against Racism which was or is part of the European Network Against Racism which is 70% funded by the EU Commission, no longer provides financial information in its tendentious reports, although its web page acknowledges it debt to Rialtas na hÉireann. The Man.
These people claim to be leftie activists remember. Was Trotsky funded by Rialtas na Rúis? Connolly by Rialtas na Bhreataine? I think not. Anyhow, we do know that they got €270,000 in 2019 which worked out at something in the region of €500 per one of their anecdotes of alleged racism.
SARI, which has striven valiantly to attempt to make the GAA and others feel guilty about racism over the years, received almost €220,000 in 2021 and managed to spend more than that on paying themselves. Not much money left for sporting against racism then, unless maybe they have an FIFA World Cup Xbox in the office.
TENI of course is an old friend which in fairness to it has managed tenaciously (see what I did there?) to survive on YOUR tab despite failure to submit proper accounts for four consecutive years.
Doras, based in Limerick, employed 18 people in 2021, which presumably accounted for almost all of the €358,123 in “deferred income,” over two thirds of it in direct state grants. Gript contacted them yesterday regarding their reasons for opposing Garda checks on migrants arriving without documentation but they did not get back to us. Perhaps they were too busy fighting Hate.
The National Youth Council of Ireland had an income of over €2.8 million in 2021, of which they spent over €1.3 million on wages for their 26 employees. Like most of the bigger organisations, the NYCI channels part of what it receives from the state into other NGOs. Una mano lava l’altra, as they used say in Brooklyn.
Age Action Ireland, whose board of directors includes several people like Ailbhe Smith who began their careers as left wing activists, spent €1,663,760 on staff costs out of an income of €1,690,850.
And one could go on. The question that ought to be asked, is, what part of the putative purpose of all or any of these “Non Governmental” Organisations is lobbying in support of government legislation that has nothing to do with, for example, the welfare of elderly people, or the rights of disabled people, or event the democratic rights of travellers, gay people or migrants?
At least the four People Before Profit TDs who voted against the legislation recognised that potentially any dissenting voice might be silenced, or punished, for expressing opinions that are not currently part of a political consensus.
It is not that the far left does not want to see people with conservative views denied the opportunity to freely express their opinion – far from it indeed – but at least some of them can see beyond the immediate gratification of the others who see this Bill, rightly, for what it is intended to be: a means to restrict the free expression of views.
As has been pointed out, there is nothing in this Bill that will stop anyone “hating” anyone else. You cannot legislate for that. What you can do, and is done, is to prosecute and punish people who express that hatred in acts of violence, or in acts of discrimination if they happen to be persons in a position to deny others employment, or services or whatever. Indeed, the boot is already very much on the left foot in this regard, at this point in time.
What YOU, as the person who pays the bills, has the right to know, is why you are expected to pay for left wing activists to argue in support of legislation that might impact on the constitutional right of YOU and others o express your opinions.
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