Portrait of a failing industry - Irish journalists are predominantly left wing, liberal and middle class. They do not represent a broad spectrum of public opinion. rte.ie/news/2023/1211/142132…

This would be funny if it weren't so serious. A 14-year old girl claimed she saw a man on the upper deck of a bus with his pants down low so that pubic hair was exposed and she took a photo as evidence. Her mother testified under oath that when her daughter returned home, she was visibly upset. Separately a "young woman" told the bus driver the same man's pants were "quite low" and he moved seats to sit beside her and touched her leg when plugging in his phone. She reported his conduct to the bus driver who pulled over, but the man pretended to be asleep when confronted. The 14-year old girl said another woman sat beside her and that woman told her the man was exposing his genitals and touching himself and that woman stayed seated with the girl for her protection. Gardai say the CCTV from the bus didn't show exposure or masturbation. But the seats on a bus will naturally conceal lower-body activity. Neither woman was tracked down by Gardai, it seems. Nor was the 14-year old or her mother interviewed by Gardai. Kirk Loco was prosecuted for the Tweet below (redacted, the original photo is replaced by text). Judge today says the man's contact with the young woman was more than likely of a sexual nature and indicates the contact was sexual harassment rather than paedophilia. The Palestinian wasn't arrested. Kirk was acquitted today after a 2-year prosecution, a dozen hearings, arrest at 6.30am, seizure of devices and God knows how much the legal defence was. He maintained exposure to a minor was paedophilia, we don't know the age of the "young woman". Gardai appear to have been uninterested in investigating the claims against the Palestinian, relying purely on the CCTV (which is obstructed in viewing lower body activity because of seats). Funny if it weren't so serious. Or maybe horrifying.

In December 1958 the Polish embassy in Beijing refused to let the sparrow killers onto its grounds, so the Chinese surrounded it with drummers and kept the drums going for two days until every bird sheltering in the garden had dropped dead from the air, and the diplomats cleared them up with shovels. That is how thorough it was. The campaign had been running since the spring. Every village, school and factory was turned out with gongs, pans and firecrackers to keep the sparrows flying until their hearts gave out. Nests were torn from eaves, eggs smashed, chicks killed, and children went through the fields with slingshots and were paid by the bird. The dead came in by the basket, strung on wires, piled on carts, and the totals went up the chain as a harvest. Something close to two billion sparrows in two years. The embassy garden was the last place in the capital with birdsong in it, and the drums got that too. A zoologist called Zhu Xi had told them before it started that a king had tried this and lost. Frederick the Great of Prussia had put a bounty on sparrows in the 1740s to save his grain and his cherries, and the sparrows went, and the caterpillars they had been eating stripped his orchards to the stalk, and the king cancelled the bounty and paid to have sparrows brought back from neighbouring states and let loose. The whole episode was in the library. The ministry had a figure for what a sparrow ate and no figure for what it did, and a man with the second figure was told to sit down. The locusts arrived on schedule. Then the grain borers. A sparrow takes a few grains from a field in autumn and feeds its chicks nothing but insects all spring, and with the sparrows gone the insects had the rice and the wheat to themselves. The counties with the most sparrows to lose saw their grain fall the furthest, and the rice and wheat that had been holding the country up went down together. That was 1959, and the state took its grain quota anyway, on the harvest that had been reported. What was left in the villages was not enough, and the famine that followed over the next three years is the largest in human history: tens of millions dead, the estimates running from fifteen million to forty-five, whole counties in Anhui and Sichuan where the living could not bury the dead. The sparrows were one cause among several and the economists who have gone back to the county records put the bird's share at something over two million people, with another four hundred thousand never born. Two million, from a campaign against a thing that weighs an ounce. By 1960 the ornithologist Tso-hsin Cheng, who had been cutting open dead sparrows and counting the insects in their stomachs, got the bird struck off the list and bed bugs put in its place. There were almost no sparrows left in China to pardon. So the government did what Prussia had done two centuries before: it bought a quarter of a million sparrows from the Soviet Union and shipped them east in crates, to be released into a country that had drummed every one of their relatives out of the sky. The animal that does the invisible job is always the one on the ledger as a cost. Take the sheep off a chalk down and the orchids are under scrub in twenty years. Fence the cattle off a Welsh hill and the bracken takes it. Empty a savannah of its herds and the grass goes to fire. All of it written down, all of it in the library, all of it available to the next committee with a figure for what a cow eats. Beijing paid Moscow for the birds in hard currency. The men who had said so in 1958 were still not allowed to say so in 1960.

Some of the questions that were asked for the Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks Poll.

Helen Obgu - Mayor of Galway. A Lie or a Mistake? You decide.

Dublin, Ireland's 'Rape Crisis Centre.' Where cartoon African nurses care for cartoon African male rape victims. In Ireland. Did I mention this is in Ireland? This is in Ireland.

"And that was the last we heard of the Okeyanmi family in Irish mainstream media or politics. But it wasn’t the end of their story. As soon as they arrived in Johannesburg, they were detained and deported to Nigeria within 72 hours. Because they allegedly had false documents, which leaves whatever story they told Irish authorities in tatters. We learned about this through questions in the South Africa parliament."

RTE is like Bruce Willis in the Sixth Sense, it doesn't realise it is dead. It died in the summer of 2023 with the Ryan Tubridy scandal. There's been a 25% decline in licence fees purchased between 2022 (947,924) and the 2026 estimate (750,000) despite an increase in population. That's a large part of the nation prepared to be prosecuted and giving two fingers to RTE. RTE in 2026 is summed up by Steve Carson - husband of Miriam O'Callaghan (herself on €244,797), who was one of two people (Carson on €276,282 and Patricia Monahan on €269,055) RTE recruited to replace Jim Jennings (on around €240,000 and paid €475,000 in termination payments last year) - announcing the fresh 3-year contract for Patrick Kielty this month. Kielty in 2023-2026 was on 75% MORE per on-air hour for Late Late than Ryan Tubridy and in 2023, personally announced his pay. In 2026, we don't know how much he gets paid, and there has been no personal announcement. He's gotten even cockier. Special liquidation for RTE (like IBRC - Anglo in 2013) has never looked more attractive.

Disgraced ex-RTE boss Dee Forbes snapped at the pub & restaurant in Cork. Obviously taking some care to conceal her identity, she doesn't strike you as being too ill to answer written questions from a Dail committee investigating Ryan Tubridy payments. When initially asked by auditors on 8 March 2023 about the secret Tubridy payments - later described by the incoming RTE chair as a "scheme designed to deceive" - Forbes initially lied and said the payments were in fact to agent Noel Kelly for consultancy (60 hours at €1250/hr per invoice). Tubridy quit RTE Late Late five days later in year #3 of a 5-year contract, the highest paid RTE presenter on RTE's top show. Whatever about the Dail committee, why was she not reported to Gardai?

Every time he shakes that man's hand it's costs us hundreds of millions on top of the below 👇

Labour said it was a typo from a volunteer. Helen went on radio and blamed the web designer. The same false story appeared in four separate Labour Party communications.

This is Brussels, the capital of the EU. More than 78% of the city’s residents are of migrant background. This influencer documents the changing face of the Belgian capital and its descent into total chaos due to mass migration.

The Discrepancy in the Timeline: The Facts Surrounding Helen Ogbu’s Campaign Biography The timeline surrounding Galway Mayor Helen Ogbu’s website removal becomes significantly more problematic when examining the digital archives of her own website and the official Labour Party platforms. Wayback Machine records show her personal site remained live as of May 29, 2026. This was not a temporary oversight on a forgotten campaign page; it was an active biography maintained while she served in public office. More importantly, the exact same claim was published on the official Labour Party website in their primary campaign announcement for the Galway West bye-election. The official party page explicitly states: "In 2006, she and her family moved to Ireland seeking refuge after the tragic loss of her husband, Sunny Orji-Ogbu – murdered for his political activity in Nigeria." Public records confirm her husband was assassinated in Nigeria in 2010 a Full four years after her arrival in Ireland. In media statements published today, Labour's election director dismissed the discrepancy as a "typo" made by a volunteer rather than the party, claiming the error rested entirely on the single word "after". However, labeling this a simple rogue drafting error strains credibility, especially when looking at the wider profile presented to the press. A profile published by Maxim Kelly of The Galway Advertiser on May 14, 2026, adds further contradictions to the timeline. It notes that her child was born prematurely during a visit to Dublin nine years before her husband's 2010 murder (around 2001), long before her stated 2006 move. When the exact same narrative is independently replicated and prominently featured across a candidate’s personal campaign, official party electioneering literature complete with senior leadership endorsements, and press interviews, it points to a coordinated, approved campaign script rather than an accidental, isolated keystroke. Erasing entire websites and newsletters rather than transparently correcting the discrepancy compromises the baseline transparency expected of public office. When political parties hit the delete button on the very background stories they used to solicit national votes, the electorate has a right to demand accountability based on the documented archive. 🗄️ Documented Archive References 1. From the copy on way back machine "About Councillor Helen Ogbu "I am Helen Ogbu, and it is an honor to represent Galway City East as your elected Councillor. My journey is deeply rooted in a passion for community, social justice, and empowerment. I was born and raised in Nigeria, where my early life and education set the stage for my unwavering commitment to public service and advocacy. From a young age, I aspired to make a difference, and as a child, I wrote an essay declaring my dream of becoming an ambassador—a dream I continue to pursue through my work in community development. In 2006, my family and I moved to Ireland, seeking safety and a fresh start after the tragic loss of my husband. Since then, Galway has become my home, and I’ve dedicated myself to giving back to the community that welcomed us. I have spent over 18 years volunteering, mentoring, and advocating for social justice, women’s rights, and mental health. As a Labour Party representative, I stand firmly on principles of equity, inclusion, and empathy. My life's work has always been about empowering people—whether it's through the Ladies Hangout, SAOL Connect, or my numerous roles in local organizations. I bring a fresh perspective to local government and an unwavering commitment to creating a more inclusive and supportive Galway for all." 2. The Galway Advertiser (Published Thursday, May 14, 2026, by Maxim Kelly) "Nze Sunny Ogbu (1965-2010) was a scion of a prominent business family in the region...""Helen's and Sunny Orji-Ogbu's only child, Chichi, had been born prematurely during a visit to friends in Dublin, nine years before the murder. So she fled to Ireland, seeking asylum from persecution, and ended up raising her child in the Eglinton Hotel, Salthill for three years under Direct Provision."

Helen Ogbu's husband was a wealthy business man living in Israel while she claimed asylum in Ireland. She should be arrested for fraud and deported. Galway County Council have instead appointed her to a leadership role. "Corruption" doesn't go far enough to describe this farce.

RTE News reports from Paris amid record-breaking European temperatures and finds a "vulnerable" Eritrean illegal immigrant who managed to survive 26° at night. (Eritrea's avg June temperature is 30°)

“I did publish a general scheme before the referendum so that people knew what they were voting on. I really feel that I have a mandate for that piece of legislation" FG leader Simon Harris speaking in 2018 about the abortion bill which was published in March 2018, two months before the referendum to remove the constitutional ban on abortion Whatever about the outcome of this evening's vote on removing the 3-day wait to access an abortion, the fact that the Government published a Heads of Bill before the referendum in 2018 (which was carried 66-34), and the fact that Simon Harris said the Bill was published so people knew what they were voting for in the referendum, and the fact the Bill contained the 3-day wait, makes today's vote look tawdry from a democracy perspective. To some, including FF minister Norma Foley, it looks like the Government is welching on its deal. You'd wonder how trusting the public will be the next time the Government schedules a referendum on anything.

Once respected Ireland’s Dept of Finance embarrass themselves again by flying the flag of an anti-science flat earth cult now being abandoned by the rational world.