Left in the Lurch

16/06/2025

Back in The Ditch today thanks to my years-long fascination with honorary consuls.

An official representative of the Irish state in Egypt plays a crucial role in transporting goods in and out of Israel during its onslaught on Gaza.

He's a partner in the United Arab Emirates-Israel land corridor.

11/06/2025

Pleased to make my debut with The Ditch today.

Naoise Ó Cearúil told me he has no conflict of interest since he declared his shares, which is a very common misunderstanding of what the term "conflict of interest" means, I have noticed.

It was co-founded by a man who “conducted classified intelligence work” for the Israel Defense Forces.

01/06/2025

So far this term, every other Tipp TD has voted almost exclusively with or against the government.

Mattie has voted with the government

- around 52% of the time in total
- on 65% of votes outside private members' time
- 61.5% of the time if you also exclude order of business votes

If he had this voting record in the last Dáil, he'd have been one of the most pro-government independents, just behind Michael Lowry and Noel Grealish.

Whether that makes him a government TD is in the eye of the beholder to some extent, but it's certainly very different from the Mattie who ended the last Dáil term having voted with the government less than 10% of the time.

https://leftinthelurch.net/2024/11/17/michael-lowry-voted-with-government-more-than-75-in-last-dail/

15/05/2025

Further comment from me in the Connacht Tribune on the conspiracist "IRB" organising in Oughterard (and elsewhere, for that matter) and their plans to set up their own courts.

14/05/2025

How much did Mattie McGrath’s plant hire firm receive for clearing snow in January this year?

I've received more requests to investigate this story than any other. It took longer than it should, but I can now say: just a smidge over two grand.

How much did Mattie McGrath’s plant hire firm receive for clearing snow in January this year?

14/05/2025

I was quoted in this Connacht Tribune article on the "Irish Republican Brotherhood", the most active and well-funded of multiple fringe conspiracist groups claiming to be the descendants of the original IRB.

This IRB – currently led by a man called John Declan Flanagan – are attempting to infiltrate communities and set up their own councils and courts, all while telling people they don't have to follow the law as long as they give the IRB money for magic documents first.

19/04/2025

Pleased to make my debut at TheJournal.ie with an update on John Magnier's plans to demolish historic buildings at Parkville Farm in Clonmel – and the campaign to stop him.

Tipperary County Council did not request an architectural survey of the historic farm buildings despite the recommendation of the Department of Housing.

17/04/2025

RFK Jr.'s entire worldview is based on the assumption that autistic lives are not worth living and autistic people should be exterminated.

RFK Jr. has dedicated his public life to campaigning against vaccines, not linking them exclusively to autism, but primarily to autism, and the reason he does it is very simple. RFK Jr. believes it…

03/04/2025

The plant hire firms of TDs Mattie McGrath and Danny Healy-Rae have received contracts from Uisce Éireann worth €2.2 million and €25.7 million respectively since 2015.

The plant hire firms of TDs Mattie McGrath and Danny Healy-Rae have each received millions in contracts from Uisce Éireann since the body (then called Irish Water) began managing Ireland’s na…

26/03/2025

Mattie McGrath has decried the gutting of local authorities for years, and called for councils to be allowed build houses again just a few days before the last election.

Why is he now dismissing public housing as ideological?

Deputy McGrath’s distaste for public housing is politically incoherent, but makes perfect business sense.

18/03/2025

My first piece in a new series called The Conspiracist Papers.

I have spent a lot of time learning about conspiracy theories and why people believe them. I have also spent a lot of time learning about real conspiracies and how people get away with them.

We cannot understand the rise in conspiratorial belief without understanding that the conspiracy theorist's basic instincts about how the world works are correct, even if every thought that follows is nonsense.

I could never explain how or why I became fascinated with conspiracy theories.

12/03/2025

I went on Déise Today yesterday morning to speak with Damien Tiernan about my rare sleep disorder, starts around halfway through the second hour

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