Tag Archives: Declan Ganley

This morning/afternoon.

Declan Ganley responds to an apology read out in the High Court earlier and a substantial settlement from RTÉ 12 years after he said he was defamed during a Prime Time profile.

Via RTE:

“On November 27, 2008 RTÉ broadcast a Prime Time special programme concerning Mr Declan Ganley. In the course of the programme, reference was made to the death of Mr Kosta Trebicka and an image was shown of his body,” the statement said.

“RTÉ accepts unreservedly – as stated on the programme – that the death of Mr Tribecka was wholly unrelated to Mr. Ganley or any business related to him. RTÉ apologises to Mr Ganley for any hurt or distress that may have been caused.”

RTÉ apologises to Declan Ganley over Prime Time programme he claimed linked him to death of Albanian businessman (Independent.ie)

Meanwhile…

Via John McGuirk, a friend of Mr Ganley’s:

…The justification for showing the dead body of a man murdered, lying on the roadside, was that he had, at one time, met Mr. Ganley. The subtext was clear: Ganley met this man, and then he was murdered. We’re not saying Ganley had him killed, but is Ganley a tool of the neo-cons, and isn’t this the sort of thing that neo-cons do??”

It was, in short, the most despicable piece of journalism I have ever seen in my life. In the weeks and months afterwards, I lost count of the number of people who accused me of working for a murderer.

A long battle through the courts has ended today, mainly because RTÉ knew, I suspect, that they did not stand a chance in front of a jury.

They have agreed to pay a substantial sum in damages, plus the costs of both parties. You, the licence fee payer, will bear the cost of every penny.

Most people, of course, will never hear about the apology. Hundreds of thousands of Irish people watched the hit job back in 2008. Many of them will have forgotten the details.

Many of them probably still look at Mr. Ganley and think “there’s something shady about that fella”, not even being conscious that the programme influenced them, as intended.

That was the objective, of course. RTÉ have paid the price for it, today. But it is not justice. In a just world, the people responsible for this would never work in media again.

The victims of this kind of thing from RTE are always from the same stock, of course. David Quinn had to sue them when they allowed a smear to be broadcast about him. Fr. Kevin Reynolds was called a rapist, and had to sue them. Sean Gallagher was the victim of a transparent, and successful attempt, by RTÉ, to rig a Presidential election. Kevin Myers was called an anti-semite on national radio. All of them won substantial damages, all of those damages paid by the public. When was the last time a Fine Gaeler had to sue RTE for libel? It’s always the same people – those who take a different view, on matters of controversy, from the establishment.

There have never been any consequences for people working in RTÉ. The costs, every time, are paid by the licence fee payer. The smear artists sail on, unaffected.

The licence fee should be abolished.’

Ganley makes RTE pay the price for a despicable smear (John McGuirk, Gript)

RollingNews

Burkean Journal and Declan Ganley

Financially backed by Irish entrepreneur and conservative Declan Ganley, a new publication, promising to combat the “degeneracy” spreading across the west, will launch in Trinity this week.

The online-only student-led publication, the Burkean Journal, will discuss contemporary issues in Ireland from a right-wing, conservative perspective.

The publication takes its name from Edmund Burke, the renowned Trinity scholar often referred to as the “father of conservatism”. Online already are a number of articles addressing safe spaces, the abortion debate and populism.

Ganley, whose son Micheál is the publication’s secretary, has loaned the board of the publication €600 in seed funding, which will be paid back from the editorial team’s own pockets.

Final-year classics student Guillermo Dillon will serve as editor of the publication.

…Speaking to The University Times, Deputy Editor and one of the founders of the publication Louis Hoffman said that its aim was “to promote conservative ideas on campus” in response to the “sterile” debate on campus.

Hoffman, a third-year history student, said the publication was, in part, an attempt to challenge what the editorial team see as a left-wing monopoly on campus. “You can say and think what you want as long as you think exactly what [they] think”, he said.

Those on the editorial team see their role as important in stopping the “degeneracy” that Hoffman said is “spreading like wildfire across the western world at the minute”.

…Citing the cancellation of Fox News in the UK, Hoffman said he was concerned at the lack of a “platform” for conservative ideas. The Burkean Journal’s editorial team will not restrict growth of the publication: “The aim is to start in Trinity and then spread out.” 

Declan Ganley Financially Backs New Conservative Student Publication (University Times)

Thanks Harry O’Brien

 

They don’t get cultures of openness, transparency and sharing, and the interrelationship of these individual-collective values that frame many peoples understanding of democracy power and agency. And they sure as fuck don’t get the lulz.

Libel laws have always been about controlling the medium itself rather than controlling what people can or can’t say, but the more mainstream media spin this as some muzzling on Twitter and the internet, the more they look like me talking about dubstep at a party. Daft.

In public… Ganley himself is being lauded by some as the saviour of decent polite discourse, but to other he looks like Cartman screaming “respect my authority”.

 

Declan Ganley’s €50: Social Media & the Virtual Reality of the Irish Political Class No 2 (Soundmigration)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

Or words to that effect.

Declan Ganley and Robert Emmett in The Shelbourne Hotel (in the room where the draft constitution of the Irish Free State was cobbled together in 1922) literally earlier.

Ganley: Yes Camp Selling ‘Titanic Ticket’ (irish Examiner)

Meanwhile, in Buswell’s Hotel:

From left: Paul Murphy MEP, Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins at the United left Alliance’s last press conference before the treaty vote.

Government ‘Lying Over Treaty: Boyd Barrett (Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)