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    The Irish Times: tense little untruths and distortions, and furtive, late corrections

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    By Michael Smith If Éirígí were saying it now, the story might have some credence. They are not. Even in 2018, they absolutely did not say she was “a member” The Irish Times’ Ursula Ní Shionnain story is not journalism. It is character assassination. The trick turns on a single verb. In the article itself, the headline reads: “Éirígí said Ursula Ní Shionnain still member in 2018 when employed by Catherine Connolly in Leinster House” https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2025/10/02/eirigi-says-ursula-ni-shionnain-still-member-in-2018-when-employed-by-catherine-connolly-in-leinster-house/. But in the social preview — the snippet readers see when they share the link — it has: “Éirígí says Ursula Ní Shionnáin still member…”. That one word — ‘says‘ — transforms a stale fragment into a live scandal. If Éirígí were saying it now, the story might have some credence. It might be a real thing that Ursula Ní Shionnain could agree with or deny. They are not. Even in 2018, they absolutely did not say she was “a member”. All that exists is one phrase, describing a painting by “our own Ursula Ní Shionnain.” That is Éirígí claiming her symbolically, because she had been a member who had served time. It is not evidence of membership. Yet the Irish Times translated it into “still a member” without bothering to investigate if — as a matter of fact  — she indeed had still been a member and projected it in the present tense. A non-story dressed up as something, even a scandal. The preview matters. The Irish Times boasts millions of monthly users of its stale and boring take on the world. And it is part of a wider pattern. Consider what happened to Catherine Connolly in the presidential debate. She had been meticulous: she did not compare Germans to Nazis. She used the word parallel, not “comparison”. Even the centrists in ‘The Rest in Politics’ did a feature in the last week on Germany, which is rearming against a background where the AfD is vying for first place in the polls.  She avoided the word Nazi altogether. She knows Germany: she studied the language, lived there, and points simoly to the obvious fact that Germany today is the most striking case of rapid rearmament in Europe. Careful, informed, serious. Kieran Cuddihy’s question was loaded from the start: he asked if she was comparing the Labour Party’s German allies in the SPD to Nazis. Fair enough perhaps, Cuddihy was fairly even-handed and it was just a question. Where it got murky was when Harry McGee reported in the Irish Times that Connolly “did not directly respond”. That was false. Where it got murky was when Harry McGee reported in the Irish Times that Connolly “did not directly respond”. That was false. Village called it out on Twitter on 29 September: “Except that it is untrue that @CatherineGalway ‘did not directly respond to the question’. Connolly expressly denied she’d compared Germans to Nazis. Correction needed.” Twelve hours later, uncorrected, Village’s Twitter account sharpened the charge: “At the time it appeared like an inept mistake … 12 hours on and uncorrected … it begins to look like an untruth — the sort of smear @paulmurphy_TD has referred to and the Irish Times has been at pains to deny. @CatherineGalway traduced”. Two or three days later the piece was furtively changed. No acknowledgement of the mistake.  No correction.  Just the abject amendment. Th pattern is obvious. In one case, the Times twists tense to make Éirígí “say” something they’re not. In the other, it has Connolly ducking a question she in fact answered directly. Both distortions serve the same function: to smear someone more radical than the unserious Irish Times, to police the boundaries of political respectability. The Irish Times once styled itself the paper of record. It retains the smugness such a status would command but it can’t be bothered meeting the standard,. Record-keeping built on sly verbs, on false denials, on half-truths repeated until they pass for fact — that is not even journalism. It is, when in campaign mood, a paper of smear. A paper of tense little lies. Biased.

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    Coach abuse knows no borders

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    And in Ireland, which has pervasive problems with paedophile abuse and not just in swimming, that is the conversation that must be kept alive By Irvin Muchnick I panicked. “Out of sight, out of mind”, I said. But you heard me say it, you heard and listened — popular unconventional translation of Psalms, 31:22 Perhaps unsurprisingly, on 14 August, the media relations department of America’s ‘newspaper of record’ declined the invitation to tell Village that there will be any addition to its coverage four years ago of an Irish coach who had attained a dubious diversity lottery visa – which a federal judge suggested had been facilitated by the American Swimming Coaches Association – and who thereby traversed the country across three decades, despite having been rejected for citizenship. The reason being that he had lied on his application about his prior criminal indictment in Ireland.  At least the New York Times is consistent. In March 2024, a 277-page congressional commission report, co-authored by sports law experts and Olympic legends such as track and field’s Edwin Moses, recommended restructuring the American youth sports system to stem the scourge of coach abuse. The Times has yet to inform readers of that report’s release and content, either. “We can’t and don’t cover every study, and do not comment on what may or may not publish in future editions”, said Times spokesperson Nicole Taylor. When I pointed out that the congressional commission report had been covered by the Washington Post, USA Today and other outlets, and was a thorough and much-anticipated fulfilment of a legislative mandate to offer the first significant reforms of America’s nearly-half-century-old Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, Taylor doubled down: “We can’t and don’t cover every study, and do not comment on what we may or may not publish in future editions. We’ve covered the issue of abuse and accountability in amateur, professional and Olympic sports with sensitivity and rigour”. According to the poet Wallace Stevens, there are thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird. When it comes to sexual abuse, there are only two. One is not to talk about it. The other is to talk about it. A list which shows the difficulties in bringing border-hopping coach predators to book In that spirit, Village submits for your consideration a list which shows the difficulties not just for law enforcement but for journalists in bringing border-hopping coach predators to book.  Our list drops just as Michael Phelps, perhaps the greatest male swimmer ever, and other American Olympics legends are lambasting the leadership of USA Swimming in the wake of a tepid national team performance at the recent world championships. As Britain’s Guardian notes: “Notably, Phelps’s broadside does not directly address the most damaging area of USA Swimming’s recent history: its handling of sexual abuse, harassment and athlete safeguarding”. Rick Curl In the summer of 2012, an ex-swimmer, now living in Texas in her 40s, was watching the US Olympic Swimming Trials on television. The former Kelley Davies spotted on the pool deck a coach named Rick Curl. In abuse survivor vernacular, this sighting “triggered” her. She chose to speak out to the media, and in the aftermath Curl was banned by USA Swimming and incarcerated in Maryland state prison. Curl had been the founder and co-owner of one of the country’s largest and most prestigious swim programmes, out of several locations in the Washington, D.C., area. He began having sex with Davies, one of his top swimmers, when she was 12, and he molested her throughout her teen years. Around the time Kelley started swimming on an athletic scholarship at the University of Texas – at which point Curl also held the post of coach at the University of Maryland – her mother and father learned details and sought Curl’s prosecution. The Davies parents were advised that their evidence was less than iron-clad for that purpose, and that they should pursue civil action. They achieved a $150,000 financial settlement tied to that bête noire of transparency: a non-disclosure agreement or “NDA”. In utmost quiet, the University of Maryland dismissed Curl. He moved to Australia and coached with Carlile Swimming, the top programme in Sydney. By 2012, presumably calculating that the coast was again clear in the US, he returned to his eponymous club. David Berkoff is an American Hall of Fame swimmer who is rightly credited with being an early whistleblower on abuse. In 2010, about to run for the USA Swimming board as an insurgent, he had told another activist in an email: “Denying knowledge of Rick Curl, Mitch Ivey and others banging their swimmers! It’s a flat out lie. They knew about it because we (coaches and athletes) were all talking about it in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I was told by several of Mitch Ivey’s swimmers that he was sleeping with Lisa Dorman in 1988. I heard the whole Suzette Moran from Pablo Morales over a handful of beers and nearly threw up. I was told Rick Curl was molesting Kelley Davies for years starting when she was 12 by some of the Texas guys. That was the entire reason I formed the abuse subcommittee [at USA Swimming]. I was sick and tired of this crap. No one was standing up. No one was willing to take on these perverts”. When Davies noticed Curl at the 2012 Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, Berkoff was in the stands. By now he had been elected to the USA Swimming board as technical vice president. Anti-abuse activists who thought he was one of their own now were complaining he was a sellout who, once on the inside, was doing little about the problem in the sport’s higher councils. Berkoff defended himself in an interview with the Independent of Missoula, Montana. He said he had had no idea that Curl was coaching at the Trials. Berkoff also disavowed knowledge of Curl’s abuse of Davies. “I don’t know”, Berkoff said. “I heard rumours”. And so, in a rhetorical instant, the circle between “flat out lie” and “rumours” was squared. Alex Pussieldi Alex Pussieldi

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    In Gaza, dreams

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    Resilience among the rubble By Eman Abu Zayed On the night of October 6 2023, I laid out my clothes for university like I always did neatly folded on the chair next to my bed. I packed my bag with books, charged my phone, and set my alarm for 6:30 a.m. Earlier that day, I had been laughing with my friends on campus. We talked about our classes, shared silly jokes, and promised to catch up again the next morning. Nothing felt unusual. It was just another ordinary day. But I didn’t wake up to the sound of my alarm. I woke up to the sound of rockets. By morning, everything had changed and my life would never be the same again By morning, everything had changed and my life would never be the same again. From the very first moment, I felt like the life I knew had ended. Suddenly, there was no water, no electricity, and no signal. It was like we had been thrown back hundreds of years, living in complete darkness. The borders were shut, the phone lines were dead, and we had no way to check on our families or friends. Sometimes we’d hear the bombing loud, close but we couldn’t tell where it had hit. We only knew it was too close. The airstrikes were terrifying in a way we had never experienced before. The ground shook beneath us, and everything felt black and silent. No news, no voices, no safety. I was sitting at my neighbour’s house, with my friend Dima, when the tanks started shelling the upper floors of the building we lived in. The entire tower shook, and I ran toward our apartment, desperately trying to find my family, terrified something might have happened to them. We all gathered in one room my aunt, my cousins, and the rest of us trying to shield ourselves from the explosions, holding our breaths with every blast. But the shelling didn’t stop. The upper floors were hit again, and we had no choice but to flee into the street. What we saw outside felt like the Day of Judgment. People were running in every direction, screaming, crying, chaos everywhere. Smoke filled the air. Tanks were closing in on the neighbourhood, and bullets were flying from every side. It was one of the most terrifying days of my life. We whispered the shahada dozens of times in a single minute. We walked for what felt like over a thousand meters, and the sound of shelling still echoed behind us. My father was pushing my grandmother in her wheelchair, and I was holding my little brother’s hand tightly as we ran through the street, not knowing where we were going or where we could possibly be safe. Eventually, we found a house nearby that belonged to relatives. We took shelter there. More than sixteen of us crowded into a single room. There was no privacy, no comfort but we had no choice. This was now our reality. The shelling grew closer and closer, and the bullets from Israeli quadcopters began hitting the walls of the house we were staying in. That’s when we made the decision to flee again this time to a tent in Rafah, in what they called the “humanitarian zones”. I had only ever seen tents in movies or read about them in camping stories. I never imagined one would become my home even temporarily. But we had no other choice. We gathered whatever belongings we could carry and headed to Rafah. There, we began setting up tents. The sun was blazing, the air unbearably hot, and there was no water. Still, we tried to finish building the tent before nightfall, just so we could have somewhere to sleep. That night, twenty-eight of us slept in a single tent. We were still trying to adapt to life in the tent, telling ourselves it was temporary, holding on to any sense of routine or stability. Then came the devastating news: our home had been bombed. But when I say “our home was bombed”, I don’t just mean the walls came down. Everything was gone. Not only was our house destroyed, but so was my father’s goldsmith workshop it was on the ground floor. That news hit us like a punch to the chest. We broke down in tears, unable to believe it, hoping somehow it was a mistake. How could the house I had lived in for twenty-two years disappear in the blink of an eye? How could my room, the memories, the laughter, the photos on the walls, and my childhood bed be gone? Everything was lost the house, the workshop, and a piece of my heart with them. Then came the news that shattered my heart completely: Rama had been killed. Rama wasn’t just anyone she was my closest friend at university, my favourite person, the one who knew me better than anyone else. We shared everything: lectures, long talks between classes, our fears, and our dreams. Losing her felt like losing a part of myself. At the time, there was no communication. I had no idea what was happening in the north. My friend Rawaan sent me a message telling me that Rama was gone, but I didn’t receive it until two days later because the network was down and sending messages was nearly impossible. I couldn’t believe it. I cried and screamed, unable to grasp the loss. I never got the chance to say goodbye. Rama was one of the few who refused to evacuate. She chose to stay in the north enduring hunger, bombing, and humiliation but she stood her ground. She stood… and then she was killed, along with her sister Ruba, who used to share her room, her nights, and her laughter. Even in death, they weren’t separated they were buried together in the same grave. I never got to see her. I never even got to hear her voice. This war has taken everything from

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    SIPO’s investigation of Tommy Reilly and Liscarton: a case-study in money, deflection, silence and the collapse of national ethics-gatekeepers

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    By Frank Connolly a 35-acre site at Liscarton was purchased for €500,000 in 2016 and placed on the market for €4.2m a year later, after rezoning A public inquiry by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) (13 and 16 June) into the conduct of former Meath County Council Chairperson and Fianna Fáil councillor Tommy Reilly has exposed a system of institutional laxity, media laziness and ethical failure that stretches far beyond the boundaries of Liscarton, near Navan. At the centre of the controversy is a 35-acre site, purchased for €500,000 in 2016 and placed on the market for €4.2 million a year later after the lands were re-zoned from agricultural to light industrial use in July 2017. Planning permission for development was granted in June 2018 by a Council in which Reilly played a key role. In 2017, the National Transport Authority questioned the rationale of developing enterprise activities at a location so far from Navan town centre with few or no public transport services to the site stating: “The new employment zoning at Liscarton is inappropriate as it is contrary to the planning principles set out in Section 7.1.2 of the Transport Strategy”. Two of Reilly’s sons, Ciarán and Tomás, are directors of the company that owns the land. Planning permission was granted in 2018 by Meath County Council in which Reilly played a key role. Two of his sons are directors of the company that owns the land The complaint that brought the case to the attention of SIPO was not made by a political rival, insider, or whistleblower. It was submitted in March 2022 by Village’s editor, Michael Smith,  documenting alleged breaches of the Local Government Act and the Lobbying Act, among other laws, primarily on the back of this  article by me: https://villagemagazine.ie/meath-council-investigates-potential-conflict-of-interest-in-major-land-re-zoning/.  The article revealed how Tommy Reilly attended a number of meetings where the re-zoning of the lands at Liscarton was discussed by members and officials of MCC from 2016 was present at a pre-planning meeting with his son Ciaran and participated at meeting when zoning was approved in July 2017. He withdrew from the meeting but did not disclose the reason for his potential conflict of interest.  The NTA questioned the rationale of developing enterprise activities at a location so far from Navan with few public transport services The complaint to SIPO by Smith alleged, inter alia, that “S 4.5 of the Code of Conduct under the 2001 Act also notes that “The 2001 Local Government Act also provides that where a councillor has actual knowledge that a matter is going to arise at a meeting at which s/he will not be present, but if s/he were, a disclosure would be necessary, then in advance of the meeting s/he must make such disclosure in writing to the Ethics Registrar. This provision was breached by Councillor Reilly, as he confirmed to Village that he knew about Ciaran Reilly’s interest when he met him in his son’s shop and canteen in advance of the re-zoning in July 2017. From the beginning, the institutional response has been marked by deflection, minimisation and delay. The SIPO hearing itself was postponed twice, including once following a request by Reilly just before the last local elections. When it finally proceeded in June 2025, media and others were given just four days’ notice, effectively suppressing public awareness. On the first day of the hearing, SIPO unilaterally dropped some of the most serious allegations – including breaches of the Lobbying Act, without consulting the complainant. Smith said “there can be little in life as unrewarding as making a complaint to SIPO”. He said the misery of involving himself in the process was “compounded by the fact that nobody in the media reports accurately what is going on, less still what is at stake”. Reilly, who served on Meath County Council from 1996 until he lost his seat in 2024, portrayed himself as a victim. He told the Commission on Monday, 16th June, that he had been “tortured” for six years, lost his livelihood, and was attacked on social media by what he called a “certain group of political people”.  For the first time in 63 years, he claimed, he was asked not to canvass during an election. Reilly stepped down as a candidate for Fianna Fáil in a 2005 Dáil by-election following a controversy involving a land purchase with Frank Dunlop in 1997. At that time, he said he had been the subject of a witch-hunt by sections of the media. In his testimony, Reilly insisted he only learned of his son Ciaran’s interest in the land in early July 2017when his son asked him how he would go about making submissions on the development.. He had asked his son “for what?” and Ciaran had told him he had bought land at Liscarton. Mr Reilly senior said he had been shouting about the “cow plot” at Liscarton for years because he wanted it to be put to community use. There had been so many small businesses in Navan operating from the backs of houses and that had become unsafe. He said he replied to his son that he could have nothing to do with the land and to proceed without him. He had taken no action at that stage but when the date of the meeting came he spoke to an official who told him he did not have to leave the council meeting on 19th July 2017 because he had no financial or other interest in that land at Liscarton. That unnamed official was not held to account for that advice. But he admitted he did not specify the nature of the conflict and failed to update his declaration of interests. “I find it all very confusing”, he said, adding: “My son was involved. I knew that much. Was that not enough?”.  The media seemed not to be too concerned whether it was or wasn’t, even though a €3.7m paper profit was in play. The facts suggest it

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    Sex, power, and consent violations:

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    Untellable stories from Dublin’s nightlife By Ama Alzaki Let’s be honest: no one tells the full truth about nightlife. Not in Dublin, not anywhere. The headlines skim the surface: “safety on nights out,” “binge drinking”, “harassment in clubs”. But the deeper, messier stories? The ones that live in the blurry space between consent and coercion, pleasure and power, being wanted and being used? Those get buried in silence, shame, and disbelief. But I’ve had it with staying quiet. girls call it “a bad night” because calling it assault would mean facing how often it happens Because behind the sparkle of a Friday night and the rhythm of the DJ, there’s another reality: women waking up unsure if what happened was sex or something else entirely. Girls calling it “a bad night” because calling it assault would mean facing how often it happens. Men whispering apologies they don’t mean. And a city that parties hard while brushing everything else under the rug. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it. When I first moved to Dublin, going out was the ritual. Every weekend, my friends and I would hit the clubs: shots, drinks from strangers, dancing until our feet hurt. We were out to have fun. But not every night ended with fun. Some nights ended with me waking up next to someone I didn’t know, with no memory of what happened or how I got there. And it wasn’t just because I drank too much. I’ve had nights where the amount I drank didn’t match the total blackout that followed. No images, no flashbacks — just silence. Once, I even fell asleep in a taxi, which I never do, and woke up completely disoriented. I started to wonder if my drink had been spiked. I still don’t know. But the fear that comes with not knowing, that feeling of not being safe in your own body, never leaves you. That’s not paranoia. In 2022 alone, Gardaí recorded more than 100 reports of drink spiking across Ireland. Experts say these numbers are wildly under-reported₁. In a survey conducted by SpunOut.ie, 59 % of young Irish women said they had experienced spiking or knew someone who had₂. Another survey by the Union of Students in Ireland found that 29 % of students believed they had been spiked.₃ “I didn’t bother reporting it. Half my friends told me the guards would never test me in time, so what was the point?”.  That is what a 19-year-old respondent told a USI survey₃. That hopelessness isn’t unique to Ireland. A 2024 UK study by Drinkaware and Anglia Ruskin University found that 90 % of people who suspected they were spiked never contacted police — and half of them said they ‘didn’t see the point”4.  Karen Tyrell, CEO of Drinkaware, put it bluntly: “Drink spiking is a serious crime that can happen to anyone at any time.”₅ A UK Home Office review of 1,261 police toxicology screens, published in December 2023, underscored the same mismatch: only 5% of suspected spiking samples contained any controlled drug at all, and benzodiazepines such as flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) were “rarely detected”.₁₃ Pop culture often trivialises those fears. British comedian Jimmy Carr once condensed the threat into a single gag—“See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Rohypnol” —turning a violent crime into a punch line and reminding victims how casually their trauma can be dismissed.₁₄ But it’s not just about spiking. It’s the entire culture. In nightclubs, consent is a joke. A guy groping you as you pass is “normal.” A stranger grinding on you without asking is “expected.” You say no, and suddenly you’re the one ruining the vibe. The minute you walk into a club, your body stops being yours. It becomes part of the scene. We’re told this is freedom, but it’s not. It’s pressure. It’s performance. It’s sex without connection, touch without care, parties without protection. Hook-up culture is sold as empowerment, but for many of us, it feels like survival. And sometimes, survival means pretending you’re okay just to make it out. One night, I left a club around 1 a.m., tired and wanting to avoid the long, expensive taxi ride back to Blanchardstown. While waiting outside, a guy I barely knew offered to let me stay at his place instead. I said yes. At the time, it felt like a relief, a safe escape from the cold and a long commute. I thought I’d crash on the couch or in a spare bed and head home the next morning. But when we got to his flat, it quickly turned. He wanted to have sex. I told him no. I was tired; I just wanted to sleep. But no wasn’t an option to him. He became aggressive, his mood darkening fast. He told me I wasn’t leaving unless we had sex. I realised then that the “help” he offered was always, for him, going to come with strings. I froze. In that moment between no and yes, I understood exactly how powerless I was. The door was locked. He was stronger. I didn’t want to, but I went along with it because I was scared. The sex was rough, violent even. I wasn’t present. I was just trying to get through it so he’d let me go. After, I left shaken and silent. What would I even say? That it wasn’t rape in the way people imagine it? That I had said no, but also didn’t fight back? That I was afraid? That I didn’t scream? That I just wanted to get out? The truth is, I’ve told almost no one about that night until now. Since moving to Cork, I’ve never set foot in a nightclub. Not once. I’ve lived here for over seven years now, and that part of my life is over. The fear, the trauma, the questions that never got answered—they left a mark. It has taken seven years. And I’m not alone. This happens every weekend in Dublin, and in cities

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    The Devil and Mr Roger Casement.

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    Conclusive proof of ‘Black Diaries’ forgery, finally. By Paul Hyde. Among the diaries attributed to Roger Casement there is a cash ledger for 1911 which is also part diary. This has been scrutinised by several authors, most closely by Jeffrey Dudgeon, the Belfast researcher who is today the leading forgery denier.    In 2002 Dudgeon published the first edition of his book bearing the title ‘Roger Casement: The Black Diaries – with a study of his background, sexuality and Irish political life’. This substantial volume purported to add rich detail and colour to the already widely established view that the diaries were authentic. Dudgeon was able to present much information about the north of Ireland in relation to Casement and also to provide something missing from other studies – what it was like to be an active homosexual in the North (and elsewhere)  a hundred years ago. Dudgeon’s history recipe freely mixes fact with speculation and ‘in-the-know’ innuendo to promote his desired conclusions of authenticity which are guided more by an obvious bias than by impartial analysis. His book, although stylistically challenging and idiosyncratic, has gathered both attention and praise. A certain sentence on page 285/6 had disappeared. Dudgeon has never doubted the diaries are genuine and he no doubt believes he has demonstrated their authenticity to the highest degree possible. As the years passed his reputation grew as a veteran crusader who knew ‘the inside story’ and he became an influential expert consulted by authors, academics, journalists, guest speaking at conferences and appearing on the media. Such a success story that by the centenary year of 2016, he produced a second edition to meet steady demand.  Then, only two years later in early 2019, he produced a third edition. There was however one small difference in this third edition. A certain sentence on page 285/6 had disappeared. The 27-word sentence, apparently insignificant, had been in print for 17 years but was deleted in 2019. To discover the motive for this unexplained deletion is also to discover its significance for the entire controversy about the diaries. The devil is in the detail we are told so let us look at the detail to find the devil. The detail concerns an alleged affair between Casement and a young Belfast bank clerk called Millar; Casement did indeed know Millar and his mother through shared friends and acquaintances in Antrim but they had little in common politically. Readers of ‘Anatomy of a lie’ will recall that the widely-believed story fabricated by MI5 agent Major Frank Hall and promoted by Dudgeon is logically demonstrated to be manufactured evidence. The alleged affair features in the 1910 diary and in the 1911 ledger with events located in Belfast and environs. The story also involves a motorcycle owned by Millar in 1911 which vehicle was identified by Hall in 1915 along with the full name of its owner, Joseph Millar Gordon. Hall passed this information to the cabinet meeting on 2 August 1916 to overcome lingering doubts about the expediency of an execution next morning. Hall’s tactic succeeded. § In the ledger the following appears dated 3 June: “Cyril Corbally and his motor bike for Millar £25.0.0″. Cyril Corbally was a noted croquet player from County Dublin who in 1910 worked at Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club in Essex. In 1910 he acquired a second-hand Triumph motor cycle registered with Essex County Council. In 1911 Corbally sold the machine and in July Millar registered ownership with the same Council. The sentence is understood to mean that the diarist is paying £25 to Corbally to purchase his motorcycle for Millar. Research has confirmed that £25 is a realistic price in 1911 for a three-year-old Triumph motorcycle; a new machine in 1908 cost around £50. However, as a simple record of a purchase the sentence is suspect because it contains four items of information when two would have been sufficient. It was not necessary to record the vendor’s name, the item bought, the purpose of the transaction and the sum paid. The vendor’s name and the price would have been enough to record the purchase. The extra information – purpose and item bought – is superfluous unless intended for third parties who the diarist knows will read the ledger. In short, the sentence is an artifice. There are two further references to the alleged transaction in the ledger: on June 8 which reads ‘Carriage of motorbike to dear Millar. 18/3’ and at the end of June ‘Epitome of June A/C Present etc. to others Cyril Corbally…25.0.0.’ Outside the ledger there is no evidence that Casement ever contacted Corbally; nor is there any reference to the purchase of a motorcycle.  § Here is the sentence which Dudgeon deleted from his third edition of 2019. “It is possible that Millar bought the motor bike from Corbally and that Casement was repaying him as a separate note listing expenditure simply reads ‘Millar 25.0.0′”. This sentence published by Dudgeon from 2002 to 2019 fatally compromises his overall endeavour to persuade us of authenticity. It signifies serious confusion; he does not know who paid for Millar’s motorcycle. It also signifies that he admits the possibility that Casement did not pay Corbally as alleged in the ledger which therefore would be a forgery. This confusion signals that Dudgeon is unable to make sense of the ledger and consequently has lost faith in his project. He cannot explain why if Millar paid Corbally, the ledger records that Casement also paid Corbally. It is possible that an astute, well-meaning reader alerted Dudgeon to the fatal implications of that sentence but after 17 years it seems improbable that he suddenly discovered the gaffe by himself. That ‘separate note’ is a single handwritten page in the National Library of Ireland (NLI) described as Rough Financial Notes by Roger Casement (MS 15,138/1/12). It is inscribed on both sides with records of outgoing payments. Many of the ten undated payments record substantial amounts so that Millar’s £25 is not exceptional. The NLI

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    Government hired private jet despite availability of commercial flights

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    Private-jet travel is up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights By Conor O’Carroll The government has hired private jets to transport the Taoiseach to foreign engagements and summits despite the availability of commercial options. Over the past twelve months, hundreds of thousands of Euro has been spent hiring private jets due to the unreliability and unavailability of the Learjet. In March, the Irish Times reported that the cost of these flights had surpassed €450,000, which included a two-day trip to the West Balkans in January by former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s trip to Israel in November, both of which cost in excess of €100,000. However, updated figures released to Village show that since the start of 2023, almost €650,000 has been spent on hiring private jets, with at least three additional trips not recorded in those figures. In addition to the trip to the Balkans and Israel, where commercial travel would not be feasible, the government has also hired private jets for short-haul flights to Brussels, Paris and Munich. Analysis of historical flights records suggests that on a number of these occasions, commercial flights were available. On at least five occasions in recent months, Village found commercial flights with a scheduled departure time within just over 90 minutes of the departure of the government’s private jet, though it was sometimes far closer. During the Taoiseach’s recent trip to Munich in February for example, a commercial flight with Lufthansa from Dublin left within 45 minutes of the government private jet, while there was a return flight available within an hour and 40 minutes. Instead, the government opted to hire a Bombardier Challenger 350 for €73,000. Private-jet travel is considered to be up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights, according to European sustainability NGO Transport & Environment. The Taoiseach also visited Paris in February for a special meeting of European leaders to discuss supporting Ukraine. For this, the government chartered two private jets for each leg of the journey, leaving the Air Corps base at Baldonnel for Le Bourget Airport. Flight data shows, however, that Aer Lingus flights between Dublin and Paris were scheduled to depart within an hour of the Taoiseach’s jet, landing and taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport, which is a 10-minute drive from Le Bourget Airport. The Taoiseach is also a frequent visitor of Brussels, regularly attending EU summits. On at least four occasions since last October, the government has charted a private jet for the two-hour flight. This is despite on three of those occasions, there were once again commercial options available. On the most recent trip to Brussels in March, an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin was scheduled to take off just over 90 minutes before the government’s private jet, while for the return journey, the government’s jet left just 10 minutes before another Aer Lingus flight. The Department of the Taoiseach did not respond to queries regarding the decision to fly private rather than commercially, but did say “the provision of a contingency Ministerial Air Transport Service (MATS) arrangement was procured by the Department of Defence following an open tender competition”. The spokesperson also stated that “the Department of the Taoiseach records, monitors and values the carbon emissions associated with official air travel”, offsetting the emissions annually.   Many of the Taoiseach’s staff and security team are able to fly commercially, however, such as the recent trip to Zurich for the World Economic Forum where the Close Protection Officer responsible for ensuring the Taoiseach’s safety flew commercially. The Taoiseach, meanwhile, hired a private jet for the two-hour flight at a cost of over €63,000. By comparison, records show the flights for the Close Protection Officer cost a little over €600. According to flight data, a Swiss Air flight to Zurich took off from Dublin just over an hour before the Taoiseach, and while there was a gap of almost three hours between the government’s private jet taking off on the return journey and any commercial options, it also made a one hour stop in Knock before returning to Baldonnel. Emails released under Freedom of Information legislation also show that the increased traffic of private jets arriving at Baldonnel is causing some consternation at the Air Corps base. After being contacted by the private jet company flying the Taoiseach to Copenhagen in November last year, a Commandant at the base told the Department of Defence it was the “second interaction from an external organisation which we have not been briefed in on and are blind to”. A tender to find the Learjet’s successor was published in November last year, with the government set to spent €45 million on the aircraft. The Department was informed by the Commandant that “numerous things need to be put in place and staffing in order to handle any additional non-military” flights, and that these plans cannot be put in place unless they were provided with the information from the Department. Government officials have previously stated that they had lost “all confidence” in the Learjet, however, an internal Defence Forces report on the future of the aircraft suggests that 2023 may have been “somewhat of an anomaly”, with previous years indicating the Learjet had a “good rate of serviceability”. The Air Corps have thus suggested that the Learjet serve as a backup option for forthcoming Ministerial transport missions, while the government continues to progress in replacing the jet. A tender to find the Learjet’s successor was published in November last year, with the government set to spent €45 million on the aircraft.

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