PB February/March 2024 February/March 2024 39
Gript is particularly focused on immigration
and climate and, though unfashionably
friendly to religion and hostile to NGOs, it is
not nationalistic
So let’s take a look at Gript
Mission
Right-wing politics website Gript was set up in
2018 to “facilitate debate and challenge the
consensus” in journalism, particularly the
progressive consensus in reporting (not just in
opinion pieces), and especially the selection of
what stories to cover.
Gript is particularly focused on immigration
and climate. Its website claims to be “News,
Opinion, and Analysis – Without the Liberal
Filter” and says that “what we try to be here is
open, honest and brave”. Though unfashionably
friendly to religion and hostile to NGOs, especially
of course ones that do not mirror its views or
platform its own NGO directors, it is not
nationalistic. Editor John McGuirk says it is centre-
right, but that is not its stance in the culture wars
where it is profligately immoderate.
Modus Operandi
Gript has a number of characteristic approaches.
• It is impressively sceptical, though in the case
of liberals, climate scientists and NGOs
(though not the NGOs that underpin it) that can
look more like cynical.
•
Gript’s Senior Political Correspondent, Ben
Scallan, gives politicians grief on video over
their soft leftinesses.
•
It focuses on a number of right-wing politicians,
whom it generously platforms, and
scrupulously publishes their intolerant views
without comment.
•
As to liberals and lefties, it often attacks the
messenger particularly on grounds of
hypocrisy.
• Gript is hostile to Greens, doesn’t understand
the scientific method and therefore ignores
some of the biggest existential issues of our
time including the climate and biodiversity
crises and never analyses the Greens’ real
strategic failures.
• Its commentators often take the disingenuous
stance that, while they themselves may not
Gript by lies,
stirring hatred,
and sometimes
racist
By Michael Smith
take an intolerant view, the government’s
failure to deal with the strength of the view
among the public is exacerbating the
intolerance. It likes triumphantly to cite the
statistic from a Red C Poll that 75% of people
thing we have accepted too many refugees.
•
Above all, it publishes hundreds of negative
pieces about the vulnerable, typically brave,
minorities it dislikes, without ever really
covering them in a favourable way.
If you all think that is an attractive cocktail
you will like and follow Gript.
As to whether it deserves the grudging respect
of more liberal and leftist commentators for at
least being, as it flatters itself, “open, honest and
brave”, while it is brave to be anti-consensus and
to defend unfashionable causes like (in Ireland)
religion, conservatism and Israel, there is little
evidence of real openness or honesty, and
bravery in publishing negative and partial views
and opinions on vulnerable minorities like Trans
people, Muslims and asylum-seekers is cheap
and populist, not brave.
It is not even open enough to address
squarely issues like climate change, the
generation of refugees by wars and
persecution, whether Ireland has any problems
at all with hate or even if Palestinians are being
Polo-necked John McGuirk, who fronts illiberal
website Gript, is a serial liar and promoter of
hatred, and an occasional racist
POLITICS
See decision of Press Council on this article:
https://www.presscouncil.ie/about-us/recent-decisions-and-news/-griptie-and-village-magazine
40 February/March 2024 February/March 2024 41
subjected to war crimes by Israel.
Though impolite to say it, it is also the case that
Gript and its editor characteristically make lots of
mistakes.
Editor
Monaghan-born, Tipperary-dwelling, McGuirk
initiated his desultory career in politics with
abortive outings for first Fianna Fáil (2001) and
then, extraordinarily soon afterwards, Fine Gael
(2003), via apologies delivered to Trinity’s Hist
society for sending anonymous emails, and
failing to get elected as President of the Union of
Students in Ireland. He then launched himself at
the Freedom Institute, a PD oshoot. Then he did
a stint with the Green Party’s Mark Dearey.
Typical of his youthful embarrassments are his
unfortunate fallings out with both of Ireland’s
great civil war parties. He resigned from a junior
position in Ógra Fianna Fáil after turmoil about
first whether one particular email was a forgery
and then over who had leaked quite dierent
emails. And that he lied to Young Fine Gael (YFG)
that Phoenix magazine wanted to publish a piece
about a salacious juxtaposition of YFG material
with material of a sexual nature by the group’s
equality ocer, ensuring the unfortunate young
ocer’s resignation.
Phoenix highlighted McGuirk’s repeated early
lying in a 2007 profile. It said the 23-year-old
McGuirk had “made a career of flip-flopping,
changing course and causing havoc wherever he
goes”. Even by then his adventures and mistakes
were exhausting.
He worked for Declan Ganley in his Rivada
Company and then in the weirdly right-wing anti-
Communautaire Libertas during the Lisbon
campaigns of 2008 and 2009.
Libertas fought the 2009 European elections
with three candidates. McGuirk issued a press
release attacking the Simon Wiesenthal Centre
on behalf of one of them, Caroline Simons,
without any knowledge whatsoever on her part,
and later attacked her as a “psychotic bitch” and
the “worst candidate ever” – before apologising.
At the 2011 General Election he stood for
something called New Era, losing his deposit in
Cavan-Monaghan.
McGuirk was the spokesperson for the Life
Institute’s anti-abortion ‘Save The 8th’ campaign
during Ireland’s 2018 abortion referendum and
was often platformed by Vincent Browne’s
Tonight Show where he was an engaging and
articulate performer. In the campaign McGuirk
tweeted a photo of pro-choice campaigners
carrying posters featuring the 1930s logo of the
British Union of Fascists. The posters had been
handed out to unwitting marchers by
anti-abortion.
He writes for the Irish Catholic and has been
editor of Gript since 2019 bringing to 11 the public
entities that have carried his politics which are
best described as gymnastic. And he’s not yet 40.
McGuirk is smooth, dapper (especially recently
Ozempic-fuelled), aable, articulate and clever
— an ordinary lad out of Trinity, with a goatee, and
a polo neck in the wardrobe.
He loves his dog, supports Man U, loves the
county cricket and plays video games. He’s
admirably unflappable; and needs to be.
Dicing with racism
However McGuirk has always nurtured his
intolerant side and there is no better man for
innocently getting into a politically incorrect
scrap: when Barack Obama beat war-wounded
John McCain for the US Presidency in 2008,
McGuirk tweeted: “We were that close to having
the world run by a vegetable we got lucky and had
it run by a monkey instead”. That year he also
described pro-choice TD Kate O’Connell as a
“catty, spiteful, loathsome, twit”.
Another unpleasant and ostensibly somewhat
racist outing for McGuirk, though he makes out
he was merely illustrating the hypocrisy of former
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, was a Tweet about
a movie: “Before Django gets notions, remember
that Nelson Mandela, who he never stops
comparing himself to, is clearly Gerry Adam’s
favourite n*****”. Parking Adams’ [sic] role in the
aair, McGuirk is clearly someone comfortable
playing games with the word n*****, in relation
to one of the world’s greatest men, Mandela.
He once tweeted: “Charlie Bird is really
annoying me with his “OMG these blacks are so
poor” schtick”. And he is currently unenergetically
pursuing Web Summit’s Paddy Cosgrave for
defamation, after Cosgrave rehashed a dozen old
tweets in which McGuirk salaciously ventilated
about drooling over young girls like a “paedo”
and, McGuirk alleges, implied the Gript editor
was a racist. He is also pursuing Irish Central and
a number of other alleged defamers.
But, mainly what is nasty here is that McGuirk
edits an organ that obsesses over, but only very
rarely portrays positively, black and brown
people.
Ownership
McGuirk does not have a stake in Gript which is
owned by Evelyn Porter and Niamh Uí Bhriain and
employs ten. Its regular writers include Ben
Scallan, former activist with the right-wing Irish
Freedom Party.
Both Gript directors have connections with the
pro-life movement in Ireland, including the Life
Institute and Youth Defence.
A phone number used by one of them in Gript’s
2019 annual return is the same number used by
Youth Defence across its social media though
McGuirk says the connection is no more than that
between the Labour Party, which includes some
former Workers Party members, and the old IRA.
Gript’s Senior Political Correspondent, Ben
Scallan, stood for the nutty and far-right Irish
Freedom Party (President: Farage’s Hermann
Kelly) in the 2020 General Election.
Finances
Financial statements for the company show Gript
has never made a profit. The latest accounts show
the company lost €3,000 in 2022, but the idea is
to get a grip in the market and eventually get
more advertising. The model is similar to that of
thejournal.ie, and Gript’s momentum and impact
are strong.
Parnell Square stabbing débacle
Tweet identifies alleged stabber as
Algerian
Gript found itself at the centre of a media storm
on 23 November when, citing ocal sources, it
tweeted that the “person of interest” to gardaí in
relation to a horrific knife attack in Dublin was an
Algerian national. It ran a story to that eect a
short time later on its website.
Its Tweet (above) came just hours after the
incident, when information was scarce and many
Its commentators often take the
disingenuous stance that, while they
themselves may not take an intolerant view,
the government’s failure to deal with the
strength of the view among the public is
exacerbating the intolerance
Attitudinl journlism
40 February/March 2024 February/March 2024 41
were seeking context to the tragic events that had
occurred. A follow-up Tweet undermined its own
information, saying that the investigation was at
“a very early stage” and providing cover, should
their information prove to be incorrect.
However, this second Tweet was only seen by
a sixth of those who saw the first Tweet.
The reference to Algerian nationality, at a time
when the country was coming to terms with the
horror that was unfolding, was intended to, and
duly did, go viral, especially among a cohort
Ireland’s well-known racists who it is impossible
to deny look to Gript for information on occasions
like this. These people are in the business of
being stirred-up and hatred is their currency.
The man was, in fact, a naturalised Irish citizen
who came to Ireland from Algeria about 20 years
ago. His country of origin was irrelevant to his
actions which appear to have been rooted in
severe mental health problems.
The Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act
1989 states that it is an oence to communicate
threatening, abusive or insulting material that is
intended, or likely to, “stir up” hatred against a
group of people because of their race, colour,
nationality, religion, ethnic or national origins. It
seems probable the Tweet stirred up racial hatred
on the basis of national origin — to imply the man
may have carried out his crime because of
Islamism, that it was a terrorist act. Or perhaps
that this Algerian, like so many of the immigrants
of colour who Gript covers, was more inclined to
commit crime than Irish people are.His approach
was also racist. The Irish Network against Racism
defines racism as “any action…which has the
eect (whether intentional or not) of undermining
anyone’s enjoyment of their human rights, based
on their actual or perceived ethnic or national
origin or background, where that background is
that of a marginalised or historically subordinated
group”.
Yet McGuirk in subsequent posts revelled in it
as an act of press freedom, a public service. It
reprehensibly compounds the racism. It
performed no public service. It served to incite
riots.
Gript cocks up on identity of the stabber
A few days later, Gript proudly teased another
McGuirk story ahead of publication.
A now deleted Tweet from McGuirk, described
the story which it ran under his byline and which
featured details of an Algerian’s immigration
history, as “quite a tale”, while reporter Fatima
Gunning suggested that it would “rock A LOT of
boats”. In fact it mainly sank them.
After confirming receipt of confirmation from
the Garda that this new info was in fact about a
dierent Algerian. Gript reversed fast but issued
a statement (above left) threatening to reveal its
Garda sources, suggesting that it may have been
deliberately duped into publishing erroneous
information.
There was no apology issued to the person
wrongly described in the article though he spent
time under Garda protection for his own safety
and was catastrophically defamed by being
imputed a child stabber. Unsurprisingly he is now
suing Gript for defamation, It is an unpleasant
shadow for tne small but growing operation.
McGuirk stated on Twitter (now of course
known as X): “If, as the Garda say, that person
has no case to answer then that’s obviously awful
for them as well”. But it wasn’t an “if” and saying
so aggravated the defamation. Also: “as well” is
a strange take on the débacle presumably
implying that Gript thought its own recklessness
deserved sympathy.
It’s all lacking in openness, bravery and
honesty.
The story had been live for over seventeen
hours before it was taken down and replaced with
Phoenix highlighted McGuirk’s repeated
early lying in a 2007 profile. It said the
23-year-old McGuirk had “made a career of
flip-flopping, changing course and causing
havoc wherever he goes”. Even by then his
adventures and mistakes were exhausting
Typical of McGuirk’s youthful
embarrassments are his
unfortunate fallings out with
both of Ireland’s great civil
war parties
Stirring-up of htred: Tweet specifying
lleged stbber’s ntionlity certinly didn’t
dvnce the public interest
spred like wild fire
42 February/March 2024 February/March 2024 43
a statement from Gript: ‘We were provided
information in good faith by two usually reliable
sources, who we trust”. But that can’t be true —
it wasn’t that sort of lie. Being Ireland, everyone
was too distracted to nail what a corruption of
proper journalism and what an indictment of
journalistic ethics the mistake and its mishandling
represented.
Inevitably, while Gript did not explicitly name
the individual, it didn’t take long for far-right
factions online to fill in the blanks. Teeing up
others to identify someone is a recognised head
of defamation.
Known far-right agitator Michael O’Keee,
described in the Dáil as a white supremacist,
tweeted the name and picture of the Algerian
recognisable from Gript’s piece, before later
deleting it.
O’Keeffe has previously claimed to have
supplied stories to Gript and appeared to take
some credit for Gript’s original story, tweeting:
“Gript confirming my post from a few days ago”,
though there is no evidence O’Keee had any
involvement in Gript’s sourcing of its incorrect
story.
Typical Gript articles which,
taken as a whole, amount to
racism
Delving into Gript’s archive shows it is no stranger
to incendiary headlines and articles that
demonise migrants and asylum seekers.
It exploits the fact some asylum seekers are
“fake” and arriving from “safe” countries t to
whip up its followers and create an ‘us against
them’ narrative.
Suggestions that the arrival of people on our
shores will lead to lower wages are also repeated
regularly, while there is thinly-veiled racism in its
depiction of the emigration of Irish people as
entirely dierent because they travelled to
predominantly white, English-speaking
countries.
The images that come up when you Google
“Gript Migrant” and the associated content
betray a strategy by Gript to question the
legitimacy of asylum seekers, without drawing
attention to the life-threatening difficulties
experienced by asylum-seekers, stoking division
among people represented by the awful scenes
in Dublin in November.
Shortly after the riots, Gript repeated
incendiary claims made by independent Senator
Sharon Keogan that a Bangladeshi family seeking
asylum had received a three-bedroom apartment
from the State immediately after arriving in in
County Westmeath — bette