If you believe the government can be trusted on implementing new legislation regarding Hate Speech, Chat Control, Disinformation and Social Media regulation, just reacquaint yourself with 2009's Portrait Gate.

Politician gets his feelings hurt

Garda are dispatched immediately to investigate

RTÉ apologises for running the story and scrubs it from their archive

Garda arrive at Today FM (“on the orders of higher ups”) seeking emails to identify a journalistic source and the artist / “hate thought criminal”

File is prepared for the DPP

When you get past the humour and absurdity of it, it was in reality absolutely scandalous. It showed how petty those in charge are, and how willing they are to abuse the power bestowed on them.

The “robust checks and balances” they promise mean nothing, because they dictate what those checks are. The “independent oversight” they promise mean nothing, because they appoint those overseers and ultimately pay their wages.

The scope of power and restriction of freedom the government is seeking to grasp, in 2025, is quite unfathomable.

by Narwhal_2112

22 comments

  1. His stint as Taoiseach was an incitement to hatred!

  2. I don’t remember that at all. Was somebody charged or were the robust checks and balances effective? 

  4. > The “robust checks and balances” they promise mean nothing, because they dictate what those checks are. The “independent oversight” they promise mean nothing, because they appoint those overseers and ultimately pay their wages.

    How did the prosecution go?

  6. This is my first time actually seeing this painting. I remember it was so HEINOUS at the time I’d only ever seen it as a blurred mass of pixels as the news presenter described people being absolutely horrified by the picture in question.

  8. No one with a shred of decency wanted someone like him in charge of the country in the worst time possible, so some tend to be a little bit more emotional. Sometimes, they express their frustration by creating than destroying.

  9. Thank God they didn’t have more important things to investigate so they could make time for this.

  10. That’s a perfect example of it. I had forgotten about that. What we condemn in other places, particular the UK recently, has happened here. The gardai seem willing to be as bad as any other police force when encouraged by the political class. All it would take us for us to elected another prickly personality who doesn’t like it up him like cowen was.

  13. I sense great vulnerability, a man-child crying out for love, an innocent orphan in the postmodern world.

  14. >When you get past the humour and absurdity of it, it was in reality absolutely scandalous. It showed how petty those in charge are, and how willing they are to abuse the power bestowed on them.

    100% this. Wild that this basically happened unchallenged.

  16. The references to incitement to hatred were perhaps the most obvious indication that the gardaí were grasping for any possible pretext with which to charge the painter. There is no remotely plausible way to interpret the law which would have applied that legislation to a case like this.

  17. Wasn’t in Ireland at the time, but damn the fact this happened is scary. And to think there’s a certain subset of the population nowadays that would fully support this.

  18. Neither side should have this power.

    The neoliberal Performative Right have been proven just as bad as the Performative Left at clambering for speech crime laws over the past decade.

  19. Anyone else think we might be completely fucked? These laws are coming in just as there’s a surge in the far-right across Europe.

    Labour are doing everything they can do to hand the next election to Reform in the UK, Nigel fucking Farage is going to be able to decide what you need to show your ID to see online over there.

  21. Anyone know where the portraits are now? Id love to go see them.

  22. The whole “gardai barging into Today FM” bit was really bad. When people talk about gagging the media, this is what they mean.

Comments are closed.