David O'Hara 🇮🇪

Great letter in today’s IT from David Woods of the Dept. of Classics in UCC, skewering the flotilla hysterics 👇 Sir, – Micheál Martin’s hysterical over-reaction to the Israeli detention of Irish citizens participating in the Sumud flotilla embarrasses Ireland on the international stage yet again. These people were not innocent holidaymakers suddenly snatched at sea, but political provocateurs who desperately sought arrest and detention by Israeli forces. This event should be treated as the publicity stunt that it was. The real injured parties here are the ordinary Israeli and Irish taxpayers who have to pay for the arrest and repatriation of these middle-class narcissists. The best way for this Government to stop the genuinely shocking humiliation and mistreatment of Irish citizens would be to focus on the homelessness crisis in Ireland, or the ever-growing hospital waiting list, and ignore the self-indulgent gimmicks of the anti-Israeli lobby. – Yours, etc, DR DAVID WOODS, Dept of Classics, University College Cork.

Left Politicians and NGO representatives hold protest for Congolese habitual criminal Yves Sakila as innocent man Alex Coughlan died in Connolly died after been beaten to death and robbed by two African teens in Blanchardstown. A Political Protest for Yves Sakila Coincided with Death of Alex CoughlanAs tributes continue for Alexander (Alex) Coughlan, the 37-year-old Blanchardstown man who died on May 20, 2026, three days after a violent assault and robbery by two teenagers, attention has turned to the contrasting public response to another recent death in Dublin. Coughlan was attacked on Mill Road around 4:15 pm on May 17. He was found unconscious, taken to Connolly Hospital, and later passed away from his injuries. Two 16-year-old boys have been charged with assault causing serious harm and robbery. The assault was described by Gardaí as unprovoked. Coughlan’s family described him as a “caring and selfless” man whose organs were donated in a final act of generosity. Just days earlier, on May 15, 35-year-old Congolese-born Yves Sakila died after being restrained by private security guards outside Arnotts department store on Henry Street following an alleged shoplifting incident. Sakila, who had lived in Ireland since 2004, had a lengthy criminal record involving multiple convictions for theft and public order offences. In response to Sakila’s death, protests were held outside Leinster House and at the scene, drawing crowds chanting “Justice for Yves.” Speakers included Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, in which Alex Coghlan lived in her constituency and Senator Eileen Flynn, along with representatives from NGOs and anti-racism groups such as the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR). They called for a full investigation, raised concerns about the use of force by security, and framed the incident in the context of racism and unequal treatment. The timing of these high-profile protests, while Coughlan lay in hospital fighting for his life and then passed with relatively limited public mobilisation, has sparked online debate about priorities in public mourning, media coverage, and responses to crime and integration issues in Ireland. Gardaí investigations continue into both cases.

@RaymeBallantine @EwanMacKenna Yes Ray, amazing place.

@SUPFORALL @EwanMacKenna Have you been David?

Can you imagine doing what Israel has done daily for two and a half years, to any and all, and spending that time moaning about people saying hurty words to you. The single worst nation state in my life filled with the worst of humanity. Why would anyone be scared to say it aloud

From the latest INTO Magazine - In Touch "LGBT+ based bullying has been found to be widespread in Irish schools" Really @INTOnews? Can you show the primary/post-primary numbers for this? How widespread is it in Junior Infants, for example? "....when schools are proactive and LGBT+ inclusive in their messaging, this has a positive impact on the wellbeing of all children.......(whether they are LGBT+ or not)" So proactive messaging about transgenderism to children? I proactively do not consent to this. I mentioned the different families same love resource in the video below at 8:35 #BíCineálta #Stonewall

My thoughts on the @EHRC guidance laid yesterday; this is not about non-existent "rights". It is about the safety of women - mothers, sisters, wives, daughters. We men need to hear their voices. Virginia Woolf : "Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes". My intro on @TimesRadio yesterday: Where I live there are two different routes to and from the tube station. One, let’s call it Acacia Avenue, is quiet and residential. The other, London Road, is a busy major route with lots of traffic. At all times of the day, I automatically head for Acacia Road. It’s just much nicer. The women in my family, on the other hand, will never willingly make that walk after dark. They live with an anxiety that most men find it hard to imagine, and frankly, rarely think about unprompted. Last year 739,000 women were sexually assaulted in Britain. Virtually all such assaults - nine out of ten - are perpetrated by men. One in four women have been attacked at some time in their lives. Acacia Avenue is exactly the sort of place in which most women fear that they become vulnerable, and they are right. As the author Virginia Woolf once wrote " Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes". I think this is the right context in which to understand the furore over the guidance being laid today by the government, over the meaning of the words man and woman when it comes to providing services and facilities in workplaces. Many men think this is about a rather arcane dispute about who gets to use what loo. For their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, it isn’t. In a previous life, as Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, I had a hand in writing this country’s equality laws, in particular the 2010 Equality Act. It never occurred to any of us that there could be any confusion or dispute over the meaning of the words man and woman. But it has taken a decade of campaigning, a Supreme Court judgement and now hundreds of pages of guidance to settle the issue. This is not about so called trans rights, which are completely unaffected by this guidance, since no-one has ever had the right to walk into a changing room reserved for teenage girls. What it does mean is that women and girls are guaranteed the protection they deserve, and that their safety, which we spent half a decade drafting law to ensure, is protected. But the whole business illuminates some serious issues in our politics. First that many of our institutions, in spite of the fact that they always knew what the right thing to do was, decided to ignore the fears of their women customers and employees, under pressure from noisy pressure groups. Instead, the people who were supposed to be the grown ups behaved as though the law said what campaigners wanted it to say, rather than what it actually said. They settled for what they hoped would be a quiet life. In a democracy, there’s little point in Parliament deciding anything if the law is then made an ass by activists intimidating bosses in companies, schools, universities and the media into doing something different. Second, at the heart of the campaign to undermine the Equality Act is an idea that we specifically rejected in 2010, so called self-identification. That is to say, that it should be up to the individual to decide whether they have what’s called a protected characteristic - are you male or female, are you black or white. The problem is that self-ID would destroy the operation of any law against discrimination. Look, it would almost certainly have been to my advantage as a young man to self-identify as a handsome, white public schoolboy. None of those things is true of me. And at various points I am pretty sure it’s been to my disadvantage. It is certainly statistically likely to have been to my disadvantage. But according to the logic of those who say that self-ID should be the rule and that anyone should be able to decide for themselves whether they are male or female, black or white or Asian, were I to complain about racial discrimination, it would be difficult for anyone prove that I’d been discriminated against because of my race since anybody to whom I’d lost out could just tell the courts that they too were black. I know that sounds like Alice in Wonderland but you can google the case where a chap, both of whose parents are white, insisted he should get money from the Arts Council because he so identified with the black struggle that he considered himself black, and everyone should accept his point of view. In the United States and Brazil exactly such outlandish claims have been made and people rewarded to the disadvantage of people actually born into minority families. I have even been told about firms who, when reporting their gender pay gaps have put men who just happen to like wearing dresses at weekends - nothing wrong with that, let me be clear - into the female column and told their women employees that they really haven’t got anything to moan about because statistically they are paid equally, and they should get back in their box. So today’s guidance isn’t just another tiresome chapter in culture wars. It is , I hope, a halt to the efforts to undermine one of the most important pieces of legislation on the statute book, by people who, for their own reasons, would prefer us to be living in the 1950s world of Mad Men.

Was the brutal killing of Irishman Alex Coughlan as he pleaded for mercy a racist attack? It may not have been……but why are the people that seek to find racism in everything suddenly silent about this tragedy.

Important: It is wise to remove videos of this what was perpetrated upon this man. A kind looking, gentle man. A father. Because it is actually only helping the culprits in the long run. Posting their faces can affect the investigation and affect trial. Once they were charged the case is subjudice. We know now who the perpetrators were, so it would be kind to the family to remove the video that will haunt them for eternity. It is adding to their anguish. Also please donate and share as the financial burden of a funeral can be removed from the family, even if their grief can not and never will be removed. gofundme.com/f/alex-coughlan

Yves Sakila and the dangerously irresponsible rush to judgement. gript.ie/yves-sakila-an…

Say his name!

I've unfortunately seen a bit of this horrific video. Alex on his knees, trying to defend blows, pleading. He wasn't just robbed, nor beaten, imo. He was m*rdered. They filmed him while viciously attacking him. Charge them as adults. I hope MSM covers it. irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/0…

Read this, every single word! Well done John!

Let’s be honest and try to piece together what happened to Alex Coughlan based on evidence available so far. Alex Coughlan was punched and kicked until he was unconscious on May 17th. He died three days later on May 20th. Those responsible for killing him we are told are two sixteen year olds. Due to our child criminal protection laws, nothing more is known about them officially. The social media story is that they are both non Irish teenagers. There is also a suggestion that they lured Alex Coughlan to his death and killed him because he was gay. This to me would suggest murder rather than manslaughter. If these two boys lured Alex Couglan to meet in a quiet lane with the intention of murdering him because he was gay, it is a monstrous hate crime totally alien to our culture. Similar has happened before in Sligo and the mainstream media covered it up as much as possible. Official Ireland is now deafening by its silence. No idiot Senators or TDs addressing leftwing racists outside Dáil Éireann. No ministers making comments. The MSN media are doing their best to cover up aspects of the crime like with Sligo. I for one am sick of it. There public demands the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If these kids are old enough to beat a poor man to death, they are old enough for the truth about who they are, what they did and why they did it to come out. RIP Alex Coughlan.

@noriordan She seems unhinged. Are you actually contending she makes a good case for not playing ? As you're Chief Sports writer for the Irish Sun no less, maybe advise us. What other teams shouldn't we play against or is it just Israel?

@WilliamBrowne18 @grok @HMcEntee Good lad William, insightful input!

@SUPFORALL @grok @HMcEntee I’m sure if you asked the Palestinians they would be able to tell you the address that the vile Isrealies scumbags stole their land from them and their houses

Europe cannot continue to defend a rules-based international order while permitting trade with illegal settlements. Today at the FAC (Trade), Ireland joined 9 Member States in calling on the European Commission to bring forward proposals to ban trade with illegal settlements.

@GeorgeDillon @benj_kerstein Yes, the animals in Hamas and Palestinian citizens who did that on Oct 7th are seen as animals by many of us!

@SUPFORALL @benj_kerstein "they know little about the Middle East" But they sure know that burning babies alive is wrong, you fool!

I have some Irish ancestry, and Ireland's descent into antisemitism and hate breaks my heart. One cannot renounce one's ancestors, but sometimes it would be nice if we could. algemeiner.com/2026/05/21/iri…

@grok @HMcEntee OK, thanks.

No, the minister and the 10 EU states are referring specifically to Israeli settlements in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), not "anywhere in Israel." The EU position is that these are built on territory occupied in 1967, making them illegal under their reading of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel rejects that view and maintains the settlements are legal. The proposal targets the broad category of such settlements and related goods—no exhaustive named list is required for the policy.

@grok @HMcEntee So could she be referring to anywhere in Israel? It seems nuts that the EU describes settlements as illegal without specifically identifying them.

No specific individual settlements are named in the minister's statement or the joint call from the 10 EU states. They refer broadly to the category of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), which Ireland and the EU regard as illegal under international law (Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention). Israel maintains they are legal. No list of named settlements was provided in this proposal.

@grok @HMcEntee Which ones, do they have a name?

The Irish minister is referencing Israeli settlements (and related goods) in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), which Ireland and the EU consider illegal under international law—primarily Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention—as they are in territory occupied since 1967. No single "specific" settlements are named; the policy targets the category broadly. Israel rejects this view, arguing the settlements are legal under its interpretation of international law, historical rights, and security requirements.