In recent weeks, there has been increasing evidence of authorities in the north of Ireland aligning themselves with dangerous far-right thugs. On May 1, the racists and Islamophobes of Our Northern Ireland Voice (ONIV) shared a video showing a group of men assaulting a person they described as a “Pakistani male”. Later identified as Mohammed Manai, the thugs allege he was attempting to enter a primary school, though no evidence has been produced for his alleged crime. However, thanks to ONIV, video evidence does exist of thugs attacking Manai with punches and knees to the body as they pin him to…

As part of dodgy attempts to affect media coverage he was unhappy with, Fine Gael minister for communications Patrick O’Donovan held a call with Ireland’s media regulator “outside normal communication channels“. He then failed to disclose that the conversation took place. The Ditch reports that on Saturday April 11 O’Donovan spoke to Coimisiún na Meán’s (The Media Commission or CnaM) Rónán Ó Domhnaill to: …express concern regarding media coverage of the fuel protests and to ask whether there was a mechanism for the minister within the legislation to ask for an examination of the broadcast coverage of the protests. The protests…