Youth Defense Site Hacked

Aswerty

Well their site got hacked and replaced with information about who and what they are.

http://www.youthdefence.ie/index.html

Copy pasta for when it gets taken down.

This is not the hate-filled truth-distorting website you're looking for.

Note: We the Irish do not appreciate US organisations pouring money into shady groups here to try change our rules and society for their own gains. Youth Defence has been the seed of more hatred here that any group in a long time. It has to stop.
Youth Defence is not what you think it is. Youth Defence is an extremist group who actively hide their links to shady right-wing connections and where their funding comes from. Let's blow the lid.
Neo-Nazi Links

Original leaders include Fr. Maurice Colgan (more on him below) & Justin Barret, a man with known links to neo-Nazi movements (speaking at NDP events in Germany) and who has campaigned in the past against divorce, contraception & gay rights. In his book he has even described immigration as “genocidal”. He has also spoken at multiple Forza Nuova (Italian far-right group) rallies in the past. Recently, it was shown that current leaders have been known to associate themselves with the likes of, Michael Quinn, a prominent member of the Irish far-right group, the Irish National Brotherhood (INB) who happens to be a proud fan of the Greek far-right political party the Golden Dawn and who constantly tweets about his hatred for 'negros'. Quinn would like us to believe that when the IMF assisted Ireland during the bailout one of the terms they demanded was that Ireland needed to install abortion on demand. It has been revealed that Quinn is a close friend of a certain Fr. Maurice Colgan. Colgan, as you may know since you are visiting this cesspit of a website is a founding member of Youth Defence. Certainly, Fr. Colgan's Neo-Nazi sympathies cannot be denied, he even once lived with a certain Anthony Barnes (lead singer of the whiney, untalented Dublin Neo-Nazi band, Celtic Dawn). What would the church say of this relationship? A man, cohabiting with another man and their shared affinity with the far-right.
Let us not forget too, that both he and Barret were arrested after violence broke out and member of An Garda Siochana were assaulted when the Youth Defence thought it would be a nice idea to protest outside the rooms of terminally ill patients at Adelaide Hospital in 1999.
Charity Status?

Youth Defence are classified as a charity, in Irish law a charity must disclose donations over €100 and are not allowed to accept donations over €2500. They have yet to allow the Public Office Commission to see where they are getting their money from. Given the scope of their advertising campaign it can only be assumed that they are receiving funds from an individual or a group who they don't want the public to know about. But what we do know is that they are certainly funded from outside of Ireland by right-wing neo-conservative Americans (more below). Indeed, if you were screwed up enough to donate to Youth Defence you would have noticed that on their donation form the currency was American dollars. It has only recently been changed to the currency of Ireland, the Euro. This website isn’t even hosted in Ireland. It’s on a North American server.
Inflated Numbers

It has recently been shown too that the vast majority of Youth Defence’s Twitter followers are not Irish. 59% of followers are from the USA and Canada. Only 14% are from Ireland. It’s also been shown that their Facebook page (around 72,000 Likes), 38,000 are from the USA, while only 9,000 are from the island of Ireland.
Office Association & Hiding the Books

Youth Defence claim to be based at Life House, Number 60a, Capel Street, Dublin. The small office is shared among quite a few anti-choice organisations. They include: Coir, the Life Institute, the Mother & Child Campaign, Pro-Life Alliance, prolifeinfo.ie, Truth TV, and of course Youth Defence. That’s quite a few different organisations running from one small office. You’ve got to wonder whether funds are transferred between them legally. Probably not, what a silly question. Irish authorities have never been allowed to get their hands on their accounting books. Why, you ask. Well, these crafty so-and-so’s continue to evade the authorities. An Irish registered charity must document all donations above a certain amount. However, Youth Defence and their cohorts, while it’s plain to see are lobbying entities (funded by charity), refute this and claim they are “education spreading” entities. Let’s take a look at who are really funding Youth Defence and their sister organisations:
Where the Funding Comes From

Are they funded by Irish anti-choice campaigners?
To a small extent, but the vast amount of money comes from America. Sure, if you’ve ever even attended one of their organised events you’ll have noticed that a huge proportion of the people attending are not only not Irish, they aren’t even European. It’s well known that North American fundamental Christians are flown in to boost their numbers.
Why does the funding come from America?
Well, that’s easy to answer, if these 3 American men below can secure Ireland as remaining without abortion then they can use our country as a beacon for their anti-choice campaigns in America. They can show that Ireland remains strongly Catholic, and the last great bastion of Christian faith in Europe, fighting the so-called “good fight”.
They have zero problem with Irish women leaving Ireland for Britain to have abortions. Zero. They just want Ireland to remain “abortion free” so they can claim a moral victory in Western Europe and try to push for a similar occurrence in America.
These men, play on the emotions of Irish-Americans and sure, don’t we all know that the plastic paddy diaspora know what’s best for us. Those who actually live thousands of kilometres away from the coal-face. Those who chose to leave Ireland, let’s remind ourselves that while we all have, and know plenty of families that have been decimated by immigration, it was always a choice. Not since the days of Cromwell have people been forced to leave Ireland. Now, thankfully, those that look back at the auld sod and see us as still being the backwater we were when they left are taking it upon themselves to try and dictate things from afar. Sure, it’s for our own good, they quite clearly have our best interests at heart. We’re too close to the action, sure how could we know what’s best? We only effing live here!
Let’s take a gander at these specimens of men.
Joe Scheidler (Founder of the Pro-Life Action League)

Known as the man who “defined pro-life direct action”. He once penned a book entitled “Closed - 99 Ways to Stop Abortion”. Where chapters include titles such as: Sidewalk Counselling, Adopt an Abortionist, Strategies for Closing Abortion Mills, and Getting Pro-Life Information into High Schools. The last one particularly applies to Ireland, haven’t you heard recently about some Irish schools where the sex education book being used encourages abstinence and discourages all types of contraception? Well, that’s thanks to one of the above “education spreading” organisations.
Scheidler’s link with Ireland is quite dubious, he simply sees Ireland as somewhere that the battle against abortion can actually be won and wants to use the ‘success’ of Youth Defence & the Life Institute here as a springboard for his campaigns in the good old U.S. of A. This is a man who once described the protection of abortion clinic workers as nothing more than “an event the media are focusing on the take attention away from Obama’s failed domestic financial policies”.
He once tracked down an 11 year old pregnant girl, (he’d seen a report about her on TV, and then hired a private investigator) to her house where he confronted the girl’s mother (screaming from a neighbouring balcony and armed with a loudspeaker) to try and convince them to not go through with an abortion.
Oh, and how do we know he’s one of the ones behind the funding of the Irish operations? Well, that’s easy, he admitted it in an interview with the Sunday Business Post not so long ago. He believes that those who carry out abortion procedures and the women who have the procedure done should face the death penalty. He also believes that America is involved in a civil war against pro-choice activists. He has described Don Benny Anderson, responsible for the kidnapping of abortion clinic worker Dr Hector Zevallos and his wife, and Peter Burkin, who carried out firebombing attacks on two abortion clinics, as “sound as a dollar”.
He’s clearly loopy, yet he’s somehow allowed to run fundraising campaigns in the States to fund the likes of Youth Defence here.
Scott Schittl

Schittl is American and moved to Ireland around 1998 and studied in Trinity College. On obtaining Irish citizenship in 2005, he bailed out and returned to the States where he is now president of Life House. Where have we seen that name before? Oh yeah, on Capel Street in Dublin. Life House are an “... American, tax-exempt organisation... [whose] purpose is to help make sure Ireland remains pro-life and abortion-free, and make it easier for Americans to support Ireland's pro-life success story”. How nice of them to send some money our way, you gotta love those plastic paddies, they always know what’s best for us, stuck here in our rain-soaked homeland.
Michael Sullivan

Finally! One with an Irish surname at least, but fear not, he’s not actually Irish either, he just lived here for 10 years. Sullivan is a founding member of the Divine Mercy Project. He’s also a founding member of a group called Go First Ministries, “a Catholic outreach to persons who experience same sex attraction” in other words, where Catholic teens are sent by their conservative, homophobic parents to try to pray their homosexuality out of themselves.
Sullivan also campaigns for funds to be sent to Ireland, so as to keep Ireland abortion free and because he believes “that Ireland is a key to the re-evangelisation of the world”.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians

The single greatest organisation of plastic paddies the world has ever seen. Ultra Catholic and ultra conservative. They still believe that Kathleen Ni Houlihan is alive and well and that the menfolk of Ireland still walk our rain-sodden streets with flat caps and shillelaghs and wood pipes and the womenfolk wear shawls and dance barefoot at crossroads. The above three prey on the rose-tinted, distant memories of the members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (cool name and all that it is) and receive vast amounts of dollars to spend on anti-choice campaigns held in the homeland of their distant, distant ancestors, y’know, the ones who left Ireland, by choice, a long, long time ago.
They also believe that EU law, (the one that says Ireland needs to clarify its stance on abortion) “emanates from Britain”.
Scare Tactics, Illegal Advertising & Propaganda

Youth Defence have been constantly smearing the country with their billboards, posters and leaflets, all of which are misleading, most of which are outright lies. They contain the following filth:

• Images of aborted foetuses (although some are photos of healthy C-section babies, but let's not let facts get in the way of their lies) and other death porn
• Unsavoury captions
• Flyers detailing that babies have been born so their organs could be harvested
• Robocalls, people have been pestered with hateful messages by an autodialler
• Eddie Shaw, headmaster of Harold School in Dublin put leaflets in children's school bags

They do this for one reason, to scare rational minded people into doing what the Youth Defence want them to. Even the way they talk is geared that way:
Youth Defence's propaganda-like guide entitled “When They Say… You Say” includes:

• Don’t say DOCTOR, PHYSICIAN – say ABORTIONIST
• Don’t say PRO-CHOICE – say PRO-ABORTION
• Don’t say ANTI-ABORTION – say PRO-LIFE
• Don’t say FOETUS – say UNBORN CHILD, PRE‐BORN CHILD, BABY

Here is some of the lies currently being told over and over:

• Savita Praveen Halappanavar. Youth Defence still believe that her death was “not caused by Ireland's ban on abortion”
• The harvesting of baby organs. They actually tell people that abortion happens in some cases to provide the father with organs from the baby!
• Lying about Fine Gael’s pre-election promise. The promise was to talk about the issue, not to keep the same law
• Smearing human faeces on their own building (claiming it wasn’t them)
• Bragging that the Irish Times “reported” that there were 10,000 people at an organized Youth Defence event. What the Irish Times actually said was this:
• Organisers –Youth Defence, the Life Institute, and Family and Life – estimated that more than 10,000 people attended the vigil. Gardaí would not confirm a figure when contacted. So, in fact, they boasted about their estimation. Good job, lads.

Violence

Let’s have a look at some violent incidents their ‘non-violent’ protests have been involved in:
1992

In 1992 on Thomas Street, Dublin, Youth Defence attacked and assaulted pro-choice campaigners, causing many injuries.
1994

6th July 1994, Youth Defence attacked a group of Pro-Choice protesters in Buswells Hotel, opposite Dáil Eireann. Youth Defence members came into the hotel and threw missiles at both the protesters and ordinary customers. The Gardaí arrived and put both groups out into the street, where scuffles continued for some time. The Gardaí intercepted a Youth Defence van containing a gang of men armed with hurleys and other weapons.
1995

In 1995, a number of Youth Defence members were arrested after their picket became violent outside the office of Co. Wexford T.D., Brendan Howlin, Irish Minister of Health at the time.
1998

1998, 12 Youth Defence members occupied the Marie Stopes Reproductive Choices clinic on Blessington Street. An elderly staff member was physically assaulted.
1999

In 1999, members of staff of the Irish Family Planning Association were assaulted. The association’s clinic on Cathal Brugha Street was occupied by hundreds of Youth Defence supporters, and the IFPA’s director, Tony O’Brien, was continually harassed. Among the group were 40 Americans, led by Fr. Pat Mahoney of the Washington DC group 'Christian Defense Coalition'.
Following the occupation, Youth Defence continued to picket the IFPA clinic and also plastered the city with 'anonymous' posters claiming that Tony O’Brien, director of the IFPA, 'Exports Irish Babies for Slaughter'. The poster included a picture of Tony O’Brien.
In 1999, the Adelaide Hospital incident spoken about above, where Youth Defence members decided to protest outside the rooms of terminally ill patients.
Also in 1999, The Ulster Pregnancy Advisory Service in Belfast announced that it was closing down as a result of the intimidation and pickets placed on its members by the 'Precious Life' group. An arson attack and burglary incident had also taken placed at the UPAA office. Precious Life, based in Ballymena, is the Northern branch of Youth Defence.
Questions we want you to think about

• Do these people have your interests at heart?
• If what they're trying to achieve is truly right then why do they need to lie so much?
• Why do they think that they are exempt from Irish law?
• Why do they continue to not allow Irish authorities to look at how they receive their funding?

Read more

• Users list deleted. Sorry, didn't think about the privacy concerns. Everybody is allowed their own views.
• Youth Defence on Wikipedia
• Justin Barrett on Wikipedia
• River of Bile on Steroids
• My challenge to Youth Defence about fundraiser Joseph Scheidler disrupting abortion clinics
• School chair resigns in anti-abortion row
• YOUTH DEFENCE FLOUTS DCC RULES
• Youth Defence articles on Broadsheet
• The Problem with Youth Defence
• Youth Defence unrepentant as eight convicted
• Opposite The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
• Clashes with Youth Defence 1992 – 1995
• Why American Pro-Life Dollars Are Pouring Into Ireland
• Youth Defence billboard posters not covered by advertising standards
• Youth Defence in U-turn over rape claims backlash

magicbastarder

if a pro-choice website had been hacked by YD, the air would be filled with outraged howls of foul play from the pro-choice side.

MagicMarker

There are pro choice websites?

Can't say I'd give a **** either way.

Aswerty

magicbastarder wrote: »

if a pro-choice website had been hacked by YD, the air would be filled with outraged howls of foul play from the pro-choice side.

Oh I don't doubt that. This hack removed Youth Defenses right to free speech (for a short time) and that is never a good thing. It's a case of dropping down to their level though I can understand the sentiment behind the hack but I wouldn't condone it.

Though on the other hand one could say it is ever just to replace lies with truth. Albeit I don't know enough to claim the hacked site is entirely truthful.

Jelle1880

True, they could have just made a new website with all these claims, hacking their site just smells of childish behaviour imo.

None the less, those are some very damning allegations.

SebBerkovich

I would just like to FINALLY see some kind of investigation into their finances. They've been bending and breaking the rules for years without any kind of intervention by the authorities.

smokingman

Well that's just a darned shame

Mark Hamill

magicbastarder wrote: »

if a pro-choice website had been hacked by YD, the air would be filled with outraged howls of foul play from the pro-choice side.

So by that argument, people should be up in arms about the Anglo tapes being released? They were private conversations after all...

magicbastarder

they were business conversations, made on a system the two people would have (or certainly should have) known recorded the calls. it wasn't a private matter they were discussing, on private phones.

Mark Hamill

magicbastarder wrote: »

they were business conversations, made on a system the two people would have (or certainly should have) known recorded the calls. it wasn't a private matter they were discussing, on private phones.

And what was put up on the site wasn't business matters for YD too?

I admit that hacking the site is not the best way to do things, but for some reason our authorities are unable or unwilling to revoke YDs charitable status which they abuse to hide the massive financial support they get from states. Not to mention the massive amount of lies and propaganda they spread to justify the torture of women.

Aswerty wrote:

This hack removed Youth Defenses right to free speech (for a short time) and that is never a good thing.

I would feel a lot worse about their loss to free speech if they didn't deny free speech to any critics on FB or twitter.

edanto

Mark Hamill wrote: »

... for some reason our authorities are unable or unwilling to revoke YDs charitable status which they abuse to hide the massive financial support they get from states.

I've seen this a few meme a few times and I don't believe it's true.

The revenue publish the main list of organisations in Ireland which have charitable status, and YD are not on it.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/business/authorised-charities-resident.html

As a lobbying organisation, they are supposed to (spirit of the law) register with SIPO, but they have chosen not to register. As such, they are not bound by SIPO and are completely ignored by SIPO with regards to the source of their funding, publication of financial data etc.

Currently, this is completely legal.

If you have some anger and energy to spare, I would recommend directing it in the direction of more transparency about lobbying efforts and political donations (for example, parties tend not to disclose any private donations they get - http://thestory.ie/2010/05/21/2009-donations-exchequer-and-private-to-parties/) This is a complicated subject and difficult to get people interested in it.

On the subject of the thread (although what's it's doing in this hallowed forum is a mystery), I'm a bit conflicted about the YD site hacking. They have the right to free speech, they have the right to choose to say whatever they want. Americans have the right to use their dollars for anything they want, including political influence here.

That said, I don't like foreign fundamentalists influencing policy to such an extent here, and I'm not that upset their site was hacked.

Mark Hamill

edanto wrote: »

I've seen this a few meme a few times and I don't believe it's true.

The revenue publish the main list of organisations in Ireland which have charitable status, and YD are not on it.

http://www.revenue.ie/en/business/authorised-charities-resident.html

Interesting. I thought for a moment that maybe I was mistaking YD for one of the other religiously conservative, anti abortion, anti gay, political lobby groups which operates the same office in Capel St, but according to that link none of them are charities (the address doesn't appear in the list at all).
I think I was getting them confused with prolifecampaign.ie and this article.

Aswerty

Mark Hamill wrote: »

I would feel a lot worse about their loss to free speech if they didn't deny free speech to any critics on FB or twitter.

Oh I don't feel bad for them, I had a big happy head on me when I saw the hack submitted to one of the tech sites I follow but I think the action will play into the hands of YD in the long run. It gives them the ability to point the finger at their opposition and claim they use underhanded tactics to try and stifle their ability to express their opinion publicly.

With regards to FB/twitter censorship I don't see that as a problem since they are under no obligation to publicise anyone elses views other than their own. Of course the censored material is often an attempt to shed the light of truth on something which makes YD liers but I think we all know that anyway.

As another poster mentioned an opposition sites could have been created to supply a true description of YD. For example the website w3schools.com provides tutorials in web development skills but many have concluded this site is actually a poor resource and should not be promoted to others. So they deployed their own site highlighting why w3schools.com is a poor resource and this site now ranks 2nd when searching for w3schools. The counter website is w3fools.com. An approach similar to this would be more effective in highlighting the badness of YD and would not infringe on anyones right to express their political opinion.

On the subject of the thread (although what's it's doing in this hallowed forum is a mystery), I'm a big conflicted about the YD site hacking.

I thought this forum was the perfect spot for it since YD is an ongoing interest of this forum due to their aggresive religious driven ideology which attempts to inflict their craziness on the rest of us.

Sarky

It's rather hard to find any sympathy for a group so full of lies and hate. I'm searching, but I keep remembering their grossly offensive and illegal ad campaigns, their history of lies and violence, and all the other stuff that causes most of the country to despise the bastards.

robindch

Aswerty wrote: »

[...] I think the action will play into the hands of YD in the long run [...]

I'm inclined to think you might be right -- they're adept at playing the persecution card, at least amongst their uneducated, unenlightened believership. And while they're happy to claim that pro-choicers complaining about harassment amounts to "using a threat for political advantage", I doubt they'll hesitate to do it themselves. Watch this space, I suppose.

Their ugly, expensive propaganda has real effects on real people. Popette was up for the march the other day and thanks to YD's open, abhorrent abuse of the trust of the elderly and vulnerable, she had a truly miserable weekend -- oscillating between the emotional high of seeing so many people howling as she normally howls on her own, and the emotional low of the sight of everybody she lives around and with finding it distasteful in the extreme.

Mark Hamill

From a friend on facebook:
"Of course, if websites don't want to be hacked, their servers have ways of shutting things down." :pac:

Mark Hamill

Is there anything anyone could do that wont play into their hands though? Even if you do nothing then they will just claim they are the majority and they have no opposition.

That's said, an opposition site may well have been the "bigger" thing to do than a hack.

Benny_Cake

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Is there anything anyone could do that wont play into their hands though? Even if you do nothing then they will just claim they are the majority and they have no opposition.

That's said, an opposition site may well have been the "bigger" thing to do than a hack.

True, but it wouldn't have had the same impact. Much easier to get attention by hacking the site and contacting the likes of The Journal or whoever. It will probably develop into some kind of tit-for-tat thing though.

Hard to feel too much sympathy for Youth Defence. I can remember them in the early to mid-90s, their behaviour was reprehensible then and it still is today. The funding issue should be of concern to everyone, be they pro-choice or pro - life, we have enough problems in this country without wealthy Americans using us for playing culture wargames.

aloyisious

There's a senior member of YD on the DriveTime programme o n RTE now about it and the Dail debate.

Aargh... He's made a statement linking the hackers and what is being said by Govt Ministers in the Dail: eg, the hackers are taking their lead from that. He said that if you ask the right questions (presumably in a poll) you get the right answers, then went on to quote a Pepsi Cola poll of people's attitude to abortion.

Will have to tune in to this podcast address -- https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rte.ie%2Fradio1%2Fdrivetime%2F&ei=qGLcUfXYBMmjhge2tYCoAw&usg=AFQjCNHBEoQdp47fZLoLQgQkqHKXJoY-nA&bvm=bv.48705608,d.ZG4 -- tomorrow to listen to the YD member, as today's broadcast is not on it yet.

Obliq

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/website-of-anti-abortion-group-youth-defence-hacked-1.1457717

"Accusing Youth Defence of “scare tactics, illegal advertising and propaganda,” the article accused the organisation of “smearing the country with their billboards, posters and leaflets”. The hackers said this material is “misleading” and consists of “outright lies”.
The article claimed only 14 per cent of the anti-abortion group’s Twitter followers are from Ireland. Of the group’s 72,000 Facebook likes, the hackers claim 38,000 are from the USA, while only 9,000 are from Ireland."

Seeing this in the Irish Times, I wonder is it the first time since the early 80's and early 90's that the extremism, dubious funding and interesting facts about the right-wing leanings of YD personnel have been highlighted? If this hack sparks off any kind of debate at a national level about YD's history and cover-ups, I'll be totally ok with a temporary delay in their freedom to spread the obsessive ignorance towards women who have abortions.

Hotblack Desiato

edanto wrote: »

Americans have the right to use their dollars for anything they want, including political influence here.

Like hell they do. If it wasn't for US fundies and their funding, we probably would never have got into this mess in the first place 30 years ago. Tens of thousands of Irish women have suffered as a direct result of this unwarranted and unwanted foreign influence on what should be a matter for Irish society alone to decide.

To hell with them (pity it doesn't exist...)


BTW the 'registered charity' or not angle other posters have mentioned in relation to YD et al is irrelevant. Charities are unregulated in Ireland. I could set up a charity for anything I want, collect money, employ myself as CEO on a huge salary and it's all legal (and many Irish so-called charities do exactly this.) Sure, you have to be approved by Revenue to get a charity number so your donors can get tax relief, but (a) you don't need a charity number to call yourself a charity or collect money, (b) Revenue can't and don't decide on how worthy your cause is or what proportion of donations actually goes towards it, and more importantly (c) tax relief on donations is irrelevant for non-Irish donors anyway.

Now, SIPO believe that all political lobby groups should be registered with them, and this would preclude anonymous donations above a small amount, require proper records, rule out foreign donors. So obviously YD really really don't want to register with SIPO. SIPO appear to have no powers to compel them and the government is determined to continue to look the other way and ignore this, what in effect is a corruption of Irish politics by foreign vested interests and their money.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/anti-abortion-groups-ignored-political-watchdog-queries-1.1316629

The commission has expressed frustration at current legislation, which provides no sanction to compel organisations to co-operate with it.

An organisation becomes a third party under the Electoral Act if it lobbies for political purposes.

In that case it must declare every donation over €100 and set up a political donations account.

Third parties can only accept donations of up to €2,500, and cannot accept donations from overseas unless the donor is an Irish citizen or from a corporation that has offices in Ireland.

strobe

Sarky wrote: »

It's rather hard to find any sympathy for a group so full of lies and hate. I'm searching, but I keep remembering their grossly offensive and illegal ad campaigns, their history of lies and violence, and all the other stuff that causes most of the country to despise the bastards.

Are the ad campaigns they run illegal? What laws do they violate?

Sarky

Advertising events that don't happen, not bothering to get permission off a city council before plastering the posters all over the place, that's all been covered recently. Fairly sure there's something about political advertising and time limits to which they haven't paid a moment's notice. Jernal can find links. He's good at that :pac:

smokingman

ninja900 wrote: »

Like hell they do. If it wasn't for US fundies and their funding, we probably would never have got into this mess in the first place 30 years ago. Tens of thousands of Irish women have suffered as a direct result of this unwarranted and unwanted foreign influence on what should be a matter for Irish society alone to decide.

To hell with them (pity it doesn't exist...)


BTW the 'registered charity' or not angle other posters have mentioned in relation to YD et al is irrelevant. Charities are unregulated in Ireland. I could set up a charity for anything I want, collect money, employ myself as CEO on a huge salary and it's all legal (and many Irish so-called charities do exactly this.) Sure, you have to be approved by Revenue to get a charity number so your donors can get tax relief, but (a) you don't need a charity number to call yourself a charity or collect money, (b) Revenue can't and don't decide on how worthy your cause is or what proportion of donations actually goes towards it, and more importantly (c) tax relief on donations is irrelevant for non-Irish donors anyway.

Now, SIPO believe that all political lobby groups should be registered with them, and this would preclude anonymous donations above a small amount, require proper records, rule out foreign donors. So obviously YD really really don't want to register with SIPO. SIPO appear to have no powers to compel them and the government is determined to continue to look the other way and ignore this, what in effect is a corruption of Irish politics by foreign vested interests and their money.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/anti-abortion-groups-ignored-political-watchdog-queries-1.1316629

Well said. Question is though; are we Irish too used to be influenced from abroad and used as a stepping stone into European affairs by 'interest groups' (used to be countries), that we'll say no to what our actual society is wanting; i.e. real actual human equity.

I look at the progress this little island has made in my lifetime and, while we certainly have a long road ahead, we're getting there....by ourselves. I know grannies that are of the opinion that women should have a choice of what they do with their own bodies and I have McQuaid to thank for that. I know three that follow George Takei on facebook and rant about marriage equity to their grandkids. That's heartening too see on this little island these days.

aloyisious

Bless their little souls, I wonder do YD get paranoid about their membership, how would they deal with the thought that they might have an "infiltrator" in the ranks. Imagine's "truth" scanner and Invigilator at door of Life House "Oh no, not the Spanish Inquisition"

kylith

Sarky wrote: »

Advertising events that don't happen, not bothering to get permission off a city council before plastering the posters all over the place, that's all been covered recently. Fairly sure there's something about political advertising and time limits to which they haven't paid a moment's notice. Jernal can find links. He's good at that :pac:

IIRC they also violate StockPhoto's terms and conditions by using their images for controversial and political reasons.

Sarky

Oh yeah, they stole artwork without permission as well. Good catch.

So yeah, I'm not sure why anyone would be up in arms about what's essentially a bunch of criminal thugs having their little website hax0red.

Brian Shanahan

ninja900 wrote: »

SIPO appear to have no powers to compel them and the government is determined to continue to look the other way and ignore this, what in effect is a corruption of Irish politics by foreign vested interests and their money.

Of course they don't. It's a lot easier to hide bribes from big business when there's no compulsion to disclose.

It is one of the few issues every political party in the world votes the same way on.

magicbastarder

Sarky wrote: »

So yeah, I'm not sure why anyone would be up in arms about what's essentially a bunch of criminal thugs having their little website hax0red.

criminal in what sense?

Sarky

I was thinking the "attacking Gardai outside the hospital where they loudly protested in earshot of the terminally ill" sense when I wrote that.