Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has criticised comments made by opposition TDs who compared the promotion of the government’s Ireland 2040 plan to the activities of Joseph Goebbels, the man who was in charge of Nazi propaganda for the Third Reich.
In a radio interview yesterday, Labour TD Alan Kelly said advertising rolled out by the government’s Strategic Communications Unit of the national planning framework is “Goebbels territory”.
The Taoiseach was grilled about the marketing campaign during Leaders’ Questions yesterday, which he said cost €1.5 million.
Varadkar denied that his communications unit had instructed any newspaper or media organisation to blur the lines between news articles and paid-for content, adding that all sponsored content of the Ireland 2040 plan should be clearly marked.
Comparison to Third Reich
Speaking in the Dáil today, before the House was suspended until next week, Leo Varadkar said remarks by Kelly comparing civil servants in his department and communications unit to the Third Reich were “wholly inappropriate”.
He added:
I’m not thin skinned by any means, Leas Ceann Comhairle, but I think describing the government, civil servants, any individual as being akin to Nazis and the Third Reich or Goebbels is defamatory and beneath the level of discourse that should occur in politics and in this House.
The Taoiseach told the Dáil that a similar reference had been made by Fianna Fáil’s Marc McSharry.
Varadkar asked Labour’s Joan Burton and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin if they stood by the comments made by their party colleagues.
“This is a reference to six million people who were exterminated by the Third Reich and by the Nazis and I think belittling the Holocaust. Comparing and advertising campaign to the actions of the Nazis and the Third Reich, I think that’s beneath contempt,” said the Taoiseach.
Criticism of government
Martin said he wanted to address the issue, stating that the Taoiseach does not like when criticism is levelled at him.
“You do not like it when hard words are said about what you get up to and what your government get up to. You get overly partisan and nasty. There is a bad streak there Taoiseach,” he said, adding:
I have never used any terms such as Goebbels or anything in relation to the government’s propaganda campaign.
It’s wrong for the Taoiseach to try and suggest that I would endorse that or in anyway associate myself with it.
The Fianna Fáil leader said he “never used the word Goebbels”.
“I hate anybody using Nazi terms about anyone in a current parliamentary democracy. I do not like it. I do not endorse it and I disassociate myself from it.
“And any member of the house that does use that should reflect on what they said and withdraw any assertion that any member in this house or any member of government is engaging in that manner because what we’re discussing here is light-years obviously from what happened in the Third Reich. And I want to make that crystal clear,” said Martin.
He said he is simply asking “legitimate questions” about the spending of taxpayers money, stating that it is not acceptable for the Taoiseach to say that he is operating at an arms length from the communications unit. Martin asked what the Taoiseach had against setting up an independent review of the campaign roll-out.
Burton said she herself has been a victim of “atrocious assault” and “slander” in the past, and it was not fair for the Taoiseach to assert in the House that she would “countenance for one moment” anyone being in appropriate during the course of debate.
She claimed she had not seen or heard the interview with her party colleague Alan Kelly.
The Dublin West TD said any references to the Nazi regime or Goebbels are “inappropriate”.
“I think anybody who was involved in doing that should actually reflect and pause because I don’t think it helps our debate,” said Burton.
However, she said throwing around accusations dishonours the Taoiseach’s office and accused Varadkar of being “annoyed and irritated that something that has been understandably for you as Taoiseach a prize project has been subject to criticism in here”.
She added that the Taoiseach was being being “too thin-skinned”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
According to RTE news Marc McSharry’s comment about Goebels style propoganda was called ‘anti-Semitic’ and an attack on the Jewish commuity by Simon Harris. That says a lot about Harris I think.
@Squiddley Diddley:
Am I right in thinking that the Blueshirts(FG) were supporters of the German and Spanish fascists?
@Squiddley Diddley:
Utterly pathetic that Alan Kelly, (is he the most hated politician in the country?), and FF McSharry (not far behind) has to resort to Nazi slurs to try to keep this non story alive.
Irish Times report on it today –
All reports were branded.
20 regional titles examined – all clearly marked.
All had a strap across the top of their pages.
In all but two of the newspapers, no names were mentioned .
No photographs supplied and only 3 titles used photos of politicians.
This is a “Fake Row” by McSharry to give the illusion they are in oppositio. He knows it is complete hogwash. If FF believed this rubbish they’d pull the plug.
Spineless as ever, FF.
@Brinster: Any comment on Simon Harris’s bizarre logic?
@Squiddley Diddley: “Any comment on Simon Harris”
Yes – it is utterly wrong for any politician to compare a clearly marked media campaign to the holocaust.
Amazed I have to explain this to anyone.
It trivialises the slaughter of 6 million men women and children.
In doing so, in trivialising one of the most shameful episodes of human history, it denigrates them.
Thus it is very, very clearly anti semitic.
@Brinster:
No comparison was made to holocaust and the propaganda campaign.
The comparison was to the most famous propaganda spin doctor of the 20th century – who operated without ethics and only cared about spin and influencing people.
Comparing propaganda to propaganda is what happened……the rest is hyperbole and exaggerated offence and deliberate misinterpretation.
This is blatantly obvious to all
@HelloGoogleTracking: 100% correct they are now trying to play victims. The comments were about propaganda and nothing else.
Why does a government need a propaganda MACHINE it is not about communication it is about SPIN. We have a perfectly adequate media. If they were doinng their jobs we would all be aware of it.
@Brinster:
Comparison to the holocaust
Anti semitic
Are you serious?
@Squiddley Diddley: Well said Sir Squiddley.
JEWISH OFFICIAL: Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath,…
MATTHIAS: Do I say ‘yes’?
STONE HELPER #1: Yes.
MATTHIAS: Yes.
OFFICIAL: …you have been found guilty by the elders of the town of uttering the name of our Lord, and so, as a blasphemer,…
CROWD: Ooooh!
OFFICIAL: …you are to be stoned to death.
CROWD: Ahh!
MATTHIAS: Look. I– I’d had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was, ‘That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.’
CROWD: Oooooh!
OFFICIAL: Blasphemy! He’s said it again!
CROWD: Yes! Yes, he did! He did!…
OFFICIAL: Did you hear him?!
CROWD: Yes! Yes, we did! We did!
@Charles Alexander: “Are you serious?”
Invoking the Third Reich on national radio – is Alan Kelly serious?
He literally named the architects of the holocaust.
Compared the advertorials to QUOTE – “Third Reich stuff”.
And you’re defending Alan Kelly????
@HelloGoogleTracking:
“The comparison was to the most famous propaganda spin doctor of the 20th century”
Incorrect.
Just plain wrong.
He said it was “Third Reich stuff”. That is a literal quote.
You can pretend he never said it and take the disgrace that is AK-47′s side but you know that you are defending a disingenuous hypocrite who embarrassed himself.
@Brinster:
If that is what you believe then that is your prerogative.
If I thought Alan Kelly was wrong then I would be the first to point the finger.
Its a matter of context.
@Brinster: it is utterly wrong for any politician to compare a clearly marked media campaign to the holocaust.
10 out of 10 for deflection … You Sir are shameful in bringing in the comparison .., truly disgusting. I don’t comment that often, but only an idiot could state .. it is very, very clearly anti semitic. …
Obviously a comparison to the Nazis is hyperbole (and Kelly makes himself look like an eejit once again) however the central point remains – this government allegedly tried to mislead the public into thinking these paid ads were ‘part of the news cycle’.
“Regional newspapers were instructed to make government advertorials look like independent stories and in some cases part of “the normal news cycle,” The Times can reveal.
Editors at several local titles raised concerns after they were instructed not to clearly mark as a commercial feature sponsored content about Ireland 2040”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/make-2040-ads-look-like-real-news-papers-told-kq20xcs67
@Malachi:
All completely debunked here by the Irish Times today –
“there is scant basis to a claim they had to treat paid-for Government content as if was “normal” copy indistinguishable from other news stories.”
Story was complete over-reach by the Times. Sensational nonsense.
they have yet to find EVEN ONE article that didn”t have the strap line across the top.
@Brinster: It was always a manufactured story by two compromised parties. FF are struggling in the polls, while the media involved were incentivized to create news.
I have zero grá for the strategic communications unit, but this whole story was a whole pile of tripe, with the usual morons lapping it up.
@Brinster: From the article you linked;
“a number [of editors surveyed] complained that the agency which represented the Government made several requests that had the potential to blur the boundary between editorial and so-called ‘advertorials’.
That included not describing the content as ‘advertising’ and asking for the pages to be placed to the front of the newspaper, rather than towards the back.”
Now – you say they were clearly marked as paid promotional pieces. That’s a matter of opinion (I think they were deliberately lax about it) and even if that were true – why were the government so tetchy about the use of the word ‘advertisement’ in describing these pieces?
It’s almost as if they were trying to mislead the public as to the nature of the pieces by being vague?
I’m sure his propaganda unit can come up with something.
@Dave Thomas:
They have come up with this. More money, if successful, from the propaganda unit to interfere in Brexit. It has soured even further NI/ROI relations.
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2018/02/28/more-where-that-came-from/
So, is Leo using tax payers money for propaganda purposes? Or is Alan and Mehole wrong? Leo deflection in full swing here?
@Willy Malone:
Are you seriously asking that?
Is Alan Kelly wrong?
Can you name a time when “AK 47″ has ever been right?
@Brinster:
How much has your comment cost the taxpayer Flynno?
I notice he didn’t explain the difference?
Well the blueshirts air brushed O’Duffy from the family history… fascist tendencies run deep to this day with the blueshirts. The statement from Alan Kelly was laughable, as he and his party were the biggest collabators of all..
@lochinvar56: Collaborators with FG and their fascistic tendencies
@lochinvar56: yes you are reading it right. In the last government the so called Labour party collaborated with a thatcherite F.G. Every election promise the made they betrayed. Their support for the austerity measures that were forced on the ordinary people of Ireland was treason. The so called Labour party more blueshirt than the blueshirts.
@Donal Desmond: Please expand on the fascist tendencies you are referring to.
@MK76: So called Labour went into a government led by F.G. A party since the foundation of this state have never in its existence have put the working class ordinary people before big business. They may have tried to deny their predecessors support for fascist ideologies, their right wing conservative ideals a there to this day. As for so called Labour party, it comes to mind a statement by a leader of the Labour party , when asked about socialism he replied…I am a Catholic first , an Irishman second, A socialist third. This is the so called Labour party that supported the draconian austerity measures against the working class , which they betrayed.
Alan Kelly and the Labour party played no small part in FG’s destruction of society. No one likes to be compared to what went on in Germany of the 30s. But you have to ask yourself some questions here.
Has Leo waged a campaign on to vilify those at the lower end of the social scale?
Has Leo tried to place the blame of homelessness on the homeless, again the lower end of the social scale?
Has the PSC been subject to any debate in the Dail to create a legal basis for an ID card of any description?
Is the PSC being made an instrument to use against those who refuse to comply?
Have people being denied their right to pensions or free travel by this card?
Are Seetec and Turas Nua abusing their power in relation to the unemployed? i.e. do they force people to enter into a contract against their will? Are people being denied their benefit if they refuse?
Has an agency of the state being used to spread lies and slander against people who might complain?
Has the states police force being used to stifle protest or dissent on any occasion?
Do people believe there is a free and impartial press? Is the states broadcasting agency being used as a means of slandering opposition parties?
Is the same agency seen to be a means of informing the public on issues of importance, and calling into question government policies?
Do people believe MSM has being used as a means to push government policy without proper analysis?
Answer the questions yourselves, come to your own conclusions.
In my opinion there are what can be politely called shades of 1930s Germany being employed by the state.
His ole buddy Kelly
“There’s a big club and you and me aint in it.” George Carlin.
@Myles Fleming: Ain’t that the truth.
Fine Gael and propaganda, they go hand in hand.
@Diogenes: If we were to take out their 2011 election manifesto and all the promises that were made since….universal health care…etc how many boxes would we be ticking that were ACTUALLY carried out ?
Will 2040 plan be the same ?
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
So sensible planning for the future is the same as invading Europe. Kelly never seems to amaze me.
@Paddy: Kelly never ceases to amaze me either but he didn’t say sensible planning for the future is the same as invading Europe.
They are all corrupt.politicians,gda management,top civil servants.
@@mdmak33: Phil Hogan has just appeared in my minds eye for some reason. Wonder why. Oh yeah, he was very uncivil, but a servant to himself.
So now people can’t even use a man’s name to point to something he was famous for, because it means you point to everything in that person’s life? Methinks the taoiseach is playing silly buggers to deflect.
Propaganda was a perfectly valid word prior to the 1940’s and was removed from common use due to the Goebbels association. The communications department is really in the same family, calling it “spin” is being ignorant of the social program at work on the background.
Socky is entitled to his opinion. So are those that can see through the desperate spin and propaganda unit. If he cant handle criticism, he shouldn’t be there. The hysterical rant comparing those who criticized the fairytale to nazis is just ridiculous. Brings back memories of Noel Coonan and his “ISISlike situation” nonsense. It seems to be a FG trait to ridicule and accuse those who are showing up the flaws and shortcomings of the party.
Yes, I agree, wholly inappropriate. Civil Servants are in fact Unsackable and Unaccountable and that’s why we have Screw Up after Screw Up and thevdreadful waste of taxpayers hard earned money with No consequences for the very same Box Ticking civil servants no matter what they do wrong !
Bless his little cotton socks, #LimpLeo feigning injury to his monumental ego. Mcaharry isn’t in opposition he’s in a coalition (C&S) an affront to democracy, you reap what you sow. Kelly is the drowning half of a dunked biscuit and was also in a coalition with this “snowflake” how quick bed fellows change to maintain the psychopathic power hungry megalomaniacs
#LittleLeo was only waiting to crehimself to have a pop since Hillary/Fitzgerald got her Spam mixed up with her trash!
Ah well 2040 is a long way off just like their moral compasses and any clear plan. Mere window dressing tossed with a side of a tax payer paid for propaganda stunt but Daffy Donahue only has so much money but always just (1.5 mil) enough to play this subterfuge nonsense.
God give me peace.
A few days of news conferences warning people about the weather and this gov full of incompetent idiots think they’re the best thing since sliced bread.
@Adrian: They are. Just like the sliced bread in a lot of supermarkets these past few days. Not there when you need them. Missing in action.
@Adrian: Bread, the biggest story of our times, used to be potatoes, but know it’s bread. Have we upgraded, or down graded. I just don’t know.
The very first law the Nazis put in force on gaining power was to ban Jews from the Civil Service.
@Christy Nolan: She also said that she could not get answers to questions asked in the house, how ironic is that.
The Journal comments section is becoming,,,,outlandish its time for a clean up,,,,we get enough from”Facebook,Twitter,,,,can we not use a level of decorum in our comments section,,,,,,.
We must not up set Leo,,,Now let’s get on with it.
Back in early February, Timmy Dooley accused Denis Naughton of acting like ‘Comical Ali’ for refusing to allow an immediate review of the Government’s broadband plan.
Comical Ali was Iraqi Information Minister under Saddam Hussein.
Now, I’m not comparing Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf with Joseph Goebbels – Goebbels was a evil piece of work whereas al-Sahhaf was just an idiot – however, both were part of an evil tyrannical regime that were guilty of mass genocide and thereby, guilty by association.
I don’t recall Leo taking exception to Dooley’s comments or Harris claiming that they were offensive to the Kurdish community in Leitrim.
Perhaps it wouldn’t gain the same column inches!
@Charles Alexander: I also did see Brinster come out and link it to the holocaust … a shameful act of deflection by one of the 3 FG monkeys
2040 = Cultural Genocide.
The position of Sinn Fein to Islam is well shown in this piece from the Mirror
An Islamic cleric has urged people to “have a bigger heart” after he was attacked online for holding a mosque open day.
Rocks were thrown through the windows of the Maryam Mosque in Galway last week during a prayer session and in response it hosted an open day on Saturday in an attempt to increase understanding of Islam and its culture.
But just hours afterwards the Mosque’s Imam, Ibrahim Noonan was at loggerheads with Twitter users and the exchanges continued on Sunday.
Sinn Fein TD Mary Lou McDonald visited the Mosque last week and when one Twitter user criticised the meeting, he replied: “Very sad to see your ignorance, try to have a bigger heart and try to understand the true peaceful teachings of Islam.”
He also urged a user to stop writing insults, while he said that people were welcome to visit his Galway mosque and discuss issues with him.”
This is indeed the thing. We do have to (as he says) understand Islam and the only way is to study most seriously the HISTORY of Islam, which is bloody in the extreme. Not firing stones but study and a programme to close every mosque based on that study.
I actually agree with Varadkar on this. The fact that Fianna Fail calls them Nazis etcetera. is really a kind of camouflage for their own lack of policy. The same seems to be with Sinn Fein and the Labour Party. I am unaware of the position of the SWP man in the Dail but that too must be gone in to.
Varadkar is not Fascist except in the sense that Facebook and Youtube and so many forces are deliberately hiding the truth about everything from us.
I suspect that behind this “blather” there is an intent to bring into Ireland maybe a million Muslims.
That will be the end of Ireland as sure as sure can be.
It is my opinion as I recently drove through Ireland that the country is overcrowded. In the country there is a different kind of overcrowding, that is an aggressive agricultural model, which is pushing out of existence our most emblemic animals such as The Irish Hare.
The author of this piece Christina Finn must make a serious research and analysis of what is Islam, historically speaking. I would draw attention to all that went on in Spain, in Moorish Spain, the ferocity of the attack on the Christians, and by careful analysis to show that Bloody Islam laid waste to the country, with massive cruelty, very cruel measures on the Christian population and other minorities. Does Christina want this to happen in Ireland and to our Irish people? We can only find the answers to this in history.
@Felix Quigley: Read up on the history, ‘Moorish Spain’ was far more tolerant (of Christians and Jews) than was the rest of Spain towards Jews and Muslims. Never heard of the Spanish Inquisition? Started off aimed at Jews.
@Squiddley Diddley: Yes there is as a fact the Spanish Inquisition. There is also the Islam Invasion and all that that means, which is right there with the most cruel and ruthless events in history. You need to reread on this. There is much new literature.
This smacks of Leo trying to deflect attention away from the fact that his government is using taxpayers money to self promote FG. That said Kelly is well known for muddying the waters with straw-men, arguments.
There are two sides to this plan, to the politics of Varadkar, which I believe is worth urgently exploring. The first concerns the great influx into Ireland of Muslims which following the path of Merkel could well lie behind this plan. The second is that this kind of aggressive capitalist economics, and especially the aggressive agriculture, will cause the wiping out of our animal species such as The Irish Hare. Those are two very big issues indeed.
why advertise it. Just get it done.
have your say