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YESTERDAY, DUP LEADER Arlene Foster cast her vote in the UK general election.
She did this at Brookeborough Primary School in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh.
As is customary during elections, party leaders attending their local polling stations to vote is a bit of a media event – politicians pose for photos, and might offer journalists a few comments to tide them over until the polls close.
When Foster attended her polling station, a photo was taken outside the school of her holding a piece of paper within a burgundy booklet (pictured below). That photo was posted to her official Twitter account.
A version of this image was shared on Facebook hundreds of times where it was claimed that the burgundy booklet was an Irish passport.
As Foster is an ardent unionist, and a fierce proponent of Brexit, this closeup and claim began to circulate on social media platforms.
So was it an Irish passport that she was holding?
Above is a photo that is being shared on social media – it seems to be the exact same photo with the exact same zoomed in image used in all the posts.
The photo is accompanied by various captions, and some contain derogatory language aimed at Foster. In one of the first posts of the image on Facebook, posted around 1pm yesterday, the caption was:
UNBELEAVEABLE !! FOR A PARTY THAT HAS MADE NO SECRET ABOUT THERE HATRED FOR THE IRISH PEOPLE AND THE IRISH LANGAUGE, AND HERE WE HAVE ARLENE OUT VOTING WITH HER IRISH PASSPORT.. IRISH WHEN THEY WANT TO BE. !!! (sic)
This post was shared 277 times. Other Facebook posts held captions like:
“Arlene Foster going to vote in Northern Ireland and has her Irish passport for ID, who allowed her to have a Irish passport.” (123 shares)
“What’s this… Arlene Foster has an Irish Passport?” (46 shares)
It was shared a few times to Twitter as well, though it didn’t gain as much traction there:
Arlene Foster (DUP) going to vote Brexit with Irish (European) passport in hand. #Hypocrite”
Arlene foster using irish passport to vote. Any truth or photoshop.
Over the course of the Brexit debate, some British citizens, who are eligible, are applying for Irish passports in order to keep the benefits of being an EU citizen post-Brexit.
Separate to the photo taken by Foster’s team and shared to Twitter, the Press Association also took a dozen or so photos of Foster’s visit to her local polling station.
The high quality images give us a sharper view of what Foster is holding:
The last photo gives the clearest angle of the passport. Although the burgundy cover looks like it could be an Irish passport at first, when you zoom in you can see that the gold indented writing and symbol are faded.
The Irish passport cover is burgundy, and has gold symbols and lettering embedded into it, but it has ‘European Union’ ‘Ireland’, and ‘Passport’ written in both English and Irish, and has the Clársach, or the Celtic harp which is the national emblem, in the centre of the cover.
British passports are also burgundy with gold lettering, but other than that the design is different.
In the image below, also from the Press Association, the Chief Executive of the Identity and Passport Service Sarah Rapson holds a specimen copy of the new design for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland passport.
The photo is dated to 25 August 2010.
Added to that, when you zoom in on the image being shared on social media, you can see white lines around the edges of the passport, where it appears that it was edited in.
The passport also appears larger in the images shared on social media compared to the original image shared to Foster’s Twitter.
In response to a query from TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for the DUP said: “Arlene Foster does not hold an Irish Passport. The original picture had obviously been altered.”
In the original image shared to Arlene Foster’s Twitter account, it isn’t clear what type of passport she is holding, other than it’s burgundy. As a citizen of Northern Ireland, she is entitled to both an Irish and a British passport under the Good Friday Agreement 1998.
But it’s clear from looking at the Press Associations that there is no harp on the cover of the passport Foster holds, as appears clearly in the image being shared on social media.
When comparing the two photos, it is clear that the original image was doctored to include the gold harp and lettering.
When you zoom in on the high-quality Press Association images, you can see that Foster was holding a passport with a faded cover; enough remains of the faded symbols and letterings to see clearly that it’s a British passport.
However, it is unclear where the doctored image originated from.
Therefore, we rate this claim: FALSE
As per our verdict guide, this means: The claim is inaccurate.
TheJournal.ie’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.
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The FFG way working hard for the 1%
@Kevin O Brien: It will be interesting to see to see what SF/IRA will bring to the table if they are in government after the next elections. A border poll would be a safe bet to divert attention from their mismanagement of the economy.
@Vincent Alexander: They should shelf all talk and activity on united Ireland until after the get control of the current FF/FG managed crises. They need to focus on undoing the damage before it’s too late.
@Vincent Alexander: what a Muppet…having a go at a party not yet in power instead of having a go at the current clowns in government…you Sir are next level ignorant!
@David Corrigan: Speaking to SF people on the ground, they are worried about the whole immigration issue & comments by senior SF people on the issue & also what would happen if they fail on the main issues like Fine Gael & Fianna Fail. The silent majority are bubbling with anger at the moment, things will need to change fast. FFG concentrated on side issues & neglected the real issues.
@damien leen: SF’s track record in the North or any council where they hold the balance of power is enough to predict what they will be like in government. Instead of looking to fly the Palestinian flag over Dublin council buildings they will look to fly it over Leinster House.
I work in a retail shop near Moore street. Roma gypsies shop frequently in this shop. The only way I see them pay is via vouchers, which they gouge from charities like this by gaming the system with their 5+ kids each pretending to be poor. The vinnos pay out in these vouchers. Our welfare game and charities are being played by these chancers and we’re losing. They’re entitled to the full suite of welfare benefits because they’re EU citizens (usually Romanian or Hungarian, yes I know Roma is separate from Romanian before anybody tries to say I think otherwise)
@Sean Murphy: And Romanians would bring you to task if you called them Roma.
@Sean Murphy: To be honest the ‘normal’ Romanians and other Eastern Europeans are high on the list of people complaining about the bad reputation they are giving them. They think the Irish are mad for putting up with them !!
Thanks FFFG
I remember reading a comment about St Vincent de Paul on the journal in the last couple of months. A man who worked with them commented that when he went and did house visits, some of the houses that he went to had the best televisions on the walls, every child having a tablet and the best lashes and lips on show.
Your level of income is not the problem if that’s the case it’s your budgeting skills you’re not prioritizing what’s important.
@Fiona Wyse: Are you Joan Burton?
She didn’t like ‘poor’ people owning mobile phones because they they uploaded videos of people protesting against water charges.
@Fiona Wyse: Link please.
@Frank Cauldhame: Eh no lol.
@Juri Hertel: it was a journal article on here about SDVP a couple of months ago, somebody working for them posted the comment.
Anything on what’s happening down in roscrea right now ??
@Andrew Martin: Any comment on the above article or does every article have to be turned into a discussion on IPAs?
@Michael Geaney: You might have noticed, comments are closed on the above article.
@Michael Geaney: are you new here!! The journal slap our hands if we want to comment on issues that affect us all so we comment where we can!
So wait, let me get this straight, our right wing government abdicating all responsibility for the poor, and instead funnelling tax money to private, unregulated charities, who have zero meaningful oversight, hasn’t solved poverty?
Wild.
This vast desperation should come as no surprise.
We have 75k homeless (source: Guardian) and sold 2/3rds of our social housing to private owners. We have 14x more homes on Airbnb than available for rent. We have some of the highest rents and highest food prices in the EU.
And guess what, the far right will show up here in droves and say the only solution is less government. Less taxes for the rich. And less regulation on property owners.
Ireland: cop on. Stop being so gullible.
@Chris O’Brien: are you saying St Vincent De Paul is unregulated if that’s what you’re saying I highly advise you do your homework. I’m with SVP I can tell you in my area we file accounts. Our funding comes from good people who donate to the charity and we distribute funds mostly shopping vouchers to people in need. Some charities may be unregulated but you’ll find most are regulated and audited
@Nemethon: how often does someone representing government visit you to make sure the accounts you file are accurate? What government agency audits you, supervises how you distribute your donations to make sure what you claim is accurate, etc.?
What you’ve said in no way refutes what I said, btw.
What laws govern your behaviour specifically, and how familiar are you with them personally? Who oversees you from government to ensure you behave within the explicit laws that govern you? Etc.
In fact you operate under VERY light touch regulation, compared to what you’d operate under if you were in a government agency.
So for example SVP is regulated by the Charities Regulation Act. It’s main requirement is an annual submission of financial records.
On the other hand government agencies are under much more – public – oversight
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/committees/financial-scrutiny/
And SVP receives close to 1.5M a year in taxpayer money.
With essentially no regulation.
@Nemethon:
Also worth noting that SVP pays its head 110k a year and has 155M in reserves.
That’s someone earning far more than an average government employee warns, sitting on 2x the amount it donated to the homeless, etc.
And while an audit might show that all those numbers are accurate, what it doesn’t do is given voters an control. Even political control. You can’t vote out the head of SVP despite his salary being paid by taxpayers. You ain’t see him scrutinised in the Dail either.
Etc.
@Chris O’Brien: Our 2 billionaires received much more:
independent.ie/business/world/irelands-two-richest-billionaires-worth-more-than-bottom-half-of-earners/a505294402.html
@Chris O’Brien: Two love the Nazi’s “Less taxes for the rich” for sure:
independent.ie/business/world/irelands-two-richest-billionaires-worth-more-than-bottom-half-of-earners/a505294402.html
Probably half of them are the people the government let in
Ever wonder how a woman could feed a family of 8 people three meals a day back in the 70s when microwave ovens and ready meals didn’t exist and a shopping trolley was full of junk food.
@Jack Moss: That was half a century ago….
@Jack Moss: potatoes , porridge and boxty
@Jack Moss: Usually because the woman herself did not sit down to dine with her family, she ate the leftovers if there were any and lived on cups of tea.
@Jack Moss: wasn’t full of junk food .
@Jack Moss: Clearly not all of them could, there was net emigration from Ireland until the 1990s.
@Frank Cauldhame: It’s gas,when it doesn’t suit people narrative to make comparisons to 50 years ago they rubbish things but then they will say ‘In the 60/70’s we built loads of council houses,why can’t we do that again’
@uUleRhCu: Like those who crow about a war that ended decades ago when they try and criticise the opposition parties. People need to move on.
@David Corrigan: Again,people love to whitewash the past and say ‘move on’…when it suits them but then go on about 100 years of fffg.And we all know that that lot have not gone away.That also is only one small part of people’s problems with that lot….It’s more the damage they would do to the economy(and international relations)if they got in.Finally,for someone who doesn’t support that crowd,you do an awful lot of heavy lifting for them.
Billionaires have telephone numbers too.And addresses.
independent.ie/business/world/irelands-two-richest-billionaires-worth-more-than-bottom-half-of-earners/a505294402.html
“Back to school costs, third level costs, household goods, furniture, clothing, support with health related costs, issues with mortgages and rent or funeral expenses”
Average Journal commenter: the poor are so lazy.
@Chris O’Brien: dont forget those who insist were a wealthy country while blaming those on welfare for all our woes
I think it would be fairer and more liberal to live in North Korea.
When the economy next crashes (probably in 2035 AD) will the neoliberal Irish change their minds about the need for a Communist revolution?
I am willing to wait and find out.
The reason for this lies solely with government policy’s,Blaming the less well off it’s just what the government wants one to do. The sitting government has caused this divide between Have and Have nots. They are forcing more and more poor people into this country, they have forced up house prices by allowing vulture funds buy up large amounts of properties. The buck lies at the top and government are happy all day if we all blame each other…… this left / right dribble from the sitting government is just smoke and mirrors.
have your say