Anatomy of a smear campaign

How a single exchange caused a media meltdown

On Wednesday, June 26th, @wicklowpride announced the cancellation of their 'Rainbow Disco' event for 13-16 year-olds, which was scheduled to take place in Newtownmountkennedy, citing 'threats and intimidation' as the reason.

The blame for the ‘threats and intimidation’ have fallen on two accounts, @Teztruth81 & @offgridireland, who shared two tweets on June 23rd, with Terry’s tweets being quoted on Instagram.

So, what exactly did he say that would cause an LGBTQ teen disco to be cancelled and warrant RTE News, Newstalk Independent.ie and countless other media outlets to accuse him of “threats and intimidation”?

A disco for 13-16-year-old gay teens is a safeguarding nightmare. The age gap is something even kids understand isn’t appropriate. There's a high risk of inadvertent breaches in privacy and confidentiality, along with the danger of alerting predatory men to the sexuality of still very young children.

On June 23rd @OffgridIreland sent the event poster to Terry K with the quote “Groomers”, and Terry’s reply was: “Yeah, a few in the NTMK (Newtownmountkennedy) group mentioned it. Someone suggested a protest, but with kids present it'd be bad visuals you know. It's very difficult to combat this stuff.”

This was all it took for them to be smeared across mainstream media as “homophobes”.

No protest was planned against any LGBTQ event by the community.

Recently, Patrick Bracken of Wicklow Pride launched a concerted effort across his social media platforms to demonize the Newtown community and Terry, portraying Terry's reply in the above tweet as a threat and intimidation.

Ian McGahaon of  Labour took to the Wicklow Pride post on Instagram to quote both tweets as evidence of an impending protest of the event.

Danny Alvey, Councillor for Newtownmountkennedy posted incendiary copied and pasted sentiments about the “far right”, and a “militant minority”.

Violent, militant Antifa groups like “161 Crew Ireland” also chimed in with sinister threats stating, “we are getting the names of those involved and are going to expose them”.

 
For those unaware, recent protests in Newtownmountkennedy are centered around the proposed use of a local site, Trudder House, for accommodating asylum seekers. The plan reportedly involves housing approximately 150 people in 20 eight-person tents, surrounding the house with waste water spilling over into a man-made "pool" to contain it.

However, the pool’s contents are spilling out into the local region and causing what residents believe is an environmental hazard. The community recently discovered that no environmental impact study has taken place. There are also concerns felt not just locally, but all over Ireland, about the sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers and refugees arriving, including nearly 105,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war. 2,000 asylum seekers are currently unaccommodated causing severe strain on Ireland's housing and public services.

Tensions in the town peaked on April 25th, when the Gardai used batons and pepper spray against protesters. The protests go on to this day, and the people of the area are regularly demonised in Irish media as ‘far-right’. This is where the deliberate, malicious reframing of the Twitter exchange comes in. “Everything is being used to complete a dishonest picture of us” Terry told me.

This morning, Wicklow Pride have made a U-turn stating the event will not be cancelled, but rather postponed until a suitable venue is found. This was followed by a 24-hour concerted effort from NGOs, TDs and their media mouthpieces demonizing Newtown and Terry alike. They gave no one right of reply nor provided evidence of any threats or intimidation. 

Compare the wording below to that of the first, which has been deleted. 

“If the accusations of harassment are true,” Terry told me, “and we’ve seen no evidence that they are, they no more represent the people of the town than any other criminal act. The inhabitants of Newtownmountkennedy are just normal people who are sick of being used as scapegoats. They simply want to be listened to on a matter that directly affects their everyday lives.”