10/08/2026
It's just over a week since the anti-racists vastly outnumbered the racists in Galway. In that time, I've been made aware of three posts - from accounts & groups with large followings on the far right - personally attacking me (1st attachment).
First of all, this shouldn't need to be stated, but I'm not accountable to racists. This is a coordinated attempt to defame me. Unfortunately, I don't have the time nor the money to pursue a defamation case - even considering doing such a thing is giving these types legitimacy. But I can imagine the Telegram message that went around - "dig up things he did the best part of a decade ago, embellish them so they sound much worse, or just entirely fabricate something".
I stated before that I won't be going into the mistake I made over 7 years ago when I broke a phone, nor will I acknowledge again the insane lies invented about me by a convicted criminal regarding drugs - for the record, I have videos on both my Instagram account & TikTok account directly addressing both (2nd attachment). There's only one person who gets to comment about how I am towards women, and that's my partner Emma of over 4 and a half years. I don't know of anyone who is judged by the toxic flings they had in their 20s, as opposed to the years-long relationships you built in your maturer years.
They've created a bogeyman and they let their imaginations run wild with the crazy crimes they accuse me of. I think this is fairly obvious to most people who actually know me, I've never been convicted of any sort of crime, I don't even have an adult caution. Any engagements I had with the court system were directly related to the water charges campaign, like thousands of other Irish people. In this day and age, and as a man of colour, if there was any evidence of me being convicted of anything, a basic archival search or AI deepdive would uproot it - there's literally nothing (3rd attachment).
In the past decade, I've been accused of being a woman-beater, a drug-dealer, a convicted criminal, an Islamist extremist...and now you can add in that I'm apparently an anti-Traveller racist, a friend of a child groomer, and someone who wants people to end their own lives. No evidence is ever provided, just the accusation. I've found two more (4th attachment) which puts into perspective everything that's been posted about me in the last week - there isn't an iota of truth to this nonsense, they're simply throwing enough s**t to see if it will stick.
In a video posted on Friday, Michael McCarthy showed an image of me standing beside Owen Hanley. He deduced from that, that we're the "leaders of the left in Galway". What he doesn't say is how that image is from September 2019, from a protest which our current President spoke at when she was a TD. Mike Cubbard also spoke as well as a whole host of other political reps (5th attachment). That was the last time I spoke to Owen, that's 7 years ago. He hasn't been involved in any way in Galway politics since he stepped down in January 2023 - that's over 3 and half years ago. It's not for me to comment on the allegations against Owen, suffice to say, the latest update from July 2025 was that the DPP directed no charges be brought against him. For someone who "keeps receipts" and has his followers singing his praises for his research skills, it's amazing how he ignored all of this and deliberately presented the information as if it were all happening right now.
It appears an entirely fabricated conversation has been generated between me and a racist person, where I tell the racist person to kill themselves. First off, you'll note only a section of the conversation is shown. Secondly, the name and profile picture of the racist isn't shown. And once again, there's no timestamp of when this imaginary conversation happened. Now, if you check my profile picture on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and TikTok, you'll notice that none of them match the profile picture attributed to me in the messages Michael McCarthy shows (6th attachment). There isn't any other platform that I would message someone on. One of the lines attributed to me is "I don't have a family" - this seems bizarre when I post everyday about my late brother and father, I regularly have pictures up of me and my partner and the young fella, and I speak often about my mother, as well as my brother and his family in Mexico, and my sister. Lastly....why would I say something like that when my brother died by su***de last year? Like, if it's alleged that this conversation happened long before I had any understanding of people experiencing a mental health crisis or those in suicidal distress, then it's more understandable, but no context nor any dates or times are provided. I'm not denying I haven't sent horrible messages to racists, if I have, it's been provoked every time. But I don't recollect sending those messages - they have been doctored, manipulated, or entirely fabricated.
One of the people behind the attacks on me this week is currently going through the courts process after being charged for lying about someone and inciting violence against them. He's currently out on bail. As you can see (7th attachment), he is someone who Michael McCarthy has a direct line with, and most likely is the source of some of the latter's posts.
Going further, we really begin to understand Mr McCarthy's understanding of the "truth" and his willingness to defend actual criminals, by reference to his defence of Philip Dwyer, a man convicted of trespass and violent affray (8th attachment).
Now, in his video full of defamatory nonsense about me, he often references Gript as the source. This is a media outlet who wrongly identified someone as the Parnell Square stabbing suspect, who breached a code of practice over an article about s*x education, whose editor resigned after allegations of s*xual harassment, who are being sued by someone after they incited violence against him, who attacked the mother of a young boy who died from scoliosis because she wouldn't blame immigrants, whose journalists have previously run for far right parties now removed from the register or who have pretended to be pro-choice & made ableist banners, and who lie that a beauty salon owner lost her business due to immigration when it was actually because she performed a botched operation (9th & 10th attachments). Their former editor referred to me as "Caliph Joe" just because my mother is Pakistani. They have an archive about me on their site which ignores all my activist work from 2007 to 2019, and from 2024 onwards - it purely focuses on literal defamation sent to them by convicted criminals like Dara O'Flaherty. You will find news articles about me breaking a phone on most sites, anything else negative has only ever been platformed by Gript.
We know what Michael McCarthy thinks of me for breaking a phone, we can see that from the emphasis he puts on the reported quotes about that incident. But what does he think of a woman actually being assaulted? What did he think of Sophie Brady, a woman who survived a horrific s*xual assault, when she spoke out about the double standards at play when anti-immigration campaigners only focus on crimes committed by foreigners, and ignore the crimes of white men like the perpetrator of the crime committed against her. He made a video laughing at her, mocked what she was wearing, and then doubled down when he was called out for enabling his followers and others to send her death threats (11th attachment).
What does he think of convicted ra**st Conor McGregor? He blames the victim - she "had s*x with the two men on the same night, she did all this while she had a child at home and boyfriend". He openly congratulates the ra**st for "speaking the truth" and for "leading the way" (12th attachment).
What about Andrew Tate? As you see here (13th attachment), he tweets to a man charged with trafficking minors...about minors being trafficked in Syria. In relation to an underage girl being manhandled by Tate, he states it's just "role-playing" which "some women like".
What about Andrew's brother Tristan who's also charged with s*xual assault, r**e and trafficking? Well just a few weeks ago, Tristan advised his followers to follow Michael, to which Michael replied "Appreciate it Tristan". I think we're beginning to understand where Michael McCarthy stands when it comes to people actually charged or convicted of crimes against women and children (14th attachment).
Let's go further. Here's a selection of tweets from Michael about women in general (15th attachment). He blames women for "just" screaming in dangerous situations, he makes arguments for women not voting, he claims "women are crying out for strong men" as a "cure" for women being independent, and he thinks women go crazy if they don't have a strong male figure in their lives.
He shares videos of random women on a night out and comments on their weight, he compares getting relationship advice from a woman to "getting swimming lessons from a black man or an interest free loan from a Jew", and he openly mocks working class women for not being able to afford period products (16th attachment).
This is someone who doesn't respect the truth. When a business owner in Dublin spoke out about an incident, which had been manipulated by the far right to stoke racist violence, and said he witnessed it himself and that there was no element to the incident that could be seized upon by racists, Michael mocked the business owner. The truth wasn't the truth he wanted to hear so he resorted to his usual sarcasm (17th attachment).
This is someone who has been regularly debunked by various media outlets. He claimed there was gay s*x in a kid's TV show because two fully-clothed characters kissed - lies. Lies about the presidential nomination process, lies about Sweden, lies about organisations receiving state funding, lies about kids being taught Islamic prayers, lies about a church attack being in Europe, lies about the numbers of people in Ireland against the EU. Consistent lies from a liar (18th attachment).
So, to conclude, we have a man who mocks r**e victims, celebrates ra**sts and child traffickers, lies openly about various issues, provides no evidence, timestamps or credible sources for his defamatory claims, fraternises with people actually convicted of crimes or who are out on bail for inciting racist lies, and who mocks women who are independent, having their period, have weight on them, who scream or who vote. I'm not answerable to someone like that. Just like I'm not answerable to a man involved with the far right who killed his father and attempts to compare his taking of a life with me breaking a phone (19th attachment). These people have no moral compass.
If you're the type to believe anything that these liars, convicted criminals and r**e apologists say about me, you're a lost cause. No one other than me will have the last word on anything to do with my life or my family.
