Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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Notes -
If you know anything about mixed martial arts, you'll know the name Conor McGregor. If you're not resident in Ireland, you may be unaware of what a generally scummy and loathsome person he is: the "Controversies" section on his Wikipedia page is nearly 500 words longer than the "Professional mixed martial arts career" section. He's also running for President next year. It need hardly be said that I'm having a hard time envisioning a worse brand ambassador for the Irish nation (I would sincerely prefer Barbie Kardashian, Gerry Adams, Dustin the Turkey or Jedward over him), and it infuriates me that in many cases he's literally the only thing non-Irish people know about our country.
After numerous criminal investigations for rape and/or sexual assault which were dropped for lack of evidence, one such complainant, Nikita Hand, sued him in a civil action. The jury has found in Hand's favour, and now that the trial is over, the injunction on the media has been lifted and they are permitted to disclose various details about the case, including the fact that Hand alleges that, after she filed the civil action, masked men broke into her home and stabbed her partner.
One reaction to the outcome of the trial I found particularly sharp was from Waterford Whispers News, a satire website which aspires to be sort of like the parochial Irish equivalent of the Onion. Between 2013-16, the website did not miss, and they'd have a wittingly biting take on virtually every major news story in Ireland. After that golden era the website kind of fell off and stopped seeing nearly as much traction on social media. Much like their main source of inspiration, they dropped all pretensions to neutrality and pretty much openly announced that their satire would only be a means to advance a socially progressive worldview, to the point that, earlier this year, they were literally selling merch with the dictionary definition of the word "woke", defined as "1. Alert to prejudice and injustice 2. Not a prick" - what is this, 2014? But occasionally they can still knock the ball out of the park, as with this post: "'Keep Women Safe': Hundreds of Far Right Nationalists Protest Outside Rapist Conor McGregor's House". The joke being, of course, that the kinds of working-class activists attending anti-immigration protests ostensibly in the name of protecting Irish women from predatory foreign men tend to be fervent admirers of Conor McGregor.
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