A concert in Dublin that RTE promised would "express support for Palestinians" ended up glorifying IRA terrorism, promoting the slogan "F*** Israel," and calling Ireland's most prominent Jew a "prize dickhead." And it's not even over yet.

In yesterday's Irish Times, Mary Robinson, who served as Ireland's president from 1990 to 1997, likened attempts to stop Sally Rooney "expressing support for Palestinians" to the demonisation of opponents of apartheid. She called Faber's decision to stop selling Rooney's books in the UK "a very worrying constraint and repression." To be clear, Faber's decision was not about Rooney expressing support for Palestinians. In August 2025, also in the Irish Times, Rooney wrote that she intended "to use the proceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can." Palestine Action is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK. Faber says the law now prevents it from passing Rooney's UK earnings to her, and that selling her work there without paying her would be "unconscionable." Therefore, it reached a voluntary agreement with Rooney to withdraw her books from British bookstores. While Robinson shows great concern for Rooney, another woman's name appears nowhere in the article, that of Police Sergeant Kate Evans. In August 2024, Palestine Action activists attacked an Elbit Systems site at Filton, near Bristol. Sgt Evans was on her knees, trying to handcuff a female activist, when Samuel Corner, a 23-year-old former student at the University of Oxford, hit her from behind with a sledgehammer. In the judge's words, she "did not have any chance of seeing or escaping the blow." Evans suffered multiple fractures to her vertebrae. For months, she was unable to drive, shower, or dress herself. Almost two years later, she has not returned to full active duty, is still receiving medical treatment, and has been unable to retain her rank as a sergeant. She still experiences panic attacks during the night, and her parents and children fear for her safety. In June, Corner was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Sgt. Evans and jailed for over seven years. The judge described "extreme and gratuitous violence against a vulnerable police officer" and noted that Corner "has never even said sorry." In her victim impact statement, Sgt. Evans said that Corner had attempted to "justify his actions with baseless and offensive claims that [she] was complicit in genocide". Rooney's defenders will say she supports damage to property, not violence against people. But Filton shows how that distinction blurs when activists arrive armed with sledgehammers and police are summoned to stop them. Rooney pledged her platform and her earnings to the terrorist group the year after the Filton attacks, but I can find no record of her ever even mentioning Sgt. Evans. Robinson is right to condemn "thuggery and intimidation" by far-right agitators, and right to defend the rule of law. But the rule of law exists to protect everyone equally. Standards shouldn't change when people are engaging in thuggery, intimidation, and violence for a cause she favours. Sympathy is also not a limited resource, and it can stretch beyond celebrity novelists to a police officer who has lost far more to Palestine Action than some book royalties. irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/…

After two months, the John Gillick affair has finally reached the @IrishTimes. This is a noteworthy moment. Since late August, when screenshots of antisemitic posts to Gillick’s personal X account began circulating, only one journalist at one newspaper (@Fearghaloc at the @Independent_ie) has covered the story. The screenshots highlighted posts describing Jews as “human scum” and “filthy dogs,” and declaring that they “need to be thrown out” of Ireland. The Wayback Machine revealed a substantial archive of such posts going back to the start of last year. John Gillick is not a nobody. He worked at AIG for over 20 years. He headed consumer marketing and sponsorship, fronting the company’s partnerships with sporting bodies including Dublin GAA, the Golfing Union of Ireland, and Hockey Ireland. In March of this year, he was photographed with the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) at a gala dinner in Washington, D.C. On 2 September, Gillick stated that his account had been compromised and that the antisemitic posts were not his. He reported the matter to the Gardaí, and that investigation continues. However, on Friday, AIG’s president and chief executive, Eric Andersen, confirmed to Orli Degani, chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, that Gillick is no longer working for the company. Andersen does not run the Irish subsidiary, @AIGIreland. He has led AIG worldwide since June. It is significant, therefore, that a complaint from a handful of people in this country reached the CEO of a global insurer in New York. Degani thanked him specifically for the personal attention he gave it. But note the disparity here. The CEO of a multi-billion-dollar multinational corporation judged this matter serious enough to deal with himself. Meanwhile, most of the Irish press ignored the issue for eight weeks. Consider, by contrast, how a story last week about a Palestinian necklace being edited out of an episode of Cheap Irish Homes was instantly in the headlines of every major newspaper, TV station, and radio broadcaster in the country. That asymmetry reflects something that I have written about here before: a habit of looking the other way when Jews are being targeted. The elements of a story were always there: a senior figure in Irish sports sponsorship, a personal account calling for a minority group to be expelled from the country, a company inquiry, a Garda investigation into a claimed hack. Had the target of the posts been any other minority community in this country, it is hard to imagine having to wait two months for a second journalist to take an interest. Ms Degani says the case mattered “far beyond the actions of one individual,” and she is right. The issue was never about what was posted on one account. It is about whether Irish Jews can trust that when things like this happen, they will be taken seriously by employers, by the Gardaí, by the media, and by the public. Her closing point is that reporting antisemitism matters. It does, but so does reporting on it. irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/…