Ciaran Flynn

🇮🇪 Irish publishing scandal. 🇮🇪 "“Huge congratulations to Ronan Lyons on having his book Brittle top the Irish book charts as no 1 bestseller,” Daft(dot)ie wrote in a post on LinkedIn." Property website Daft were caught with their pants down artificially boosting "Brittle" to the No.1 spot on the Irish non-fiction book charts by bulk buying 1,800 out of 1,947 copies in a week sending it to No.1 on the Irish best seller charts. Lyons has been stripped of his best seller status by Nielsen. Importantly, as the article states, "For 20 years, Ronan Lyons has been the author of the Daft(dot)ie housing reports." Daft boosted sales to promote their in-house housing expert and in doing so artificially manipulated the Bestseller list. And there is a more important subtext. The cover carried a blurb from establishment whisperer David McWilliams. Lyons, the author, is a Trinity Professor who regularly appears on RTE, TodayFM, Irish Times, Matt Cooper show etc. The book was published with Atlantic Books and distributed across all major bookshops across Ireland. Even with all of these factors, the book wouldn't have registered a ripple without Daft artificially boosting it and in doing so trying to turn it into a publishing phenomenon. I compare this to Vandalising Ireland which went to no.1 in Ireland, hung around the top 5 in the best sellers for a couple of weeks and dominated the Irish Amazon charts in 2025. It further took several No.1 spots on US Amazon. It happened despite the national media blacking it out. It happened despite many bookshops refusing to stock it and many others begrudgingly stocking it - that is leaving it under the counter, or failing to restock once sold out. It became a hit against all the odds and against the best efforts of the national media. And this is a major problem. People now understand that people like Lyons and McWilliams are - to use an over-used term - controlled opposition. They are cozy insiders and lobbyists posing as truth-tellers. But of course, these people are part of the establishment and back them up by providing 'solutions' that in no way risk the economic model (demographic-shattering FDI over-reliance and EU federalisation). When FF/G mess up so spectacularly that they can't cover up their disastrous policies anymore, these are the people rolled out to deliver stern warnings, diffuse anger, give the illusion of change but ultimately, keep FF/G in power. People are sick of being patronised. People are sick of seeing the same faces and hearing the same old arguments from people desperate to keep their seat in the D4 media bubble so it is no surprise that Lyons' book *actually* flopped. The artificial boosting of Lyons's book is a scandal. Daft are the primary villains but they are only one of the guilty parties. The news outlets that artificially boosted his arguments are equally guilty. And of course few will find it plausible that Lyons himself had no idea of Daft's plan. This scandal gives people a glimpse into just how tightly controlled by the D4 clique all public discourse, all media and all politics are in Ireland. 👇👇👇