In February 2019 political correspondent Hugh O’Connell wrote a piece about a trend that had “raised concerns” of a “brain drain”: Fine Gael hiring half a dozen journalists as special advisers in 18 months – a "brain drain", wrote O'Connell.
Senior Department of Defence officials discussed establishing quarterly meetings with arms industry lobbyists – with internal records showing talks about “effective communications” between both parties ahead of the publication of an EU defence policy paper.
A deal was made to sell a British development site owned by Michael Lowry the same month the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) questioned the independent TD at a garda station last year.
Lobbyists for international arms manufacturers organised a secret meeting with Department of Defence officials at a Dún Laoghaire hotel – and instructed attendees to maintain secrecy about it.
A “Michael Lowrey” – with an E – took ownership of a new home before selling to independent TD Michael Lowry’s daughter for €50,000. Lowry’s refrigeration company later bought the house from his daughter for €290,000 and remains the property's current owner.
In March 1972 state forces in the north of Ireland arrested and interned a young man in Long Kesh. There, alongside dozens of other prisoners – mostly Catholics and Irish republicans – he endured imprisonment without trial.
The Department of Defence has admitted it’s agreed to keep its interactions with lobbyists for international arms manufacturers “confidential”.
A property development company with €11 million in assets – and intentions to develop a Dublin 7 site – owned by the Law Society of Ireland has failed to file accounts with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) since 2022.
The airline the Department of Transport is probing over illegal weapons flights has resumed transporting munitions to Israel through Irish sovereign airspace.
Irish airline ASL has started transporting munitions of war to Israel again despite repeated promises to its Dublin-based staff it had stopped.
The Housing Agency won’t release records to at least 13 homeowners affected by the defective block crisis because the publication of these records, the agency claims, could “endanger the life or safety” of Housing Agency staff.
Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty said in private messages seen by The Ditch that “Israeli settlements were conducted under international law” and expressed frustration that Hamas had asked the UN to look after Palestinian refugees instead of “their own bloody government”.