Glennon came out himself and admitted it. But why? Normally that only happens when someone is going to be outed by the media - and presumably that couldn’t happen when a judge had forbidden it. I still really want to know what the reason for asking, and granting, anonymity was. Why would a judge do...

Yes. This idea that a wide-eyed ingénu of a “naive” TD just made an “error of judgement” and “failed to give proper weight to the gravity of the crimes” is almost as outrageous as providing the reference in the first place. They rarely seem to be as naive when it comes to their financial interests d...

Ex-TD Jim Glennon confirms he wrote character reference for sex offender https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0426/1570279-jim-glennon/ How does this work legally I wonder? Will there be any questions asked as to what the judge’s reasons were for granting anonymity and how valid those were, given t...

I just wonder what the court's response would be to an FOI request. After all the identity of the former TD involved would not be regarded as breaching confidentiality around the victim in the case at hand. It would be interesting to see on what grounds the court would decline to answer. Is that no...

Something is happening anyway - I’m getting an error message quite frequently. I wonder if the site is going to collapse like p.ie did in the past (before it closed for good I mean)

Has the convicted person not foregone the right to be regarded as of 'good character' when they commit such crime? If you or I approached a judge in the street between him or her convicting someone and the necessary sentencing hearing we could be accused of attempting to influence a judge. If a cur...

Magyar has one hell of an Augean stable to clear out. Quite rightly, he is quickly getting down to business. Down with l’ancien regime!!! Thing is though, I would have serious doubts about anyone seeking to bring in more democracy by upending democratic principles. I know a lot of revolutionaries h...

I admit that I only follow this topic sporadically and that I am not invested enough to actively follow up on stories. You are probably right that it will take a lot longer for this trend to die an obscure death. It all ties back to the hierarchy of victims which you referenced before. As soon as t...

Very little I'd have thought seeing as it was a publicly held court and the only laws around identifying parties to the case would be around protecting the identity of victim or victims. It should be challenged or next thing you know judges will be using this as precedent to anonymise witnesses. Ac...

Unfortunately it will be years until this absolute insanity is being properly removed from the stupid western world. Even that may be optimistic: there are a number of high profile “trans women are women” people where it’s clear that they don’t actually believe what they profess but have simply dec...

Has it occurred to you that your attitude to other posters is not conducive to engagement? For my own part, I'd agree with Lumpy that character references should have no role in what happens in court. It's time to do away with them. I haven’t called anyone a loon, so no. Anyway we all know you’re j...

Another mentally ill man that thinks he's a woman has gone on a shooting spree in Canada. The BBC and RTE - that ironically harp on about trusted news and beating "misinformation" are the biggest misinformation spreaders today, telling us that it was a woman that did this. Utter joke. Goi...

The entire concept of a 'character reference' being used to try to ameliorate sentences for serious crimes is a nonsense in my opinion. It conveys the impression there is a balancing act when in fact based on evidence and a conviction there is no such theoretical balancing act to be found. (…) And ...

I had read in advance of this election that a simple majority in parliament wasn't going to be enough for Magyar to govern , but that he needed a two thirds majority in parliament to be able to get basically any thing done. Orban had spent years stacking every group, regulators, the judiciary etc w...

Magyar is also calling for the president of Hungary to stand down. https://www.reuters.com/world/hungarys- ... 026-04-20/

I wonder how democratic he is turning out to be.

The bitter sting of fascist tears - Orban conceding. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/apr/12/hungary-election-latest-results-viktor-orban-peter-magyar-fidesz-tisza-russia-europe-live-news-updates#maincontent Tisza's Magyar says Orbán 'congratulated us on our victory' Oh. Tisza’s leader P...

Largely because the dissonance between the beliefs expressed and the actions done is so vast. That's a fair point on the face of it, but IMO it’s already explained/included in my point that all of these “proofs of good character”, including membership of a religion, are deliberately exploited by me...

I think myself it's the Matthew Doyle story that's the 'smoking gun' here, if there is one. I'm not sure we learnt anything this morning that we didn't know already about Mandelson, except that the vetting failure related to issues other than Epstein (presumably his Russian and Chinese links). Simp...

Statsman wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2026 1:59 pm Once again, the abuser was a good, god-fearing Xtian, I see.

Could you explain how that comment is qualitatively different to someone pointing out that “once again” the abuser is an Asian immigrant?

Is that not exactly the same mind set, but just with different “bogey man” groups to hate on?…login to view the rest of this post

There should definitely be a freedom of information request on this one if only to force the court and judge concerned to explain themselves why they have given the TD concerned anonymity. Just announced on the RTE 1o’clock news that the Court of Appeal will not release his name. The judge clarifie...

We are mainly agreed, but you can’t remove the character references if the other side of the coin remains. I don’t really want to defend the VIS, but neither do I see the equivalence that you seem to: the accused for instance has a right to legal advice, funded by the taxpayer if necessary, while t...

“People” are incapable of controlling their emotions when it comes to specific crimes such as sexual assaults or child abuse. The politician could be doing an excellent job but their career would be over in a heartbeat because their good work would be overwritten by people reacting emotionally towa...

Both victim impact statements and character references only have the purpose to sway the sentencing in their favour, which is why neither are appropriate. Character references seem superfluous especially because priors will already be taken into consideration for sentencing so a clean slate will wo...

Having their name published would mean the end of their political career because people can’t judge actions objectively. Can you explain what “people” are getting wrong in feeling that an elected representative should not be trying to influence a court to reduce the sentence of a convicted criminal...

I think we largely agree, apart from the fact that I think that victim impact statements should only be delivered post the sentencing if one feels that they are even required. Not like anyone actually cares. I think VIS are pointless in practical terms but harmless. And maybe the victims get someth...