Ireland has a serious Russia problem.

mathepac said:
He hasn't any journalistic or communications training or qualification that I can find other than perhaps the time he spent associated with and promoting the views of the international far right movement, amongst them the British far-right activist, organiser, online influencer, anti-Islam leader and convicted criminal, Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, aka Stephen Christopher Yaxley, aka Tommy Robinson, who also, interestingly or ominously, describes himself as a journalist.
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I saw this too.

Thought it was a case of strange bedfellows: far right crackpots and an apparently freedom spirited gay - though some of the UK far right seemed to partake of lads weekends on an island on the river Trent at one point . . .

To be honest, my initial reaction at the end of the video was I wouldn't like to be this guy's father. He seems to have no sense of the deep dangers inherent in his way of life and how easy it would be for some of the darker forces involved (Russia, conservative or corrupt officials, jealous colleagues, tender-trap blackmailers, etc) to eliminate him. Media can be a very dirty and dangerous place to be.
 
trajan said:
But the point mathepac and myself were making was the sort of paper panties approach to facts and their linkage in Robertson's video. That sort of inclination would normally be beaten out of him during journo training, if his own (self-)education and maturation hadn't already done so. I suppose the days of learning shorthand by young scribes are numbered. But the legal implications of broadcasting falsities or misleading facts are very serious indeed. It's not just Mrs Burgess who worries about losing the house to stuff published online.
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The horse has most definitely bolted when it comes to journalism, the internet killed it.
 
mathepac said:
He doesn't appear to be anything of the kind, other than to himself. He hasn't any journalistic or communications training or qualification that I can find
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That's what he appeared to be to me when I watched the film he produced. As stated in my OP I never heard of him. Since his credentials are being challenged here is his wiki page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caolan_Robertson

Amongst other things, he was a co-founder of a project called 'Future Freedom', to fight online radicalizisation. Quite possibly because of his own experience of being radicalized by far-right elements in his young adulthood.
Also he was a director of an alternative media website and newspaper Byline TV (I never heard of it).

In addition, his wiki page says he received Ukraines Order of Merit, 3rd Class from President Zelensky Irish reporter awarded order of merit by Ukraine on account of his frontline reporting of Ukraine/Russia war.

So perhaps he doesnt have much classroom training. Most of those journalists are probably placed in the Corporate and State media organisations anyway?

He certainly does appear to have a lot of field reporting and experience.

In any case, all is this is just mere deflection from the fact that there is a Russian owned plant producing alumina for export to Russia which may be finding its way into the Russian war machine.
I don't need a certified journalist to confirm to me that exports are occurring. What is needed is expert reporting on whether cargo from Limerick is finding its way into the battlefield.

As of earlier today, No 'concrete evidence' of Aughinish exports to Russian weapons plant - Taoiseach.

"The investigation has not found concrete or definitive evidence linking the alumina to a weapons manufacturer in Russia," said Mr Martin.
"That said, neither has it found definitive evidence that alumina may not be going to weapons manufacturers.
"It is very difficult to prove whether the material is going to Russia and difficult to prove that it is not going there."

According to Irish Times journalist, Conor Gallagher (I haven't checked his credentials), "one scientist told us it would be possible", to get a chemical match from the alumina in Limerick and the weapons fired on Ukraine.

trajan said:
my initial reaction at the end of the video was I wouldn't like to be this guy's father. He seems to have no sense of the deep dangers inherent in his way of life and how easy it would be for some of the darker forces involved (Russia, conservative or corrupt officials, jealous colleagues, tender-trap blackmailers, etc) to eliminate him. Media can be a very dirty and dangerous place to be.
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don't 'real' journalists have these concerns too? Or is that why they have been relatively silent on the issue?
 
Sister Sara said:
According to Irish Times journalist, Conor Gallagher (I haven't checked his credentials), "one scientist told us it would be possible", to get a chemical match from the alumina in Limerick and the weapons fired on Ukraine.
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You'd need something more compelling than that. A similar question often arises in archaeology and in criminal investigations involving precious metals that were later melted down. It's always possible for the melters to add old coins intentionally to mess up any comparisons between the impurity or trace element content and that of the suspected source ore or stolen material. This possibility alone could undermine efforts to identify archaeological precious objects to a historical region or get an acquittal for those caught in possession of suspected stolen gold.

Sister Sara said:
don't 'real' journalists have these concerns too? Or is that why they have been relatively silent on the issue?
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Most frontline war correspondents calculate the risks of what they say and do. They would not go there in the first place without the backing of a major station or publication, some sort of official "international press card" and some kind of bailout options if things got tight. This guy Robertson seems to be putting himself into very dangerous work in an idealistic sort of way - kind of like blokes going off to Spain to fight Franco in the 1930s.

Yes, it may well be danger to their professional life that keeps the trad media in Ireland off the Aughinish issue. Newspaper editors fear the loss of advertising revenues into the paper - which is controlled by large media ad buyers like ad agencies, many of which have PR divisions. If a PR firm is engaged by a large company to represent their point of view, it will be far more effective to have one which can threaten ad space loss to that newspaper. Provincial papers circulation is limited and fixed. It lives or dies by its ad revenue. So the fear of controversial topics by provincial papers is not just legal, it's more commercial - ultimately existential.

Lately I find that reporters and freelancers for the national papers are relatively conservative - compared to colleagues of the 60s, 70s, 80s - in what they write about. I even see a clear lack of general knowledge by the younger ones. There was a piece by a 30 something scribe in the Irish Times where she went on about the Sinatra hit, "This Life". Of course, it was That's Life - and she appeared to have never heard it. God be with the days when newspaper people took a walk on the wild side. Another time a review of a book by Hilary Gaskin, Eyewitness At Nuremberg, refers to "boredom broken occasionally by tinny jazz music echoing up from the transistor radios of military police outside the courtroom". Of course the transistor device hadn't been invented back in 1946 (nor would MPs be allowed use them on duty) so the radio heard was more likely via a Tannoy (not "tinny") loudspeaker system around the Nuremberg courts complex, as was common then. This is the sort of ignorance that is common in journalism today, even among the supposedly educated and 'trained' ones.

Caolan Robertson is making some sort of living via his social media stuff. I suppose it comes from payments by the social media sites for the visits to his content and the resulting ad revenues from it. Maybe if he gets enough of a name for himself he can jump out to join a more stable media company and "edit" SM content coming in from younger versions of himself. Maybe he might even get a chance to do programmes of his own. But it's a longshot in a very competitive field.
 
Sister Sara said:
What is needed is expert reporting on whether cargo from Limerick is finding its way into the battlefield.
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I think this misses the point somewhat.

Rest of world to Russia:
Are you using these aluminium imports for Instruments of warfare?

Russia to rest of world:

a) Yes we are. OR

b) Absolutely not. The imports are strictly for domestic windows and educational buildings. The domestic product, that we would have used to supply those sectors, is now being used to make weapons. So, thank you for the alumina. Big help to the war effort.

I can't see any real difference in the moral quality of these outcomes.
 
trajan said:
You'd need something more compelling than that.
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I know.

But the point is there are ways to trace materials in products that can verify the source. And in doing so, it forms part of the overall investiagtion along with customs papers, travel logs, financial records, whistleblowers, etc.

The headline this evening, no concrete evidence either way will have to be addressed. The report is not going to be published in full, it will be sent to the EU Commission so most likely the public will be kept in the dark for some time yet.
 
MOB said:
So, thank you for the alumina. Big help to the war effort.
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Either a) or b) should have the EU considering listing alumnia as a sanctioned good.

The questions now go to the EU - why is alumina not already listed as a sanctioned good?
 
Sister Sara said:
The questions now go to the EU - why is alumina not already listed as a sanctioned good?
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Because of the intense lobbying by the shameless Irish government to get it exempted.

The alacrity, even passion, of the past Department of Industry & Commerce officials and their counterparts in today's Department of Enterprise, Tourism & Employment to push this through the government's long agenda immediately sanctions were mooted - and long after the power station loans have been paid back - really does raise curious questions.
 
Purple said:
Most Journalists don't have a specific journalistic qualification.
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This is absolutely true. There's no barrier to entry into the journalism trade. It's not medicine or architecture.

In the recent past, people like Eamon Dunphy and a sizeable chunk of former Hot Press journalists (Declan Lynch, Joe Jackson, George Byrne, John Waters, Ian O'Doherty, Liam Fay and others) carved out successful careers mostly with no journalism qualifications whatsoever.

These days anyone can set up an online news site and post reports, articles, features reviews etc. - and they're no more, or no less valid than the so-called "mainstream media," who've been repeatedly caught up in all kinds of "fake-news" scandals in recent years.

Gript in particular, have excelled in asking direct, pointed and relevant questions at government press conferences - much to the annoyance of various Government Ministers (Yes, they might be right leaning but most journalists are left-leaning so a bit of balance is welcome.)

Even the self-proclaimed "Citizen Journalist" who tends to make a bit of nuisance of himself outside IPAS centers has every right to do so - once he doesn't break the law.

trajan said:
But to describe oneself as a journalist, implying that it's one's primary income source, would require one to have either an NUJ card or a significant back catalogue of actual published articles.
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Membership of a trade union is an optional choice in all areas of the workplace - the NUJ is no different. (It's true that in the past, membership was used to operate a closed-shop situation - just like the taxi business before de-regulation at the time of Bobby Molloy.)

Not sure if it has to be your primary income source? Brian O' Nolan, Hugh Leonard, Roddy Doyle, Seamus Heaney and many more had jobs in the Civil Service, teaching etc while also being journalists, poets, novelists. And I can think of many acclaimed musicians and actors both here and abroad who's primary income was in a different field at least in their early years and sometimes beyond. They had every right to describe themselves as musicians/actors.
 
Howth Head said:
In the recent past, people like Eamon Dunphy and a sizeable chunk of former Hot Press journalists (Declan Lynch, Joe Jackson, George Byrne, John Waters, Ian O'Doherty, Liam Fay and others) carved out successful careers mostly with no journalism qualifications whatsoever.
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Best one of all - Richie 'Milkboy' Taylor, rock scribe after being a sometime guitar picker with Rocky de Valera & The Gravediggers and The Rhythm Kings.

Phil Lynnott lived life in the fast lane and X has no right to pass judgement on him or his lifestyle.

-- Richie Taylor in some Sunday rag.

Oh, such profundities we got off our Milkboy.

I wonder if I could get a number as Harvester Critic from the Farmers' Journal on the back of my few years bagging on an old MF machine . . . Sure, a dumb priest never got a parish. Once I get in, I'd be an awful hard man to shift :D
And I'd get my NUJ card straight away - if there's trouble let the NUJ fight my corner.

As a matter of fact, I can claim my NUJ card right now as frontend developers and coders are allowed join for some reason. I suppose good copy on the landing page is marketing gold dust.

Seriously, I think the NUJ need to eliminate these specious claimants to the coveted card as it's only dragging an already disreputable occupation (I can't call it a profession now, can I?) into disgraceful territory. It should be like engineering. Do it by qualification plus on-the-job training, by apprenticeship or Oxbridge style, by substantive published work over a period.
 
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trajan said:
You'd need something more compelling than that. A similar question often arises in archaeology and in criminal investigations involving precious metals that were later melted down. It's always possible for the melters to add old coins intentionally to mess up any comparisons between the impurity or trace element content and that of the suspected source ore or stolen material. This possibility alone could undermine efforts to identify archaeological precious objects to a historical region or get an acquittal for those caught in possession of suspected stolen gold.
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It is possible to pinpoint the origin of the bauxite ore by identifying trace elements that are left in the finished aluminium using Mass Spectrometry. It is not possible to know where the bauxite was processed into Alumina. Finished aluminium stock (sheets, rods, bars etc) is often composed of a mix of recycled and new aluminium. It is infinitely recyclable and recycling it uses only 5% of the energy needed to produce new material.
 
This extensive investigation was done by the Irish Times and others in March this year.
I surprisingly good piece of journalism from the IT.
 
I don't think all that many people in Ireland care a whit where Alumina made here is used around the world. It's a bit of a non-story as far as I can see - the world doesn't work that way.

According to the Dept of Agriculture Ireland exported 8,098 tonnes of dairy produce with a value of € 22.9 million to Russia in 2025.

Russian soldiers could be eating Irish butter and cheese while killing Ukrainians!

Market Access: Russia

www.marketaccess.agriculture.gov.ie www.marketaccess.agriculture.gov.ie
 
trajan said:
NUJ need to eliminate these specious claimants to the coveted card as it's only dragging an already disreputable occupation (
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Whether you have an NUJ card or not doesn't make you more or less of a journalist. It's a trade union not a an education qualification awards body. (I have an NUJ card - albeit a long out-of-date one.)
 
Howth Head said:
Whether you have an NUJ card or not doesn't make you more or less of a journalist. It's a trade union not a an education qualification awards body. (I have an NUJ card - albeit a long out-of-date one.)
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I need to apologize for my naivety here.

It has occurred to me that the low threshold of commitment to journalism demanded for NUJ membership might well be driven by the desire of NUJ officials to keep their own jobs minding the surviving members. Size of membership enables scaling of services. And personnel to manage them.

It's also funny how there is a grading of membership. Full members need to earn 50% or more of their income from journalism. Dual union members are similar to full members except that they need to be members of another union due to the collective agreement that union has with the employer. Temporary members are establishing themselves as journalists and have no other full-time job nor earn half their income from journalism.Associate members have full-time work outside journalism but occasionally prepare journalistic material (print or broadcast, written or audiovisual) for public dissemination.

Full marks to the NUJ for its creativity in challenging times.
 
It seems the Govt investigation has been inconclusive. The sense of disappointment in the Rte reporter's voice this morning was palpable. Seems the IT journalist story used inaccurate CSO figures which have since been corrected.
 
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