Lucy Michael

Lucy Michael: Ireland’s Taser pilot is bad science and bad policy Gardaí need adequate tools and training. But Ireland must learn from international evidence about when Tasers add to safety and when they reduce it

Lucy Michael: Ireland’s Taser pilot is bad science and bad policy

🧵 I think it would help if people stopped ‘feeling’ whether or not a person or party is/was extreme or far right.

There’s actually a fairly respected definition. Let me take you through it & then you can decide if someone meets the definition. This is aimed, in particular, at journos [1]

The anti-Government candidate The language of our media is worth watching right now - Describing Catherine Connolly as an ‘anti-government candidate’ misrepresents her role and the nature of Ireland’s parliamentary democracy.

"If progressive or left-wing critics of government policy are portrayed as anti-government, their democratic role as checks & balancers gets blurred.. It significantly decreases the space for critical engagement"
@lucymichael.bsky.social on reductive media framings
open.substack.com/pub/lucymich...

Thanks for reading, and for sharing.

Suicide is leading cause of death for young people in Europe, new research shows Research from the EU think tank also found that in Ireland, “significant” mental health issues exist – largely due to economic and housing pressures.

‘Lower socioeconomic groups, people working in healthcare and social services, and marginalised groups face a higher risk of poor mental health’. Suicide is leading cause of death for young people in Europe, new research shows jrnl.ie/6805543

Externalised migration policies ‘may lead to human rights violations’ Governments should not lose sight of their human rights obligations when negotiating deals to transfer asylum, return and border control functions to other countries, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner has warned.

Governments should not lose sight of their human rights obligations when negotiating deals to transfer asylum, return and border control functions to other countries, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner has warned. @commissionerhr.coe.int

Sign Our Urgent Civil Society Open Letter: Ireland Must Join the Hague Group to End Complicity in the Genocide of the Palestinian People We are asking Irish civil society organisations to: Add your name to the open letter to all TDs and Senators (below) calling for Ireland to join the Hague Group before the deadline. Share this call wi...

Irish NGOs Afri & Comhlámh, "are urging all Irish civil society organisations & concerned individuals to use their voices now to end Ireland's complicity in genocide of Palestinians & to demand urgent government action", including that Ireland join the Hague Group

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Siobhán Kangataran: Our migrant communities need your voice The people who are immune from a crisis have the best ability to effect change — it's not enough to be non-racist, you must be actively anti-racist

In today's @irishexaminer.bsky.social , Siobhan Kangataran addresses recent racist attacks.
www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm...

Part 2 of our series looking at threats to our native seals. This one beggars belief, especially after the outrage in 2022 when a seal pup was killed after being picked up by a tourist for a selfie 😔 ⬇️

A few weeks ago while I was on vacation in Copenhagen (a wonderful city!) I went to the museum of Danish Resistance - both because I was interested in Denmark’s unique history during WW2 and to find out if there was anything to learn about our country’s slide into authoritarianism. 🧵 1/?

Authors withdraw from Bendigo Writers Festival over anti-Palestinian 'censorship' Festival organisers sought compliance with controversial definition of antisemitism that includes criticism of Israel

NEW: More than half a dozen prominent authors have pulled out of the Bendigo Writers Festival after being told to sign a code of conduct that would inhibit criticism of Israel.

www.deepcutnews.com/p/authors-wi...

Stronger Together: Findings from ICTU's Anti-Racist Trade Unions and Workplaces Project This research, commissioned by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU),  investigates the prevalence and nature of workplace racism and the responses of trade unions across Ireland.

Government and public bodies must address weaknesses in legal protections, fully implement the National Action Plan Against Racism 2023, and rigorously apply the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty to protect workers and service users alike. 

www.ictu.ie/publications...

The findings highlight the urgent need for unions to prioritise anti-racism initiatives, improve diversity and inclusion, and adopt a comprehensive approach that includes awareness training, policy enforcement, and a commitment to fostering workplace inclusivity.

The study examines the challenges of making or supporting complaints about racial discrimination or harassment, the experiences of advocating for non-discrimination in the workplace, and the role of trade unions in addressing racial discrimination in the future.

Furthermore, the 15-year gap since the last National Action Plan Against Racism (NAPAR) has allowed persistent exploitation and systemic barriers to flourish, highlighting the need for both union and governmental action.

While trade unions have made efforts to support workers experiencing discrimination, their effectiveness is often limited by insufficient expertise on racial discrimination, insufficient resources, poor reporting mechanisms, and limited diversity within union leadership.

Reporting discrimination is often checked by the precarious nature of many jobs, the sensitive nature of incidents, ineffective complaints processes, and fear of victimisation, including demotion, social isolation, or job loss.

Union members from minority ethnic and migrant backgrounds in Ireland and Northern Ireland frequently experience both direct and indirect racial discrimination, ranging from overt racism and racial slurs to subtle microaggressions and exclusionary practices.

Working with refugees or international protection applicants and want to upskill?

A small number of spaces left on our new micro-credential at UCD!

50% subsidies available for eligible learners
www.ucd.ie/microcredent...

You can see our previous reports for FRA at lucymichael.ie/publications

In 2024 our FRA reports covered:
Protecting civil society
Violence against persons with disabilities in institutions
Mapping national human rights structures
Anti-Muslim Hatred
Political participation of disabled people
Threats to democracy
Mis/disinformation
Violence against women EU Charter use

Our 2025 projects for FRA to date include:
Rule of Law
Protections for Victims of Online Fraud
Implementation of the Law Enforcement Directive
Asylum, borders and migration updates
Law enforcement access to Data
Illegal and harmful content online
& EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation

A significant part of our work at lucymichael.ie is reporting on human rights and equality in Ireland for the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.
We regularly conduct desk-based reviews and field studies for EU FRA on a wide range of rights issues as part of the FRANET 27-country research network.

Minister for Integration Colm Brophy hopes incoming Garda Commissioner will prioritize racism attacks, but denies that a crackdown on immigration was emboldening people who might attack migrants. | Dr... Minister for Integration Colm Brophy hopes incoming Garda Commissioner will prioritize racism attacks, but denies that a crackdown on immigration was emboldening people who might attack migrants. http...

Minister for Integration Colm Brophy hopes incoming Garda Commissioner will prioritize racism attacks, but denies that a crackdown on immigration was emboldening people who might attack migrants.

"None Of These Books Are Obscene": Judge Strikes Down Much of Florida's Book Ban Bill In a major win for intellectual freedom, a judge rules against Florida law that led to removing hundreds of books from school libraries.

bookriot.com/penguin-rand...

Infowars conspiracist Alex Jones is a big step closer to losing his studio and brand Jones has lost control of his media empire to a newly-appointed receiver who will sell it off to pay the Sandy Hook Elementary School families who sued Jones for defamation after the 2012 shootings.

Jones has lost control of his media empire to a newly-appointed receiver who will sell it off to pay the Sandy Hook Elementary School families who sued Jones for defamation after the 2012 shootings.

Catholic PSNI officers one and half times more likely to be investigated for misconduct Snapshot of internal police investigations show apparent imbalance

Despite demographic changes in N. Ireland, the PSNI is completely unrepresentative in religious & black and ethnic representation. The post-conflict arrangement of 50/50 recruitment was dropped and they've engaged in egregious discriminatory policing unchecked.

'A police force for all communities'

In November 2024 we got further evidence of the insecurity of backdoors for good guys, when it turned out that in the US mobile phone companies had allowed back doors into their systems for law enforcement surveillance purposes. But, shocker, didn't it turn out that China had sneaked in the same doors and used them to track potentially millions of American mobile phones including ones owned by. JD Vance and Trump. They must not have known those backdoors were only meant for American spies.

We even have some real world experimental data on what happens when a government compels tech to open a surveillance backdoor, from the US.

There, in Nov 2024, it turned out that Chinese spies had also strolled through that same backdoor and were using it to track millions of phones.

The Gist: A Bad State of Affairs This week, the talk has been about empowering the state. This is the Gist.

If you need more ideas on how to explain to a TD (who may get their secretary to print out emails and then handwrites the replies in fountain pen) why this is a bad idea, I have a few extra ones here (no paywall)

www.thegist.ie/the-gist-a-b...

Opinion: Letting gardaí access our WhatsApps and chats to investigate crime could backfire Forcing companies to create access pathways would insert vulnerabilities that could be exploited

Please read this piece by the irreplaceable Olga Cronin explaining why the Government’s plans to legislate to break encryption are a Bad Idea, and then explain it by email (good), phone call (better) or personal visit (amazing) to your local TDs.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...