Fianna Fail Use Counter-Espionage to Unmask Twitter Critic

[Holly]

Andrews got elected on the coattails of his sly cunning father who was there because of his father before him. It is called a dynasty which gets rubber stamped by a dull electorate for generations. It took a monumental record of inept blunders by the Fianna Fail Cabinet in the last government to shock the voters into uncharacteristically picking Tweedle Dee. Fianna Fail and their government civil service must have been gobsmacked.
It really is about time we had politics in Ireland instead of the civil war legacy that underpins Fianna Fail and Fine Gwael.

[fluffybiscuits]

Andrews got elected on the coattails of his sly cunning father who was there because of his father before him. It is called a dynasty which gets rubber stamped by a dull electorate for generations. It took a monumental record of inept blunders by the Fianna Fail Cabinet in the last government to shock the voters into uncharacteristically picking Tweedle Dee. Fianna Fail and their government civil service must have been gobsmacked.
It really is about time we had politics in Ireland instead of the civil war legacy that underpins Fianna Fail and Fine Gwael.

I cant believe I agree with Holly on something ! You are correct though a lot of the families that get in are voted in based on either the electorate voting because that is the way their parents voted or some sort of ridiculous local tie to the area. As for the case in question, lad should not have been dumb enough to ***** on his own doorstep ,anyone that stupid deserves what they get . Why was he doing it?

[Holly]

I cant believe I agree with Holly on something ! ...

There is some hope for you, fluffy.

[Slim Buddha]

I cant believe I agree with Holly on something ! You are correct though a lot of the families that get in are voted in based on either the electorate voting because that is the way their parents voted or some sort of ridiculous local tie to the area. As for the case in question, lad should not have been dumb enough to ***** on his own doorstep ,anyone that stupid deserves what they get . Why was he doing it?

Why was he doing it????

Short answer: Holly alluded to it already above. His family are what is called a dynasty (pronounced Die Nasty) in our version of politics. His grandfather was Todd Andrews (bagman for de Valera) who begat David (Cabinet Minister) and Niall (MEP) and cousin is Barry Andrews (Cabinet Minister) and another cousin is Ryan Tubridy. All have be sucking handsomely on the public purse but the lifetime of political perks Chris had planned was upset considerably because the dull electorate Holly referred to above removed FF from large swathes of Leinster House.

Chris is upset because the cheques have stopped, Expenses dried up. Someone is sitting in "his " seat. And he has yet to understand why. All he knows for now is thatt under M. Martin, he won't be getting the seat back anytime soon. And, boy, is he pissed off about that!

[DCon]

The Times covering this today

Fianna Fáil sources yesterday disputed Mr Andrews’s claim that he had resigned because of disenchantment with the party leader and pointed to the fact that he was a local area representative even though he had made public criticisms of the leadership.

“There is no substance to the claim that Chris was prevented from speaking his mind within the party. The anonymous tweets were primarily aimed at a constituency colleague and not the leader and that is what it was all about. The whole thing is bizarre,” said the party source.

Mr Andrews could not be contacted by The Irish Times yesterday.

The tweets Mr Andrews admits sending were generally scathing of his party. They included: “Labour have sold out and FF have proven to be incompetent and a large number of them dishonest at the top of the party.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...322101114.html

[Dr. FIVE]

haha

http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion...ns-204134.html

[Dr. FIVE]

http://plaintalking.ie/so-who-was-th...r-for-andrews/

[Monetpenny]

That was interesting about the Savage Eye comedian & the Andrews/Tubridy link.

I've heard members of the clergy wondering if that Savage Eye Comedian was related to Tom Savage (Chairperson of RTE) & husband of Terry Prone.
Tom Savage was a former priest & the belief was that the Savage Eye Comedian's anti-Catholic Church sketches may have had something to do with his father's former career.

Turns out the offspring of Tom Savage/Terry Prone is Anton Savage & it seems the Savage Eye Comedian is not related to Tom Savage.

[Dr. FIVE]

Yeah, the er, comedian is David Andrews but use McSavage as stage name. Son to David, brother to Barry, cousin to Chris and Tubridy

[Kev Bar]

I cant believe I agree with Holly on something ! You are correct though a lot of the families that get in are voted in based on either the electorate voting because that is the way their parents voted or some sort of ridiculous local tie to the area. As for the case in question, lad should not have been dumb enough to ***** on his own doorstep ,anyone that stupid deserves what they get . Why was he doing it?

I think the very fact one deems telling truths to be an act of placing ***** on your doorstep perhaps tells us more about the state of Irish political reality than any of the simple, jaded, civil war, Dallas, expense accounts, Dynasty theses.

It would be great if the cyber sleuth was Jim O Callaghan.
A clash of the Irish...eh... titans gig.

But I would imagine he would be way too busy for this genre of digital Dostoyevsky.

Generally speaking time devoted to idle obsession is time taken away from serious success.

Or so my inner Christian Brother tells me.

[PaddyJoe]

Background to the story in today's Indo:

Kathryn Byrne, a self-employed businesswoman who runs a PR firm in south Dublin, last night confirmed to the Irish Independent how the sting was pulled off.

Ms Byrne, who is also a member of the Fianna Fail national executive, said Mr Andrews had used the Twitter account @brianformerff to question her personal and professional integrity.

She said the "online vendetta" spurred her husband Eddy Carroll, a director and chief technical officer of tech company Amulet Devices, into action.

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...e-3202402.html

[Dr. FIVE]

So funny,

[musashi]

If you walk through the sleuth's methodologies, his technique was remarkably straightforward. I would hazard to guess that any schmo could have pulled this off.

He lucked out that Andrews was stupid enough to click-through one of his IP-hooks.

He also lucked out that Andrews IP location (Rathmines) was close enough for him to get to before the FFer left the internet café.

If 1% of our mainstream journalist population could utilize this type of innovative thinking this country would be a remarkably different place.

[Baron von Biffo]

If you walk through the sleuth's methodologies, his technique was remarkably straightforward. I would hazard to guess that any schmo could have pulled this off.

He lucked out that Andrews was stupid enough to click-through one of his IP-hooks.

He also lucked out that Andrews IP location (Rathmines) was close enough for him to get to before the FFer left the internet café.

If 1% of our mainstream journalist population could utilize this type of innovative thinking this country would be a remarkably different place.

Much easier to rummage through FoI documents to see if a junior minister put a bag of Taytos on his expenses.

[musashi]

Much easier to rummage through FoI documents to see if a junior minister put a bag of Taytos on his expenses.

Easier but ineffectual, a word which epitomizes Irish journalism.

Traditional journalism needs a serious upgrade, this cyber-hack is pretty cool guy, he's got my vote, whomever he/she is.