+++ PRESS RELEASE +++ Cathal McCarthy +++ PRESS RELEASE +++
COMMUNITY ACTIVIST CALLS FOR ABUSIVE COUNCILLOR TO BE CENSURED
A Limerick City community activist has called on Limerick City & County Council (LCCC) to censure one of their Councillors.
Cathal McCarthy, a community activist for over 20 years and a veteran of many successful local initiatives and campaigns, said that he has contacted all of the Councillors and the Management Team of LCCC to make a formal complaint about the outrageous lies that are being leveled against him by Cllr. Elisa O’Donovan in her social media posts and in her statements to the local and national media.
Mr. McCarthy has said that Cllr. O’Donovan’s falsehoods have caused him to become the target of a far-left hate campaign against him, a hate campaign that is being conducted with the approval of Cllr. O’Donovan.
“I caught Cllr. O’Donovan making an unholy show of herself outside the Sacred Heart Church in Limerick on Palm Sunday earlier this year. She falsely claimed on social and local media that she had been ‘harassed and intimidated’ by a cameraman. Cllr. O'Donovan's far-left associates in 'Limerick AntiFa' then identified me in a Facebook post as the cameraman and incited hatred towards me by claiming that I was a "fascist, homophobe, misogynist, Catholic fundamentalist, far-right activist." Worst of all, the vile and untrue Facebook post which was liked by Cllr. O'Donovan, also targeted my children, saying that they had ‘been indoctrinated to hate minorities", said Mr. McCarthy.
“My initial response to the lies being spread about me by Cllr. O'Donovan and her extremists pals, was simply to upload the unedited footage and show the truth of what happened. Thereby setting the record straight and exposing Cllr. O'Donovan as a barefaced liar, and we'd let that be the end of it. But Cllr. O'Donovan's response to my videos, rather than admitting fault and apologising, was instead to try and have them taken down to suppress the footage of what took place. She is continuing to post lies about me in her social media posts and is sending more hate my way” stated Mr. McCarthy
“I am now being called a stalker, a woman-targeter, and a host of other vile names; one of her followers even compared me to the murderer of British MP David Amess, and strongly implied that I would do the same to Cllr. O’Donovan - all because I defended myself against lies. It's insane. Since this began I have been getting crank calls and more recently I was recognised in public, accused of being a fascist and threatened with violence by two complete strangers all due to O’Donovan’s hate campaign”.
“This is the same Councillor that was demanding the resignation of her ex-lover, Brian Leddin TD, because he posted laugh reacts in a private group chat 3 years ago in reply to derogatory things that were being said about her - by other group members. Ironically, this is the same Councillor who claims to be campaigning for an end to online abuse - all while she engages in it, you couldn’t make it up! I am beginning to agree with her former lover, Deputy Brian Leddin, when he said that she was an unhinged seeker of fame; he may have apologised for what was recently leaked from a 3-year old private chat, but he never said it wasn’t true” said Mr McCarthy.
“She has to be brought to book and held to account, she’s a Councillor for my local electoral area and it is absolutely disgraceful how she is targeting me and my family. Councillors are required to adhere to the Local Government Act 2001 - Code of Conduct for Councillors and Cllr. O'Donovan's conduct has violated several sections of the code, including: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 4.11, and 9.4. I called on the elected members of Limerick City & County Council, to censure Cllr. O'Donovan for her appalling behaviour outside the Sacred Heart Church on Palm Sunday, which she not only has refused to apologise for but even has defended, and for the outrageous lies she has spread about me in her desperate attempts to silence and discredit me.”
“Hopefully that call will put an end to Cllr. O’Donovan’s online hate campaign against me and that the Council will never allow this to happen to another person again”. said Mr. McCarthy
+++ NOTE TO JOURNALISTS +++
Forwarded below for your information and use is the email that I sent to the Councillors
Watch my latest YouTube video to learn more about my community activism, the harassment I’m getting and my response to Cllr. Donovan's recent Twitter hate fest: https://youtu.be/
++++++
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Cathal McCarthy <cathalgmccarthy@
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2021 at 12:32
Subject: Councillor's outrageous behaviour and defamatory lies needs to be halted
To: Adam Teskey <adam.teskey@limerick.ie>, Azad Talukder <azad.talukder@limerick.ie>, Bridie Collins <bridie.collins@limerick.ie>, Brigid Teefy <brigid.teefy@limerick.ie>, Catherine Slattery <catherine.slattery@limerick.
From: Cathal McCarthy <cathalgmccarthy@
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2021 at 12:32
Subject: Councillor's outrageous behaviour and defamatory lies needs to be halted
To: Adam Teskey <adam.teskey@limerick.ie>, Azad Talukder <azad.talukder@limerick.ie>, Bridie Collins <bridie.collins@limerick.ie>, Brigid Teefy <brigid.teefy@limerick.ie>, Catherine Slattery <catherine.slattery@limerick.
Dear Councillors,
My name is Cathal McCarthy, I am a community activist living in the local electoral area of Limerick City West.
Some of you will know me from my time as a community representative on the Council's Environmental Strategic Policy Committee (2013-14) and on the Council's Local Community Development Committee (2014-16) and some of you will know me from attending meetings in my home with the Weston Gardens Residents' Association and through my voluntary work with Limerick Regeneration Watch. Unfortunately, many of you probably know of me because of a slew of slanderous lies propagated recently by one of your colleagues, such as the Twitter post below.
On Friday, 8th October 2021, a Councillor for my local electoral area of Limerick City West, Cllr. Elisa O'Donovan, tweeted the following:
As part of @NWCI #StopOnlineAbuse I will start with my experience of @YouTube. A series of videos has been made about me this yr. This is a compilation of some of those videos. YouTube tells me these are not in violation of guidelines and to deal directly with the content creator pic.twitter.com/
— Cllr Elisa O'Donovan (@elisaodonovan) October 8, 2021kW7tCrkhst
As part of Cllr. O'Donovan's tweet to advertise her participation in an upcoming National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) webinar about online abuse (in order to boost her profile), O'Donovan uploaded an out-of-context video compilation of clips from my videos, which identified me as the content creator and prompted her supporters to go on a reporting spree trying to get my YouTube channel taken down. Cllr. O'Donovan even managed to get it reported on in the Irish Examiner, where my name is clearly visible in the video part of her embedded tweet.
This was not the first time that there was an attack on my good name and character by Cllr. O'Donovan and it would not be the last.
The attacks started in March of this year, specifically on Palm Sunday after I had filmed Cllr. O'Donovan's unhinged antics (if you can think of a better description, please let me know) outside the Sacred Heart Church, where she tried her best to disrupt the socially-distanced Rosary that was taking place outside its locked doors as Mass was being said inside; the congregants were praying for an end to the ban on Mass, which had been imposed by central government as part of its lock-down policy.
On Sunday, 27th December 2020, I received a phone call from a friend of mine (who is a member of the congregation) to ask me to film the Rosary every Sunday; he believed that my tripod and camera would act as a deterrent to any sectarian bigots intent on disrupting their prayers. I wasn't up to much on a Sunday morning, so I told him I'd be happy to oblige.
Every Sunday I would position myself on the steps of Georgian building, off the footpath and away from everyone, on the other side of the Crescent opposite the O'Connell monument traffic Island, where I had a direct view of the congregants, the church and all approaches.
When I had agreed to act as cameraman to deter sectarian disruption I thought that my friend was being paranoid, but I was to be proven wrong when on Sunday, 21st March 2021, two women would try their best to disrupt the prayers and provoke a reaction from the congregation by going in among them blaring loud satanic music with disgusting lyrics (really disgusting) through a high-volume Bluetooth speaker. Later that day Cllr. O'Donovan tweeted her support for the disgraceful anti-social behaviour of the two women, who she describes as her "constituents," and publicly congratulated them on their choice of music posting "Great tunes by the way," followed by a devil-horns emoji.
The following week, on Palm Sunday, Cllr. O Donovan turned up and put on an unholy show for my camera; she was aware that I was filming as she started shouting at me across the road (presumably thinking I would stop filming or leave because of her position), she then proceeded to call the Gardaí on the Catholics. Before they arrived, she then began to run around counting the congregants while making exaggerated pointing gestures. Pausing briefly to post about her "representations" on behalf of her "constituents," she then proceeded to walk around filming the congregants up close before shouting at them, ordering them to "move on" to to "pray privately in your own homes." She did all that while claiming to be acting with the authority of the Council and doing her job as a Councillor.
When Cllr. O'Donovan started shouting I crossed the road to the O'Connell monument to get better audio. When she had finished bellowing orders at the congregants she crossed the road to where I was standing as I was setting up the tripod, so I decided to ask her some questions about her contradictory and hypocritical behaviour; illegally drinking beer in the People Park and boasting about it Facebook, attending crowded events during lock down (such as a non-socially-distanced protest of 250+ people in Arthur's Quay, and a residents' protest/party in Catherine Street). Cllr. O'Donovan ignored my questions and insisted to me that she was a Councillor and that she was there doing her job as a Councillor.
Later that day, Cllr. O'Donovan posted lies on her various social media accounts that she had come to the aid of her beleaguered "constituents" and claimed that the two women had endured weeks of harassment and intimidation by the congregants praying the Rosary; not only that but she then went on to claim that she herself had experienced harassment and intimidation from a cameraman.
The following day the Limerick Leader ran a story reiterating her claims without question and Cllr. O'Donovan's far-left associates in "Limerick Against Fascism" made a Facebook post identifying me as the cameraman and inciting hatred towards me by claiming that I was a "fascist, homophobe, misogynist, Catholic fundamentalist, far-right activist." This vile and untrue Facebook post, which was liked by Cllr. O'Donovan, also targeted my children, saying that they had "been indoctrinated to hate minorities." (It is regrettable to note that other Councillors also appear to be supporters of this hateful Facebook page).
Ever since then I have been getting crank calls from their supporters and I am increasingly being recognised and approached in public by strangers, more recently I was able to get footage of being shouted at and labelled a fascist and being threatened with violence by two complete strangers.
My initial response, to the lies being spread about me by Cllr. O'Donovan and her extremists pals, was simply to upload the unedited footage and show the truth of what happened. Thereby setting the record straight and exposing Cllr. O'Donovan as a barefaced liar, and we'd let that be the end of it. Cllr. O'Donovan's response to my videos was to try and have them taken down to suppress the truth. In this regard Cllr. O'Donovan had some success in getting one of my YouTube videos blocked in Ireland.
On Thursday, 14th October 2021, the NWCI held their webinar and it was very interesting to finally hear the explanation given by Cllr. O'Donovan on how she got my "Elisa Lies" video on blocked on YouTube in Ireland. That video was the exposé on Cllr. O'Donovan and her antics that was starting to go viral. Some say it was the best video on O'Donovan that they've ever seen (and thankfully it was not totally suppressed as it's still available on Bitchute, Odysee and Rumble
During the NWCI webinar Zoom call, Cllr. O'Donovan said:
"I've spoken about my experience of trying to get videos taken down: very misogynistic, really disgusting videos about me on YouTube. I couldn’t get them taken down. First of all, I put in a breach of privacy complaint and I was told to deal directly with the content creator, so they wanted me to deal directly with the person who was abusing me which I obviously did not feel safe to do. The second thing I did then was put in a copyright because they were manipulating my own videos to make me out looking like a witch, and that was also refused. So I had to result in getting a solicitor to put in very specific defamation claims and all that resulted in was some of the videos being blocked in Ireland but they could be viewed in the rest of the world."
Nothing that Cllr. O'Donovan said is actually true.
My videos are neither misogynistic nor disgusting and many have described them as informative and witty.
First, Cllr. O'Donovan put in a privacy complaint for a 3-minute section of a video of her unhinged antics outside the Sacred Heart Church, it was for the 3 minute exchange that took place between us after she crossed the road to confront me. Her complaint was rejected by YouTube because she was a public representative that was filmed in a public place while claiming to be carrying out her duty as a Councillor; there was no invasion of privacy.
Regarding her statement about having to contact me, the only time that YouTube requires the complainant to contact the content creator directly is in the case of a defamation claim and that contact can take the form of an email or letter from the complainant (or their solicitor) to the content creator. I have had absolutely no correspondence from either O'Donovan or her solicitor.
There is absolutely no requirement for the complainant to call to see the content creator in person, as the mendacious Councillor implied during the NWCI Zoom call, and even if that were the case, why would she fear for her safety? She knows full well that I have never behaved menacingly or threateningly towards her, nor would I ever behave in such a manner.
As my video, "Cllr. Elisa O'Donovan calls the Guards (unedited)" (the video that she complained about to YouTube for 'invasion of privacy') shows, she had no problem shouting at me (unprovoked) from across the road, she had no fear whatsoever in walking up to me and recording me up close and in my face, she had no problem walking across the road to me to insult me and make snide remarks about my attempt to help the people in my electoral area. At no time did I approach her, but she saw nothing wrong broadcasting lies about me online and in the local media, saying that I had intimidated and harassed her.
It was her lies to the media and getting her far-left associates to launch an online hate campaign targeting me and my children that prompted me to make the videos in the first place. If Cllr. O'Donovan hadn't lied, there would have been no need for my videos - they would never have been published as I was just there to deter sectarian bigotry, although unfortunately it was not enough to deter Cllr. O'Donovan.
Contrary to what Cllr. O'Donovan stated, there is no need to contact the content creator for a YouTube copyright claim, but for copyright claims to be successful they must either go unchallenged (I challenged her claims against my comedy videos under 'fair use') or the complainant must show YouTube that they are taking a court action against the content creator.
Cllr. O'Donovan claimed that she had to get a solicitor (described as "very expensive" in a tweet by O'Donovan where she also likened me to a mass murderer) to make a "specific" defamation claim to YouTube.
YouTube's policy on defamation specifically requires the complainant to contact the content creator directly via email or letter and as I previously stated, I have had absolutely no correspondence whatsoever from either O'Donovan or her solicitor regarding my videos or any other issues for that matter. This most likely indicates that she had her ''very expensive'' solicitor lie to YouTube on her behalf and claim that they had attempted to contact me or were issuing court proceedings against me for defamation.
Cllr. O'Donovan is no stranger to taking defamation cases against a private citizens when she feels slighted and offended by what they said about her online (or even privately). So why hasn't she taken a case against me?
Could it be that I don't come across as the kind of mark that you could shake down for €10,000 in an out-of-court settlement? Could it be the fact that I would actually relish the opportunity to defend my side of the story (which has been ignored by the media) and my videos in court?
I didn't defame O'Donovan at all, she did that all by herself when she made a holy show of herself by harassing Catholics as they prayed the Rosary outside the Sacred Heart Church in Limerick on Palm Sunday.
I did not initiate calling Cllr. O'Donovan a witch, she called herself a witch in a series of tweets; I merely picked up on the fact and portrayed her as a witch simply for comedic effect in light of her own self-identification. She also wore a top calling herself a "gowl," which like the censored 'C' word (c*%#) that she claimed to have caused her so much upset, is a derogatory word for female genitalia. "Gowl" is also used as a slang word to describe an annoying person, an idiot and a dishonest person.
Unlike the defamation case against the private citizen that Cllr. O'Donovan currently has before Limerick Circuit Court, I have actually named O'Donovan and it is very obvious to all who watch the videos that she is the one I'm speaking about.
In Cllr. O'Donovan's current defamation case she wasn't actually named at all in the online post that she alleges has defamed her, she simply claims that the post was about her and promptly issued court proceedings. The case has no merit and if it isn't dropped before it is heard then the Judge will undoubtedly throw it out and award costs against O'Donovan. Her defamation case is little more than an abuse of law; a contemptible attempt by a politician to publicly blacken the good name of a private citizen.
Instead of taking similar bogus legal action against me, Cllr. O'Donovan is instead choosing to abuse her position as a public representative to blacken my name online and in both the local and national media. If Cllr. O'Donovan was doing this as a private citizen then I wouldn't be contacting you, but all of O'Donovan's lies about me have been told while she was wearing the mantle of Councillor and having biased sycophantic journalists publish her lies without bothering to contact me for the other side of the story or to even watch the footage to see who really was at fault.
It is completely unacceptable that an elected member of Limerick City & County Council (LCCC) would abuse their position to target a private citizen in a smear campaign of lies, and to condone and encourage harassment by far-left extremists.
As Councillors you should be aware of your role and function and fulfill your annual legal obligation of reading and adhering to the Local Government Act 2001 - Code of Conduct for Councillors. As you are undoubtedly aware from the Code of Conduct for Councillors, Cllr. O'Donovan's conduct has violated several sections of the code, including: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 4.11, and 9.4.
I call on you, the elected members of Limerick City & County Council, to censure Cllr. O'Donovan for appalling behaviour outside the Sacred Heart Church on Palm Sunday, which she not only has refused to apologise for but even has defended, and for the outrageous lies she has spread about me in her desperate attempts to silence and discredit me.
In the meantime, until this matter is resolved, I will continue with my fringe journalism to produce video exposés when they are required (see my response video to Councillor O'Donovan's latest Twitter hate fest: Antifa Calling: Councillor Elisa O'Donovan and her Far-Left Associates).
Yours Sincerely,
Cathal
______________
Cathal McCarthy,
Independent Community Activist,
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