As discussions rage about European Union censorship of American social media companies, the Institute of International and European Affairs quietly hired Twitter’s former global vice president of public policy Sinéad McSweeney.
Fired amidst Elon Musk’s spring cleaning spree, McSweeney failed to reply to an automated email inquiry whether she would remain working with X and support its new changes. Having been an employee and alleged “leader” at the company since her initial hiring in 2012, one wonders if her firing was politically motivated or whether she was just another office cubicle cruiser.
Alongside McSweeney, the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) will welcome disgraced former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to its board. The IIEA is funded to the tune of €2,000,000 per annum, receiving money from the Department of Foreign Affairs and European Commission. Furthermore, each government department pays a yearly fee of €10,000 for membership.
Understanding the influential position the IIEA holds in Irish political affairs, and its recent hire of McSweeney, it appears Irish institutions are preparing for a battle against American social media companies that the state is ill-prepared for.
Feargal O’Rourke, chairman of the IIEA, said “[Varadkar’s] presence on our board, alongside our other newest board member, Sinéad McSweeney, strengthens our ability to convene meaningful conversations and provide strategic insight into the challenges and opportunities facing Ireland and Europe.”
Their motivations to enforce the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, have never been fully explained by Irish politicians, but one might presume that lack of thought
McSweeney, as the former Director of Media and Public Relations for the PSNI, Director of Communications at An Garda Síochána, and former special advisor to the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, has quite a dodgy rap sheet.
The anti-Musk diva obtained a temporary court injunction to prevent her from being fired from the company. However, her persistence ultimately ended in failure, and McSweeney was forced to settle. McSweeney is on record as saying that Twitter “cannot be trusted” calling Musk’s reformation of the company “very unorthodox.”
Absolutely there is bro. Look at Sinead McSweeney’s CV before she took over in Dublin.
Also former Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu once tweeted that she had a friend in Twitter Dublin who helped her get rid of accounts she didn’t like. pic.twitter.com/tExQ3jAdB5
— MichaeloKeeffe (@Mick_O_Keeffe) November 25, 2023
If McSweeney is human, then she is no doubt bitter about her experience at the receiving end of authority, and it would be unsurprising for these sentiments to be carried forward to her new role in the IIEA.
A central node in the dissemination of disinformation to Ireland’s bureaucracy, one wonders how much longer the IIEA might last amid a maturation of the Republican political revolution in the United States.
Irish officials and government institutions have bizarrely thrown themselves into the firing line of a high-stakes war between the EU and the United States. At surface level this is a values-based conflict over the question of freedom of speech, but there are far deeper underlying factors to this conflict: namely the death of liberalism and the crumbling of democratic institutions across the world.
In this environment of swift, and painful global readjustment, Irish authorities must come to terms with the fact that in this conflict between entrenched liberalism in the EU and nascent Caesarism in the United States, Irish interests are not served by Brussels—and the longer we allow Brussels to decide our interests or policies for us, the harder it becomes to cut a deal with Washington.
💚🇮🇪☘
Massaging Self Indulgent Overinflated Touchy Feely Fragile Egos.
What the World could do and should do without all them Pathetic Pimps.
From a communist dictator, “China is a great Nation without fear of violence”
From a Imperialist dictator, ” Make America Great Again” by a self proclaimed Peace Maker and creating a Department of War,
From Political Establishments that agrees and takes sides for both Packs,
From a Total Dysfunctional, Genocidal, EU Open Border Replacement,
From a UN that has proven to be ineffective and Delegitimised by All,
From a Global Public crying out for Peace, and Paying the Price,
…we have Irish Dictraitors that celebrate the violence of Black n Tan,
…we have a Rebel County Puppeteer denying Irish Sovereignty and National Aspirations
…we have a Tainaste,that failed all his Ministry’s and is now responsible in part,for the death of a long suffering Irish child victim of failure,
…we have the Capital City Dublin Council Politicising and Polarising the
Irish Tricolour Flag…trying to associate flying it with far right violence.
….and we still have the gravy train of Irish Political Parish Pump Parasites that have made a lifetime career and fortune in the Cronyism and Nepotism of a Global UN/EU/NGO CARTEL…delivering fu.k all.
….and to top it all off, because redneck cute hoor cronyism has no limits in the destruction of everything Irish,Cultural and Heritage, these very
same Professionally Paid Parasites, have hijacked the so called non political position of PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, by informing publicly to the Irish Electorate that THEIR COUNCIL PARTY MEMBERS ARE
NOT TO SUPPORT INDEPENDANT PRESEDENTIAL CANDIDATES.
….YES, you’ve been told exactly how THEY RUN THE COUNTRY,
… NOT YOU IRISH PEOPLE,
….AND HOW THEY INTEND TO RUN YOUR IRELAND TO GRAVE.
The late Brendan Halligan’s I I E A was in the firing line a few years back for trying to hire unpaid staff . It has form in this area & used to have as many as twenty staff members on buttons wages via various community employment schemes ( paid for by the taxpayer ) .
It’s undying devotion to all things Brussels is cringe .