Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated on 21 March 2024
MEET THE TEAM of editors and reporters who work with the team here at The Journal FactCheck in 2024.
In alphabetical order:
CHRISTINE BOHAN
Deputy Editor of The Journal, Christine has led the day-to-day operations of FactCheck and innovated the unit’s Covid-19 Debunked Project in early 2020. She was executive producer for the award-winning Stardust podcast which exposed the facts behind the deaths of 48 young people in a nightclub fire in Ireland in 1981. She was selected for the Poynter Institute’s Leadership Academy for Women in Media in 2018. She previously worked at The Guardian on the comment desk and as a freelance news features journalist for The Irish Times and The Sunday Tribune. She is an occasional lecturer in journalism at Dublin City University.
LAUREN BOLAND
Lauren is the climate crisis reporter with The Journal. She first joined the team as a Google News Initiative Fellow, a programme run by the European Journalism Centre to select 40 fellows to work in newsrooms around Europe. In 2020, she was shortlisted in the National Print/Online category of the Headline Mental Health Media Awards for her work countering misinformation shared on social media in Ireland on the reporting of deaths by suicide. She holds a BA in English Literature and Sociology from Trinity College Dublin and is currently a candidate in the Master of Science (MSc) programme at Dublin City University in Climate Change: Policy, Media and Society. Lauren has worked on a broad range of fact-checking projects with a particular focus on misinformation relating to Covid-19, and more recently on climate crisis disinformation.
DARAGH BROPHY
Daragh is News Editor at The Journal and has played a key role in planning and editing the publication’s fact-checks in recent years, including during the contentious 2018 abortion referendum campaign, the lead-up to the 2020 Irish general election and throughout the pandemic. Daragh has been a journalist at The Journal since 2013, and has a particular interest in covering long-running issues such as the fallout from Covid-19 and the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis. He previously worked as a reporter and newsreader for UTV Radio News and Independent Network News, and as a facilitator on FETAC further education courses.
SUSAN DALY
As Managing Editor of Journal Media, Susan is responsible for directing, innovating and developing content and distribution strategy for Ireland’s biggest news website, sports site The42 and the community-based investigative platform Noteworthy. Susan set up The Journal FactCheck in 2016 as a way to monitor the Irish general election and was responsible for the expansion and development of the project, which has been the only Irish signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles to this point in time. She directs all external partnerships for FactCheck including work on the European Fact-Check Standards Network (EFCSN) and the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) Ireland hub.
She is a Fellow of the Sulzberger Program for news executives in Columbia University and sits on the advisory group of the FuJo (Future of Journalism Institute) in DCU and the steering group of the non-profit Media Literacy Ireland. She contributed to the scoping paper of the National Counter Disinformation Strategy group in Ireland, which is to publish its report in 2024.
RÓNÁN DUFFY
Rónán is Assistant News Editor with The Journal and has been a journalist for over a decade, working across print, web, radio and television. His wide-ranging fact-checking experience extends to research in the areas of law, health, society, infrastructure, climate and policy. Rónán’s areas of interests include reporting in the political arena as well as covering criminal and commercial court proceedings. Prior to his current role, Rónán was a business journalist with Business & Finance magazine, a reporter with Xinhua News Agency and a reporter with Independent Network News. He holds a BA Journalism from Dublin City University.
CHRISTINA FINN
Christina is the political correspondent at The Journal. Before joining the team in 2012, she worked in a number of local and national newspapers. She holds a BA in English and Art History, an MA in International Journalism and an MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy. She received a Justice Media Award for her court reporting from the Irish Family Courts, and has also received funding from the Mary Raftery Fund for investigative work into mental health issues in Ireland. Over the course of her career,
Based out of Leinster House, Ireland’s national parliament, Christina covers day-to-day politics for The Journal, and often highlights claims made by politicians, lobbyists and other public figures that she feels should be factchecked. She is a frequent contributor to national radio and television shows.
CORMAC FITZGERALD
Cormac Fitzgerald is an award-winning investigative reporter who works on special commissions for The Journal and its investigative site Noteworthy, as well as fact-checking work for the FactCheck unit. He was part of a Journal Media team to win the prestigious human rights journalism award, The Mary Raftery Prize, in 2021 for work on the institutional prejudice experienced by children from an ethnic minority in Ireland. He has previously been the recipient of the Simon Cumbers bursary for international reporting, and his work with The Journal colleague Stephen McDermott on the lobbying of politicians led to the correction of several hundred lobbying records lodged with authorities.
JANE MATTHEWS
A MSc graduate in Sustainable Development, and trained in Journalism and Media studies, Jane Matthews joined The Journal in July 2023 from a role in the Financial Times. With The Journal, Jane has become a political reporter, examining proceedings in Ireland’s houses of parliament and writing analyses of political and policy matters. Her expertise and contacts were employed in a fact-check around the movement of private landlords in the precarious rental sector in Ireland.
STEPHEN MCDERMOTT
Stephen is Assistant News Editor with The Journal. He has been the day-to-day lead on FactCheck. He covers a range of issues in news, with a strong focus on misinformation, and has previously worked for Newstalk and the Irish Mirror. He is direct manager for FactCheck’s full-time fact-checker and liaises with the Managing Editor on FactCheck’s partnership with the Ireland EDMO hub (European Digital Media Observatory).
SINÉAD O’CARROLL
Sinéad is Editor at The Journal and is responsible for the daily output of the website’s reporters, as well as longer term planning on projects including FactCheck. She has provided fact-checking services to nationwide television broadcasters, appearing frequently during the referendum on the Eighth Amendment in 2018. She was the winner of a Justice Media Award 2017 for providing historical context around the first tribunal to be established in Ireland in a decade. She is a regular contributor to news and current affairs shows across radio and TV, and has also hosted a number of programmes.
SHANE RAYMOND
Shane is FactCheck’s full-time fact-check journalist, surfacing misinformation trends in Ireland and providing fact-checks to correct that information. He is experienced in the use of digital fact-checking tools, with a wealth of bylines for his fact-checking and misinformation work in outlets such as The Times, The Sunday Times, Reuters, Al Jazeera, The Irish Times, The Japan Times, ABC7, Storyful, The Irish Examiner and The Sunday Business Post. His research has been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Guardian, Vice News, Sky News, Euronews, Global News, The Straits Times, RTÉ and The Irish Independent.
Before coming on board The Journal FactCheck, Shane was an analyst for harmful content for misinformation tech specialists Kinzen, and worked previously for Reuters and social media verification company Storyful. He has a Master’s degree in International Journalism from TU Dublin.
NICKY RYAN
Nicky is a journalist and reporter with The Journal. He has an interest in factchecking a wide-range of topics in news and current affairs, as well as exploring ways to visualise the results. He wass the writer of The Journal’s popular Covid-19 newsletter which also outlines themes of disinformation and misinformation in the public health space. He edits The Journal’s various podcast outputs, paying particular attention to the accuracy of the audio content, and contributes to The Journal’s TikTok output, which often addresses and debunks viral claims and shows audiences how to spot disinformation.
All of our journalists are available by direct email in their byline section at the end of every article they write. You can also contact FactCheck by our factcheck@thejournal.ie email address, on Twitter @TJ_FactCheck or to our misinfo Whatsapp hotline on 083 876 0971.
The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Can we have the bill broken down to show consultant fees, bonus etc.?
Will yeah all grow a pair and don’t pay
How much we pay will be determined by one factor and one factor only: As much they think they think they can get away with charging us.
I got my business bill today €1.92 water charge and €29.50 rent for meter. I asked the girl in water office about this and her answer was”this is Ireland”
Don’t let this happen to households.
Labour n FG will find out how much they ll pay in May for the broken promises and europhile policies..
I give it 10 years before it’s € 1000 annually
If we all say NO now this can all be avoided
I think that no vote needs to be sorted before more money is squandered. Once metering is rolled out and the checks are signed it will be harder to turn back. But remember the property tax. There was a chance to stand against that and it failed (even when it wasn’t officially a tax just a preposterous random charge). Water charges, bin collection, essentially household services should be covered by a fair property tax system. There should be no privatisation in essential services
It won’t be avoided. Firstly the government are bullies, secondly we Irish seem afraid to stand up for ourselves. Instead we moan and moan and moan and that’s all we do. Nothing productive will come from moaning. We need to stand up for ourselves and stop the bullies from doing us up the a*se over and over again.
To be honest roisin I think we were let down by the media badly during the household charge debacle. I feel by and large the public was not supported due to some misguided belief that property tax is the best way to tax the rich. In reality it’s just another way to tax a majority of already struggling homeowners. The same would be the case again for this i think and I’m sure with the bad experience of before probably making people more even apathetic. I think we have it in us to make the changes we want but have been under the comfort zone of democracy we forget the bad that can go with this also. And you are right the government are bullies . In fact some of the statements made during the household charge saga would have got our politicians lynched if it had been in most other countries! I’m actually not against water charges even though my comments might suggest otherwise. I am mostly just against the government, and the continuous mismanagement of public funds. If we had a CEO with some balls half the staff at this company would be long gone. Instead we have enda. Yawn…
We were let down by the media because the government controls them and the banks control the government.
You are way behind the curve Johnny, in my town waste has been privatised for thirteen years, people use it because its cheaper than the co council,we take our waste and recycles to the centre and pay even less again,unionised overmanned state services unfortunatly just cannot compete on price.
I’m with you really Richard. Perhaps you missed the end of my first comment. I am saying (probably badly) that essential services should come under the property tax and should be a service that’s paid for through the tax. not free or state funded but paid for through fair taxation along with water etc. what else is the tax for anyway. i think some english lord still owns the land underneath my gaff i should really be paying the tax to him !
regarding the bins I must say its been a long time since I’ve had the council collecting my bins too. Get the whole lot taken from my door don’t even have to go to recycle centre. 4 bins for all my needs, Great service and relatively cheap IMO. But my bin collectors have competition. If I am unhappy with my water provider however…
A one off charge sounds good Johnny, but would people in Ireland be prepared for a charge similar to the UK where my family there pay 1500 stg per year household charge (around €1800) that covers everything from water and waste to policing and local emergency services,seeing the opposition to any charging for services here,i just could’nt see it working though.
so I assume VAT will be dropping by 4% right? otherwise it would just be a double tax/bondholder tax?
Are the thousands of people who do pay for their water due a VAT refund also?
not sure but if a direct charge is being introduced that means some central tax should drop otherwise it would just be theft…oh wait
I think there will be a change to income tax, will have to wait a year or two.
Think all you want but no tax breaks for pixie heads. Double tax then add vat its triple tax
I ain’t paying for something that falls from the sky in abundance. We could export drinking water to the world if we managed it correctly. Rain water harvesting is under utilised in this country. Why not invest in this rather than water metres? You could harvest your own rain water and have it collected for treatment or use yourself for toilet flushing or similar. Why do we always have to take in this country.
And if, like last time, people just don’t bother paying what will we do then? The state’s shed is already full of e voting machines; at this rate we’ll have our own circus with all our white elephants.
Faucets circus.
Those e voting machines were scrapped for a pittance after spending €50m on them .
They are still working out how much they can charge to bring in €2 billion + a year. Give it a few years then flog the company to pay off the interest on bailout loans we shouldn’t be paying back in the first place. For the few years that its Irish Water it serves its purpose of giving jobs for the boys.
Yes on bonus and big pay. Did Tierney get a pension from corpo when he was leaving I wonder
Yep vote FG you dumb ass voters. Water charges and household charge what dummies we have left in this country.
It doesn’t matter who was voted in so there’s no need to be mean! All politicians are the same in this country and yes I’m tarring them all with the same brush.!!
My comment was out of frustration at how we are been treated and how we aee been brainwashed by continous FG spin.
Very frustrating also to see support on the up for FG.
This country has no appetite for change
Yes most in this country are the same and not competent enough to do the jobs but worst of all they lie to be elected and never deliver on promises made
Couldn’t agree more with your comment that this country has no appetite for change. It actually sums up all my frustrations with the last couple of years and the people who have been voted into power. I just have to wonder who would be different?? Who would help instead of cripple??
We’ll be destined for a political status quo for many years in Ireland. At one point I was moving toward SF, in fact I voted for McGuinness in the presidential election, but in the aftermath and handling of various controversies by SF leadership over the last few years I’ve moved away again.
Declan. It’s nice to think that voting makes changes but in reality it doesn’t change things like this once they are set on motion. It that bloody democracy comfort zone thing again…
Of course apparently if you do not use enough water you will be charged more. Excellent logic there Irish water….
and this after enda informs the country last sunday on the radio we would know before the local and european elections………………
I already pay water charges and have done for 5 years
Won’t be paying this tax, it’s illegal along with their other taxes which they try to enforce through their fictions of law…if we all don’t pay, what are they going to do??? Mass civil disobedience is our only way to fight back peacefully,
John Do I agree with you. Take myself, I live in UK..but have a small house in Ireland which I inherited from Mother RIP. I only use it a few times a year..how do I fare out ? Anybody know. ?
Initially FG lied & stated that a water charge was being introduced to somehow focus the population on the merits of water preservation – don’t waste it and if you do it will cost you. Then it was – the money is needed to upgrade our infrastructure to save water from leaky pipes etc. Irish water will in time be sold to a private interest group ( practically is already) and they will literally turn the screw for your money or turn the tap off. FG are a disgrace as are we for not fighting back.
Want to get the local elections out of the way…timed nicely to give people a full 3 months to forget about the local elections
Thought bell enda said the pricing structure would be known before the may elections…more lies!
Not even a transfer.
Bell enda, classic!
I think he said a few months. The energy regulator is the one deciding on pricing, not the government.
And the energy regulator has signed off on massive increases year in year out across the board. Worrying times.
Being forsed to pay for everything now its become like the states soon they make you have to pay to get any medical care at all gready money grabbing wasters
Not going to pay until fluoride is removed from the water supply. Why should we pay for a resource that is toxic and illegal? Why the Irish government insist on adding this poison unnecessarily, against the rules and laws of the EU baffles me. We are on our own in Europe adding fluoride into the water. Check this video out. ( I am not a tree hugger, but am a parent and this worries me greatly since I started reading up on it) http://youtu.be/7aTfyo0Xz_c
#water
Wait for it……..
TL:DR
We only have to pay water charges for the month of August!!!!
I sincerely hope all current and ex government ministers who have done bad over the years choke on their pints in the Dail chamber! You have more money in this country of you don’t work!!
How can they expect us to pay for contaminated water…get your water tested by an independant water quality testing company and avoid the water bills…
have your say