17/10/2025
A parcel of rogues - the Right Wing figures behind the “Spoil your Vote” campaign.
Having pinned their hopes on a populist celebrity candidate in Conor McGregor for the Irish Presidential race, the racist right were disappointed when he crashed and burned. The fact that he is a violent ra**st did not discourage the racists from rallying behind him, but the intelligence to actually understand that there were electoral procedures to be followed was clearly beyond his ability to comprehend.
Many leading racist right figures were happy to be in McGregor's company and engage in mutual supportive back slapping public appearances, and of course the fact that he was prepared to bankroll activities also helped. These supportive figures ranged from the anti-immigrant councillors Malachy Steenson and Gavin Pepper to various ‘citizen journalists’ and on-line agitators.
When McGregor announced he was quitting on his presidential ambitions, the right then pinned their hopes on Maria Steen, who also went on to fail to meet the constitutional requirements to become a candidate. Her failure led to a massive spin, portraying her as some kind of victim and a political martyr, rather than just another loser. She was not blocked or discriminated against, she just didn’t make the grade.
The two time losers then resorted to the “Spoil Your Vote” campaign, quietly welcomed by the Government parties who are hoping this intervention helps return the remaining Government sponsored Candidate.
The rabble-rousing section of the conservative and racist right had been most vocal in this ‘campaign’ to date, targetting working class communities with a completely misleading and dishonest message.
However, in recent days, a very professional and very flashy website has popped up to co-ordinate the Spoil Your Vote campaign. In fact, we’d go so far as to describe it as corporate in appearance. And unsurprisingly, the well heeled and wealthy manipulators have revealed themselves.
This latest development in the 'Spoil Your Vote' (SYV) venture has money and some thought behind it. But who is promoting it? And Why?
SYV claim that
'We are a citizen-led, non-partisan protest movement demanding real choice on Ireland’s ballot.
We oppose the gatekeeping that left us with no choice on the ballot. A conservative, nationalist voice has been blocked, leaving voters with government and left-only options.'
They claim to be
' A group of well known Irish political commentators, entrepreneurs, and public figures'
Leaving aside the contradiction of being 'non partisan' while clearly self-identifying as 'conservative nationalist' voices, let's have a look at the main figures involved.
One of these is Elaine Mullally (SYV says she is an entrepreneur, businesswoman, and former general election candidate).
Elaine Mullally makes great play of being an 'entrepeneur', when in fact she runs a kiddies indoor playground in Co Laois. She first appeared as Chair of the Independent Ireland (II) group, but resigned and left the party in July 2024 when their newly elected MEP Ciarán Mullooly joined the European Parliament's Liberal Renew group, rather than the further right 'European Conservative and Reformists' group. Mullally’s reason was that the Liberal group 'did not align with her values and principles'.
Since then Mullally has made a name for herself as a talking head on the populist conservative conference circuit as a key promoter of Make Europe Great Again (MEGA). In line with the MAGA populism of the American right she has posted photos of herself with Jack Posobeic, a key promoter of the QAnon Pizzagate conspiracy. She is also proud of her links with loyalist and Brexit party figure Jim Ferguson who has involved himself in far-right Irish groups in recent years.
Interestingly, anti- immigrant councillors Malachy Steenson and Gavin Pepper have appeared at demonstrations alongside staunch Unionist Ferguson, and Steenson is currently working closely in an alliance with him. Steenson of course was a failed election candidate on at least five occasions. He fared terribly for The Workers Party and as an independent, before finally succeeding based purely on anti-immigrant populism.
Eddie Hobbs
Eddie Hobbs is a self-styled economics guru, former TV personality and ex President of the short lived right-wing Renua party. Renua originated from within Fine Gael during the debates before the repeal of the 8th Amendment. In political and economic terms, the main figures of Hobbs and Lucinda Creighton wanted a party that was more Fine Gael than Fine Gael. Hobbs has re-emerged lately with his on-line shows, but his credibility will always be zero as his company 'Brendan Investments' was a fund which managed to lose 90% of the money invested by the people who trusted Hobbs' dubious financial genius.
Renua was a party that in reality existed from March 2015 to June 2016. It initially had 3 TDs who had defected from FG. None of them were re-elected under the Renua brand in June 2016.
Mullally, having left Independent Ireland because it wasn't right- wing enough for her, ran unsuccessfully as an Independent in Laois during the November 2024 General Election, falling far short of the quota required.
Declan Ganley, entrepreneur and businessman, has made untold millions - some reports say upwards of €500m which he amassed through a network of businesses in Ireland, the United States and Russia, primarily in the telecommunications field.
Ganley is known as one of Ireland’s most prominent conservatives, always one step shy from explicitly engaging in the extreme right network, he works to support the Christian, right-wing and far-right forces from the background. This is done mostly through funding and donations.
In 2017, he gave the seed money for so-called ‘conservative student newspaper’ The Burkean, which at the time described itself as a publication of Trinity students aimed to fight the ‘degeneracy’ in the western world. This is an openly far-right publication, seeing itself as something of an intellectual voice of the movement. Ganley was also an important figure in the background of the No campaign during the abortion referendum in 2018.
Declan Ganley was the leader of Libertas, a well resourced right-wing eurosceptic party which also lasted for just 2 years - October 2008 to September 2010. Ganley ran as a Libertas candidate in the 2009 Euro elections in the Midlands North West constituency. Having failed to win a seat he then closed down Libertas and retired from electoral politics.
A consistent theme emerging here is the sense of political entitlement among these figures. It was pointed out lately that Maria Steen emerged from the ranks of the religious right Iona Institute to, effectively, demand a right to run for President. Since she failed to reach the nomination goals constitutionally required the conservative right has whinged and moaned about how they have been 'undemocratically' denied their right to run a candidate.
The persons named above have all acted in a similar ego-driven manner, expecting to be elected on the basis of being an 'entrepeneur', well-off and a self important talking head on TV and the Internet.
The Irish people, by contrast, expect their political representatives to show some community spirit and political work beyond the insufferable pomposity of these self declared 'public figures'. Hence their very poor electoral outings, after which they retreat to lick the wounds and come up with another clever scheme to con what they see as the 'stupid' electorate.
This is where the ‘Spoil Your Vote’ push is coming from. This is a lobby which is essentially about boosting Mullally, Ganley etc, figures who have failed and been rejected by the electorate at the ballot box, and they are targetting the ‘stupid’ electorate to act on their say so.
The ‘brains’ and the ‘money’ behind this campaign originates with extremely wealthy and very motivated right-wing figures. By their very nature they are anti-working class, though they are happy to manipulate working class voters to advance their own agenda. Populist political opportunists such as Steenson and Pepper are more than happy to play their part and are acting as the middle-men to facilitate this scam.
DON’T BE FOOLED
