Has Paddy Cosgrave overstepped the mark?

CEO of a company needs to understand his customer base. You won't see many CEOs take to twitter or X with the prevalence that Cosgrave did. It doesn't matter what he said this time, there was always going to be a time when he would say something that would end up hurting his business.

Does this Cosgrave / Web Summit story make you consider what you post, like and retweet on social media?

I don't mean extreme views, but liking post for pro-Palestinian marches in Dublin or retweeting criticism of Von der leyen support of Israel.

Not radical stuff. But feel that it now it could used as a reason for, example, a perspective employer not to hire you

That depends. Not necessarily, see my definition.

BTW according to the more trustworthy sources like BBC verify, on the balance of probabilities the hospital got accidentally bombed by Palestinian terrrorists, not by the IDF. I'm keeping an open mind on this until there is more proof.

What definition, and why does yours carry more weight than what is agreed by the UN and international community? UN run schools have been hit, that is a clear breach. The bombing is without regard for surrounding areas or civilians. Several places of worship have been destroyed either directly or indirectly. These are clear breaches.

2.b.iv

"Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated;"

A "war crime" can be any time that civilians are killed or injured as a result of military action, depending on the circumstances.

The human shields excuse is used by every terrorist group and terrorist state to justify their killing of civilians.

I'm out of the loop with this fellow. Why does erbody dislike him?

I assume that any projectile that is fired leaves fragments after it and which can be verified from it as to the type of missile it is , manufactured by who and therefor - more than likely- who fired it. I am surprised therefor why Hamas did not come out with such information within hours. Or maybe it did not matter anyway because it got the ideal reaction ie international condemnation against Israel and loads of demonstrations. And if Hamas did provide evidence re missile fragments - sure they could be from any missile fired by Israel at some other target.. I found it of interest the Hamas did not allow anyone near the bombed site in the first few days - most especially the media

It’s a huge and unnecessary risk to take. He has enough wars of his own to fight without wading into those he has no business in.

Correct. Only a few days ago Mary Lou McD gave a speech in which she accused Israel of "carpet bombing".

In her speech she began : "Israels carpet bombing devasted Gaza's medical infrastructure, ".

How could the explosion she talked about, which turned out to leave a crater 3 feet by one feet maximum , "cripple the ability of Palestinians to help the injured, the sick and the dying", as she claimed in her speech?  

She said " Yet Israel believes that it has the right to bomb hospitals". What proof has she of that, as all evidence points to the fact it was a Hamas missile and not a Israeli missile, which would have left a much bigger crater?

As I said before, it is bad enough she seemingly does not know what carpet bombings it, ( given that the military wing of SF planted most, probably well over 99%, of the 16,200 bombs during the troubles. Just one of those for example, the Bishopsgate bomb, caused £350 million worth of damage (equivalent to about £700 million in 2023), he is making matters even more embarrassing for herself by not admitting to her mistake on her facebook page, and by having the audacity to lecture the rest of us on carpet bombing / morality.

What would our American multinationals think of her / her government ( if we have one), given they have boycotted the web summit over Paddy Cosgraves remarks?

I do not think Uncle Jo, who lit the white house in Israeli colours, or even the French, who lit the Efeil tower flag colours, would think too kindly of SF or even our Presidents utterances.

Just my thoughts, anyone agree?

All very true, but we have entered an age where the price of Free Speech is to be Cancelled.

Ironically, but predictably, we were able to speak more freely, before we enabled our right to Free Speech.

It's very difficult to dispute or go against the established American view.

As stated above, let's see Sinn Fein behave when they get into government. If they go against America, it looks like they bail out.

Well the American one is the one that most affects us. Being pro Israel is the established American view.

This will have a chilling effect on high profile people in Ireland including our politicians.

Let's hope so.

I would expect a cooling down of the rhetoric after this debacle.

The Irish government and media won't want to annoy our American masters.

Does anyone take Paddy seriously anymore? he isn't even associated with Ireland anymore, his event is in Portugal

He is just like Ireland's drunk uncle at a wedding giving out about everyone and everything while everyone laughs at him.

Poor ould Paddy

That religion and politics discussion ban thing was a hangover from the War of Independence/Civil War.

A lot of scabs from a troubled time that people wanted to avoid picking.

It’s still a good rule. I have a Trump-supporting relative that I should have just humoured on his visit instead of giving into (heated) debate after listening and smiling for two days. Also some of my friends are card-carrying Christians of the Pentecostal variety but I usually manage to avoid controversy with them. How much does politics really matter? For me not much.