{"id":508579,"date":"2026-06-19T21:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508579\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T21:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T21:41:08","slug":"war-of-independents-as-mattie-mcgrath-and-michael-collins-trade-blows-on-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/508579\/","title":{"rendered":"War of Independents as Mattie McGrath and Michael Collins trade blows on Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what one political source branded \u201chandbags at dawn\u201d, Cork South West TD Michael Collins<\/a>, Tipperary South TD Mattie McGrath<\/a>, and Aont\u00fa Cork county councillor Peter O\u2019Donoghue<\/a> have taken to social media to debate how Independent Ireland was founded and who was involved.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, as the D\u00e1il prepared to vote on Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s proposal to abolish the three-day abortion \u201creflection period\u201d<\/a>, Mr O\u2019Donoghue, a councillor in Fermoy, posted a video on Facebook noting that none of Independent Ireland\u2019s four TDs spoke during the debate on Tuesday evening or posted anything about it on social media. He said:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Independent Ireland sticks its finger in its mouth, puts it up in the air, and looks to see which way the wind is blowing.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThey think there might be damage done if they are seen to be vocal on this issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, because I am a founding member of Independent Ireland… I was on the first executive of Independent Ireland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aont\u00fa requested to correct ‘false claims’\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a lengthy Facebook post on Thursday, a spokesperson for Independent Ireland called on Aont\u00fa to \u201ccorrect false claims regarding party founding\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he [Mr O\u2019Donoghue] did attend some early meetings during the initial scoping and consultation phase, along with many other individuals from different backgrounds, he was not a founder of the party,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Mattie McGrath then weighed in on the Facebook post, commenting that he had worked \u201clong and hard\u201d for a \u201cnew, fresh independent movement to challenge the political system\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, he suggested this had been \u201cbetrayed by Michael Collins\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Collins then responded to Mr McGrath\u2019s comment, urging him to \u201ctell the truth\u201d. He said;\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Your own family blocked you from joining Independent Ireland.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\u201cDo you not remember you asked me to drive up from West Cork to Tipperary, which I did, to plead with your Daughter on your behalf to let you join this party to be told that under no circumstances would your own family ever support you ever again if you joined the party?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is understood that before Independent Ireland was formally registered as a political party in November 2023, several meetings took place with councillors, prospective candidates, and others to assess whether they would be in favour of being in the establishment of a new political party or grouping.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Rural Independent Group Against the Carbon Tax \u2014 Michael Collins TD, Carol Nolan TD, Mattie McGrath TD, and Richard O’Donoghue TD \u2014 spoke to reporters outside Leinster House in April 2022. File picture: Sam Boal \/Rollingnews<\/p>\n

This included conversations with Mr McGrath, who has been an Independent TD for Tipperary South or Tipperary since 2011. He was first elected to the D\u00e1il in 2007 as a Fianna F\u00e1il TD.<\/p>\n

‘Conversations with Mattie McGrath’<\/p>\n

Mr Collins suggested to the\u00a0Irish Examiner\u00a0that he and Mr McGrath had several conversations over several years about establishing a new political party, but this never occurred.<\/p>\n

He also said that while Mr O\u2019Donoghue was at initial meetings to discuss the establishment of a new political party, he denied that he was present when Independent Ireland was established.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donoghue told the Irish Examiner he was involved in the early days of Independent Ireland, and that he was \u201cpart of the process of drafting the constitution\u201d in September 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference then was that Independent Ireland was always meant to have been an amalgamation of independents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndependents would come together and would unite on key principles, but it would never be a party.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIndependent Ireland morphed into something that wasn\u2019t the original vision for Independent Ireland.”<\/p>\n

The Irish Examiner contacted Mattie McGrath for comment.<\/p>\n

Louise Burne, Political Correspondent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In what one political source branded \u201chandbags at dawn\u201d, Cork South West TD Michael Collins, Tipperary South TD…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[217181,185249,79,823,61,60,43,58],"class_list":["post-508579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-abortion-laws","tag-tipperary-news","tag-cork-news","tag-facebook","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}