• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

The Covid Witch-Hunts

by Michael Curzon
7 August 2021 4:30 PM

We’re publishing an original article today by Dr Sinéad Murphy, a Research Associate in Philosophy at Newcastle University, about the parallels between the witch-hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries and the move today to discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated against Covid. She begins by denouncing the introduction of vaccine passports in the Republic of Ireland.

In the Republic of Ireland as of July 26th, only those who have accepted two jabs are allowed to go inside the pub – that den of such life and good cheer that there is an Irish Pub to be found in the remotest corners of the globe.

On va à l’Irish? a French friend of mine used to say to his college mates, when they had a free afternoon in Poitiers.

Can this really be happening? Can the people of my native land really be refusing entry at pub doors to friends and neighbours who have not agreed to receive a particular medical treatment? I’ve been gone for over a decade – have things really changed that much?

What of the good-humoured scepticism that used to mitigate every piece of Irish officialdom? I know someone who lost his Irish passport while living and working illegally in the U.S., and who managed to have it replaced via a network of ex-patriots in the police and the passport office there. Years ago, I was stopped by the Gardai for exceeding the speed limit on a stretch of road approaching Cork city – “You were travelling quickly there, do you know that?” asked the garda. “God, I’m sorry,” I said. “Watch yourself next time, girl,” he said. That was it.

And what of the courage that used to lie beneath these soft to-and-fros of Irish life? …

The two have gone hand-in-hand – the courage and the craic, the friendliness and the fight. A verve for life and for people and for talk will tend to draw a person into whatever news is abroad and whatever struggle is afoot.

But now they’ve disappeared hand-in-hand, it looks like. Irish men and women sit well apart from other Irish men and women because their Government has ruled that they must or because they’re afraid of getting sick, or both.

The words of W.B. Yeats resound in my despondency: “Was it for this the wild geese spread? For this that all the blood was shed?”

Worth reading in full.

Tags: FearRepublic of IrelandVaccineVaccine Passports

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Subscribe to My QPR Substack Account

Next Post

University Attempts to Lure Young Into Getting ‘Jabbed’ With £5,000 Prize

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

36 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
PatrickF
PatrickF
3 years ago

The Covid Olympics. How to win medals:

GOLD two jabs and a booster.
SILVER two jabs.
BRONZE one jab.

24
0
Liewe
Liewe
3 years ago
Reply to  PatrickF

DNF unvaccinated

15
0
iane
iane
3 years ago
Reply to  PatrickF

PLATINUM withdraw over mental problems: special award for bravery.

9
0
TJN
TJN
3 years ago

Commentary on the Bideford (north Devon) witchcraft scare, 1682, written about 15 years ago. Seems highly apposite to what we are wintenessing now: 

To the modern reader, such is the absurdity of typical seventeenth-century witchcraft cases it is tempting to condemn the perpetrators and witnesses out of hand. But we must judge them against the prevailing standards of their own time. The many parallels with our own age should break any complacency we may hold about our own better natures. The days of the judicial or mob murder of old women (and less commonly men) for witchcraft have, in Western societies at least, passed. But mankind’s penchant for the persecution of his fellow man lives on. Witch hunts – ancient or modern, and whether aimed at ‘witches’ or other minorities or individuals – draw life from characteristics latent and enduring in the human psyche: a need to blame another for one’s own misfortunes or fears; the herd instinct, and a willingness to disdain or fear individuals who lie outside the herd – that is classical group-think; a need to indulge self-righteousness, and the inherent moral superiority it gives over lesser beings; that same self-righteousness in the persecutor that allows of no self-doubts and no admission of his own fallibility; a willingness to accuse and then to condemn without reasonable evidence or even logic; the conceit that derives from pseudo-intellectualism. We shall see all these traits in the Bideford witchcraft scare. They can all be seen in almost any society today.

67
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  TJN

ie plus ca change.

3
0
Occams Pangolin Pie
Occams Pangolin Pie
3 years ago
Reply to  TJN

Pseudo intellectualism. Lot of that about!

3
0
RW
RW
3 years ago

O’Toole is absolutely right on this one: Democracy is a system of government with many flaws and it’s sole saving grace was that it was claimed democracy and only democracy would respect human rights as something every human being on this planet naturally possesses and of which nobody might legitmately strip him. This turned out to about as truthful and durable as a pre-election party manifesto.

OTOH, treating this as serious is really giving it too much honour as the guy is just parroting his American puppet masters: Whenever the Democrats suffer any kind of setback, it’s always democracy and many times, even the planet which are in mortal danger. They don’t do it for less: It’s their way. Or the inevitable apocalpyse. The very concepts of opinion and human fallibility don’t exist in this self-righteous universe.

Last edited 3 years ago by RW
10
0
DS99
DS99
3 years ago

It hasn’t dawned on those going along with this yet (let’s hope it eventually might dawn on them) that it won’t end with the requirement to get a couple of jabs and a yearly booster. In the playground, if you handed over your lunch money to the bullies on day one, they’d be back the next day for more.

82
0
Annie
Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  DS99

Danegeld.

14
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  Annie

Wise man once write: “Once you have paid him the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane”.

19
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  Annie

I heard about what the Hanseatic League did to the Danes. Could be where we’re headed..

1
0
JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago

https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/der-tod-der-vernunft
This author nails what is really irrational: to be more likely to get an experimental gene therapy in return for just a hot dog or doughnut.
And he is clear about the consequences of that loss of all rationality on the side of the vaxxed: those who believe or are motivated by such absurdities, will also commit atrocities, like discrimination, witch hunts and more to come.
And as someone said on the Berenson blog yesterday, many are also now just feeling conned and stupid, and as such, they want everyone else not yet conned also to be conned.

47
0
thinkcriticall
thinkcriticall
3 years ago

Joe Rogan understands the real science and what’s actually going on.
https://rumble.com/vkt5rs-joe-rogan-passionately-argues-against-vaccine-passports-and-talks-about-bre.html

17
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  thinkcriticall

That’s brilliant, for people with the reach of Rogan to be putting this stuff out there.

I assume it was on his main program, not just on that small circulation Rumble vid?

9
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago

“The Irish have belied their reputation for “wildness”, O’Toole crowed, and are ripe at last with “rationality” and “logic”.”

He means that the Irish are now domesticated, like the rest of the Brits.

“And it is not very long ago that the Irish were victims of this device. My own father walked the streets of Kentish Town in the 1960s, bypassing many a lodging house with the infamous “No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish” sign on the window.”

Not sure about that. No way of knowing, now, but it’s exactly the kind of politically inflammatory and therefore extremely politically useful meme that would be made up and spread until people genuinely believed they had seen them.

Remember, a very high proportion of supposed “hate crimes” are actually manipulative hoaxes today:

Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think
A political scientist found that fewer than 1 in 3 of 346 such allegations was genuine.

Here’s Mary Kenny (no conservative):

“Mary Kenny
@MaryKenny4
Replying to 
@PaddyBarry5
There never were signs saying “No blacks, no dogs, no Irish”. See Clair Wills’ survey on migrants to the UK “Lovers and Other Strangers”. There were indeed discriminatory notices (including some saying “Coloureds Only”) but nothing re dogs. It’s urban myth.
5:08 pm · 24 Sep 2018·Twitter Web Client”

“a network of ex-patriots in the police and the passport office”

Presumably still patriots, from the sound of it. Expatriates, I assume.

5
0
Annie
Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Illiteracy has a long reach these days!

2
0
TJN
TJN
3 years ago

Since the start of the covid nonsense, back in February/March 2020 it was clear to me that, no matter what the seriousness of the disease, our society was descending into hysteria. I saw very clear parallels with 17th-century witch scares, and I’ve often posted on here to that effect.

I was basing my observations mainly on my readings of the Bideford (north Devon) 1682 and Salem, Massachusetts, 1692-3 witch scares.

From Bideford they hung three poor old women, and in Salem executed fourteen women and six men. Despite the executions, in both cases the hunts appeared only to be gathering momentum, as if blood begets only more blood. But in both cases an odd thing happened – the hysteria ran its course, and melted away.

It’s as if both communities, or at least sufficient of the wiser heads in those communities, saw themselves starring into an abyss, and instinctively drew back.

Will that happen now, with covid? After sufficient blood letting? (i.e. mainly vaccine injuries). On historical parallels I like to think yes. The alternative is too horrible to consider.

37
0
Bill Sanderson
Bill Sanderson
3 years ago
Reply to  TJN

After WW2 and Germany’s defeat the fervour which had led Hitler and his cohorts on their mad path simply evaporated, and universal amnesia replaced it. I don’t see any effective recrimination against the hysterics who have controlled our fate since March last year, but once most of us are weaned out of our masks a similar calmness might descend. Of course, ‘vaccinitis’ might stoke the fires again…

1
0
thinkcriticall
thinkcriticall
3 years ago

CDC Director Makes Case Vaccination Passports are Futile, Vaccines Do Not Prevent COVID Infection or Delta Variant Transmission
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/08/06/cdc-director-makes-case-vaccination-passports-are-futile-vaccines-do-not-prevent-covid-infection-or-delta-variant-transmission/

10
0
Margaret
Margaret
3 years ago

Lunch today with our nephew and his wife. He is a porter at a hospital in the NW which acts as a respite/recuperation centre but which has also been dealing with Covid cases. She is a carer for three patients with mental health issues.
Both are double jabbed but only because they love travelling and not because they felt pressured into it because of their jobs. They have work colleagues who will leave when it becomes mandatory.
They are both as sceptical about the whole fiasco as we are and as they are still unable to travel to where they want to go, feel they were utterly conned into having the jabs.

35
0
ellie-em
ellie-em
3 years ago
Reply to  Margaret

It’s to be hoped that those who feel similarly conned decline the ‘call to present arms’ for the third – and potentially never ending – injections roll out.

I’ve noticed that since Hancock was sidelined, there’s been less use of the odious ‘stepping forward and presenting of arms’ terminology. It may have been a propaganda tool, geared at that time towards the older generations and to stir up patriotism. It may have been one of his own, made up inducements to facilitate mass injection compliance -ironically, whilst he was busy presenting another part of his anatomy elsewhere in his work bubble…Disgusting, lying, cheating, vomit inducing creep.

Last edited 3 years ago by ellie-em
13
0
thinkcriticall
thinkcriticall
3 years ago

Virology 101

sterilizing.png
9
0
7fonn7
7fonn7
3 years ago

Headed to Dublin for the first time tomorrow… Maybe the last time as well.

6
0
Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago

More weight. More weight.

1
0
TJN
TJN
3 years ago
Reply to  Sandra Barwick

Indeed. And he was standing up to it. Difference is, I intend to survive this.

0
0
peyrole
peyrole
3 years ago

Hate so say it with my ancestory, but the hypocrisy has come home to roost. The Irish were always really like this, otherwise the outrages by the church over decades would never have happened. So stop the tears, they are not real!

13
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

More outrages in the Free State than in Northern Ireland, apparently, but the Republic’s leaders were beyond criticism, so I heard, to be sure.

3
0
Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago

Poitiers? Ah, futuroscope, magnifique!

Maybe they should have pub rocks in Ireland as well as mass rocks? Cromwell’d be proud…

1
0
John Drewry
John Drewry
3 years ago

Next comes the Witchfinder General. Then the burning of people.

2
0
Graff Frankenheim
Graff Frankenheim
3 years ago

Witch hunt doesn’t describe what is about to happen: internment camps are being constructed in the US, Canada and Australia. For the US: see the CDC website and look up “Green Zones” …for the humanitarian ‘shielding’ of the vulnerable (which includes the unvaccinated obviously) who can be removed by police force from their homes and families. Given the comparable levels of social and moral hysteria, it is unlikely that the UK will remain immune from this trend toward medico-fascism.

4
0
primesinister
primesinister
3 years ago

An amazing read i thought

3
0
chas cowie
chas cowie
3 years ago
Reply to  primesinister

I always enjoy Dr Sinead Murphy’s opinion pieces.

2
0
Bill Sanderson
Bill Sanderson
3 years ago

All Dr Sinéad Murphy’s essays are worth digesting and this long read makes the similarity between witch hunts and the present hounding of the unvaccinated too clear. Is our sceptical response to this pressure going to be enough to resist, given the power of governments around the world to promote the agenda? I’m still optimistic that the sheer illogicality behind the idea of vaccinating young people will become ever more evident, particularly among young people themselves.

On a personal note, as a student in Bristol back in the sixties when hunting for digs, I remember signs on doors which said “No Blacks, Irish, or Students”.

6
0
Occams Pangolin Pie
Occams Pangolin Pie
3 years ago

So the pub in Ireland is closed to the free thinkers and rebels. Ha!
I expect the Speakeasies are on the rise. Local bigwigs will be profiting, to be sure.
Prohibition, Apartheid and Bog Pharma will flourish.

And what says the Catholic Church?
Time to restart the Laundries and get the recalcitrant refuseniks working the mangles and the washboards. Maybe start up a breeding programme among the unjabbed to harvest the untainted blood and organs, that will be needed. Why not? Anything goes now, anything that’s totally mad and evil.

Time for the Irish to push back against these total absurdities.

Good health – Slainte mahaith – (Funny/sad.)

Last edited 3 years ago by Occams Pangolin Pie
1
0
tom171uk
tom171uk
3 years ago

For once, this article really is worth reading in full. It is a good analysis that seeks to explain how the current madness has come in to being and how there’s nothing new under the sun.

5
0
Newman20
Newman20
3 years ago

The luck of the Irish??

1
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

The Sceptic EP.37: David Frost on Starmer’s EU Surrender, James Price on Broken Britain and David Shipley on Lucy Connolly’s Failed Appeal

by Richard Eldred
23 May 2025
7

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

News Round-Up

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

How Jubilation Turned to Tragedy on Liverpool’s Darkest Day Since Hillsborough

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

What Happened to Systemic Common Sense?

26 May 2025
by C.J. Strachan

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

32

How Jubilation Turned to Tragedy on Liverpool’s Darkest Day Since Hillsborough

30

What Happened to Systemic Common Sense?

53

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

26

News Round-Up

25

Alasdair MacIntyre 1929-2025

27 May 2025
by James Alexander

Lies, Damned Lies and Casualty Numbers in Ancient History

26 May 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

Lord Frost: “The Boriswave Was a Catastrophic Error”

26 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

The Legal Case Against the AfD Has Collapsed

25 May 2025
by Eugyppius

Plebeians Can No Longer Rant About Bloody Murder

25 May 2025
by James Alexander

POSTS BY DATE

August 2021
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Jul   Sep »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

POSTS BY DATE

August 2021
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Jul   Sep »

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

News Round-Up

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

How Jubilation Turned to Tragedy on Liverpool’s Darkest Day Since Hillsborough

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

What Happened to Systemic Common Sense?

26 May 2025
by C.J. Strachan

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

27 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Tommy Robinson Released From Prison

32

How Jubilation Turned to Tragedy on Liverpool’s Darkest Day Since Hillsborough

30

What Happened to Systemic Common Sense?

53

GB News’s ‘Anti-woke’ Comedy Show Faces Axe After Thousands of Complaints

26

News Round-Up

25

Alasdair MacIntyre 1929-2025

27 May 2025
by James Alexander

Lies, Damned Lies and Casualty Numbers in Ancient History

26 May 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

Lord Frost: “The Boriswave Was a Catastrophic Error”

26 May 2025
by Laurie Wastell

The Legal Case Against the AfD Has Collapsed

25 May 2025
by Eugyppius

Plebeians Can No Longer Rant About Bloody Murder

25 May 2025
by James Alexander

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences