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THE WEBSITE of the Democratic Unionist Party was this evening hacked by a self-professed “Irish language activist”, demonstrating against the party’s “nonsensical attitude” to the Irish language.
The websites of two of the party’s most prominent members – Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Peter Robinson, and former UUP member Jeffrey Donaldson – were also attacked, and replaced by Irish-language messages.
The hacker – who is based in Derry, and uses the online pseudonym ‘Hector O’Hackatdawn’, apparently inspired by the 2fm breakfast DJ – claimed responsibility for the attacks, which saw the DUP website injected with a fraudulent, pro-Irish news story, while the personal websites of Robinson and Donaldson were replaced with single-page professions of support for the North’s divisive Irish Language Act.
“Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir”, or ‘Happy new year to you all’, opened the fake DUP news story - since deleted from the website, which was temporarily taken offline while the story was removed.
The article went on to ‘apologise’ for the “levels of homophobia that exist deep within the ranks of the DUP”, and went on to state that the party had “decided to end our childish and archaic mindset towards the Irish language”.
Screen grabs of the other websites, caught and posted by Northern Ireland blog Slugger O’Toole, showed that both had been replaced by a message featuring the image of Peter Robinson, and reading, “As Gaeilge Anois! Is mise Peadar Robison, agus tugaim tacaíocht don Acht na Gaeilge” (‘In Irish now! I am Peter Robinson and I support the Irish Language Act’).
Despite the St Andrews’ agreement – signed by the DUP in 2006 – outlining that the Northern Assembly would pass an Irish Language Act giving the Irish language equal status in Northern Ireland, the DUP has resisted the introduction of such a bill thus far.
“The British & Irish Government made an agreement – [but] it is not being fulfilled,” the hacker wrote on Twitter after the sites had been taken offline. “We will wait no longer for Irish language legislation.”
He added that “no real damage” was done to the DUP website, and that he had merely used a “simple redirect” to send the content elsewhere. He further added that he was not involved in the attacks on the Fine Gael website.
Both pages were signed off from ‘Hector’ with the line, ‘Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam’ – a famous proverb by Irish 1916 leader Padraig Pearse, meaning ‘a country without a language is a country without a soul’.
Ironically – given how the Fine Gael website was targeted last week, with its overseas hosting an apparent motive, and the DUP’s strong Unionist agenda - all three of the affected websites are hosted by the same company in Germany.
The SDLP’s website, however, is hosted in Ireland, while the site of the UUP is hosted within the United Kingdom.
As TheJournal.ie reported last week, Sinn Féin’s website is hosted in Pittsburgh.
She must be so proud to have spent most of her life dedicated to science and have a man that denies any basic scientific proof about anything that doesn’t fit his and his rich buddies agenda call to congratulate her.
@Fergal Beattie: Well said
@Fergal Beattie: apparently hes building his own space rocket in the shape of a giant knob. His motto is “if you build it, it will come”
Maybe she just doesn’t want to return to Trump’s world..
Amazing! Imagine getting to speak with Trump. Would be class
So the have a Congrats Peggy sign in space? Seriously if people think this is real I feel bad for you.
@Free comment ratings: Prior to this mission they knew she would break the record.
Do you really think the whole mission, and the hundreds before it, are all totally faked?
And when the ISS passes over ireland once in a while, which it does and you can see it with the naked eye, do you think this is faked too?
@bopter: it’s all orchestrated. The ISS is a satellite but if people actually believe there is someone in side it that speed? They would be flinging around at that speed.
@Free comment ratings: They said that about vehicles travelling above 20 mph back in the late 19th century. Yet, no one is flung around on vehicles travelling in the air at 600 mph. Remove the obstacles of gravity and air… The only way your logic would be true would be if earth was flat. And, well, that’s impossible!
@Free comment ratings: Oh Christ, go back to school and do some junior cert science. It will help you stop making a fool of yourself.
Although he might not see it himself, I suspect Trump has been in space his whole life.
@Donal Proctor: I have genital herpes
@Grainne Abdulaziz: I heart you
@Grainne Abdulaziz: and thats why they removed you from the short list to go to Mars Grainne
@Grainne Abdulaziz: Dain has the same problem
@Grainne Abdulaziz: Great comment Grainne, I just knew you’d be capable of such immaturity, now all you have to do is wait for the next story on the journal (abortion for example) so you can pretend to be intelligent.
If it was an alien on the phone trump wouldn’t talk to him
Trump leading new space age like Eisenhower.
From one spacer to another.
why is this news? Tomorrow’s headline “Someone in the white house called out for food: asked for a salad with a side of Russian dressing”,
Donny like wockets go zoom zoom
Trump doesn’t believe in science because he doesn’t like Uranus!
Pity he hasn’t built his wall yet. It will be visible from space like the Chinese one.
That’s a long time to spend faking it at Star City (Russia). Lot of time spent on the old vomit comet!
NASA-National Academy for Space Actors
NASA – No Astronauts Should Apply
Which one was the furthest out there at the time?
*travelling
have your say