FALSE CLAIMS THAT Irish political leaders had visited the island of the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have circulated online in a faked document that purports to be official government correspondence.

Declassified documents known as the“Epstein files” either don’t mention those leaders at all, or merely make reference to their routine appearances in the news. There is no evidence that the named Irish leaders were guests of Epstein, were involved in his crimes, or visited the island that he owned.

People on social media often conflate the “Epstein files” — documents collected during official US investigations into Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes — with the “Epstein list” — a purported list of Epstein’s clients who engaged in crimes, which were collated in case Epstein ever wanted to blackmail them.

There is little indication that such a list was ever created by Epstein before his death.

But according to social media posts, a list of Irish clients of Epstein was supposedly created by the government here.

A screenshot shared on social media shows a piece of paper headed with the Irish government’s harp logo.

“Department of Justice & Equality,” it reads. “Official correspondence. Reference CONF-2023-44.”

The image contains text in a font that is designed to look handwritten: “Epstein files: Government ministers” it says, before listing seven names with years next to them. It also has a section with seven names of “police and military commanders”.

A note at the end reads: “All above named Irish [unreadable] Gardaí commanders & military officers visited the island and where involved — flight logs and witness statements attached”.

Multiple copies of this image have been spread on Facebook since early June, and have collectively been shared hundreds of times.

However, there are many reasons to believe that the image does not show what it claims to.

Firstly, official correspondence like this from government departments is never handwritten, nor printed in a font with a handwritten effect.

Secondly, the reference number on the document begins with the digits “2023”, indicating that it was published that year. The years listed next to the names range from 2016 to 2022.

But that timeline doesn’t make sense for multiple reasons.

None of the Epstein Files were released until December 2025, so it is unclear how the Irish Department of Justice would have had knowledge of what was in them in 2023.

In addition, the “Department of Justice & Equality” — as the header on the page reads — was no longer called that in 2023. The department was renamed in 2020 to the “Department of Justice”. It has subsequently been renamed again, and is now called the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration.

Jeffrey Epstein was also arrested in July 2019, and died later that year.

Based on that, it is not plausible that someone like Taoiseach Micheál Martin – named on the document – could make a visit to his island in 2022, after it was secured by the FBI.

Looking at more names on the list further undermines the claims that it makes.

The list begins: “President Michael D. Higgins — visited island July 2019 (official visit logged).”

Again, aside from the fact that Epstein was arrested that month, an even more damning fact disproves this claim. Article 12.9 of the Irish constitution reads: “The President shall not leave the State during his term of office save with the consent of the Government.”

This is to say, Irish presidents have to ask the government for permission to take trips abroad, which would likely include trips to Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands, commonly known as Epstein Island.

Further, all these trips must be logged. The office of the President provided such a list to The Journal. 

Higgins did leave Ireland in July 2019, but for a state visit to Germany. He would later visit the United States that year, but in September, not July.

His trip was widely publicised and included multiple high-profile speeches, including at the United Nations in New York.

What do the actual released Epstein files say about Michael D Higgins? Nothing.

The released files are searchable here. No results appear for “Michael D Higgins” or any variation of his name — like Martin, there is no association between the former president and Epstein or his crimes.

The second name on the fake list is former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. However, unlike Higgins, his name does appear in the files, though not in any way associated with Epstein or criminal activity.

Instead, Varadkar’s name only features in copies of a political newsletter from the Washington Post that was recovered from an email account (the name of the account is redacted).

Multiple issues of the newsletter were sent to the email account, indicating that the account had subscribed to receive the newsletter regularly.

Varadkar was mentioned in a September 2019 issue of this newsletter that outlined his Brexit discussions with Boris Johnson.

That newsletter can be read online here.

It should be noted that the full Epstein files have not been released, and that famous and political figures have been implicated in them, including British politician Peter Mandelson, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly the UK’s Prince Andrew.

The former prince in 2022 settled a civil lawsuit with one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him of raping her as a minor.

He was later arrested in 2026 on suspicion of misconduct in public office based on evidence in the released Epstein files, though he was released shortly afterward.

The US congress passed a law in 2025 forcing the US Department of Justice to release the files related to the Epstein investigation in full, though redacting the victims’ identifying information (which they failed to do).

The US Department of Justice did release some batches of the files, though missed deadlines. It has since announced it does not intend to release more, despite claims by US lawmakers that millions of pages from the investigation have yet to be released.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that the supposed Irish Epstein list being spread on social media is not real and there is no indication that anyone named on it had any association with Epstein or was involved in his crimes. 

The document shared on social media is not based on the real Epstein files that have been released, and contradicts the known facts about the case, alleging that people visited Epstein’s island after Epstein was in prison or dead and the island was seized by the FBI.

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