Ireland

Raffaella Menichini is Deputy International Teams Manager & Editor at Lead Stories. She joined Lead Stories in November 2020, as a fact-checker for the Italian team. She has over 30 years of experience as a journalist in some of the major Italian news outlets, as a field reporter, politics, and foreign editor. In the '90s, she covered Thatcher's years, the…

Ms. Susan Wojcicki, It's been almost two years since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The world has seen time and time again how destructive disinformation and misinformation can be for social harmony, democracy, and public health; too many lives and livelihoods have been ruined, and far too many people have lost loved ones to disinformation. As an international network of fact-checking…

Did McDonald's lose a legal battle with chef Jamie Oliver? Was it proven that lean finely textured beef treated with ammonium hydroxide was highly toxic or not fit for human consumption? No, neither are true: Oliver did not win a legal battle with McDonald's. Oliver spotlighted the beef product in an April 12, 2011, episode of his show "Food Revolution"…

Is the Illinois governor making vaccine mandates without any proof of the delta variant of the coronavirus? No, that's not true: This claim is a recycled version of similar deceptive claims made in Ireland, where COVID denialists requested lab materials from the wrong office, got a letter saying the agency had no samples, and used that letter to declare no…

Has Monsanto, the agribusiness controversial for its widely used herbicides, been banned in 15 locations? No, that's not true: The company no longer exists under the name "Monsanto" since it was acquired by Bayer, a company best known for its health care products. Glyphosate, an active ingredient in a herbicide created by the company, has been criticized by and even…

Do U.S. citizens pay a percentage of their taxes to the queen of England via the IRS, and is the IRS not part of the federal government? No, that's not true: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. To avoid double taxation…

Are 'giant' sculptures going to be built in 21 states in 2021? No, that's not true: The company creating them plans to use the structures to showcase quasi-animated images of heroes, athletes and celebrities once they have found investors in 21 cities that would want one. The claim originated in an Instagram post (archived here) on June 14, 2021, by…

Did an Irish woman take the gun of her wounded fiance and continue fighting the British army until she was killed? And did someone overhear the comments of the British commander who had called off the fighting so the "Irish could bury their dead"? And lastly, was this photo "chosen" for Women's Day in Ireland and given the motto, "Don't…

Did a laboratory analysis commissioned by a German children's charity find bacteria and mold on a mask? Yes, that is true, but it does not mean these microorganisms are harmful or abnormal. According to experts, it is likely that the bacteria found on the mask are just the regular bacteria found on the skin and in the mouth. Without further…

Did Irish Health Service officials "admit" COVID-19 does not exist? No, that's not true: The claim rests on a purported Irish Health Service (HSE) letter the agency says does not exist. The person based her claim on a bit of sophistry: She declares that since she demanded and did not receive HSE documentation of lab isolation of the novel coronavirus,…