With only 38 days to Brexit, the fake news circulating is at its height. Last nights episode of Claire Byrne focused on Brexit and looked back on some of the worst events of The Troubles, including the Omagh bombing.
One of the guests interviewed on this show was the DUP Brexit spokesperson Sammy Wilson. Watch this short video of Sammy 's strange rant of a string of fake accusations. Claire Byrnes reaction is priceless.
Sammy Wilson: "Leo Varadkar has behaved in an abominable way"
Speaking on Claire Byrne Live, DUP Brexit spokesperson Sammy Wilson accused Leo Varadkar of issuing threats during Brexit negotiations @campaignforleo @eastantrimmp #brexit pic.twitter.com/uHGdvYxt9N
— RTÉ ClaireByrneLive (@ClaireByrneLive) February 18, 2019
Now, our research team have carried out some fact checking on this one. There is some small truth in Sammys accusations. In July, on the front page of The Sun it was reported that Leo Varadkar "threatened to block British planes flying over his country" as a "tit-for tat" response if Theresa May cut Irish fishermen's access to British waters after Brexit. To clear up matters here is the Taoiseachs direct quote.
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If they want their planes to fly over our skies, they would need to take that into account. You can’t have your cake and eat it. You can’t take back your waters and then expect to take back other people’s sky.
As for Wilsons claim that Leo had "in fact", the term "fact" used quite loosely, that Varadkar talked about sending troops to the Irish border and erecting a Berlin Wall along the border. This is totally fabricated fake news. What we can only assume is Sammy had been watching interviews with Donald Trump and Leo Varadkar and somehow got the two of them mixed up.
The best part about the video has to be Claire Byrnes reaction, taken back by these fake claims her response was "Sammy Wilson! Sammy Wilson he has said none of those things. Come on, he’s said none of those things."
Aside from the entertaining interviews, something else interesting that emerged from last nights Claire Byrne Live on RTÉ 1 was the results of a poll. A recent poll carried out by Amárach Research revealed that 63% of people want to see a united Ireland before they die.
