Youth Defence website hacked

Youth Defence has had its website hacked and its homepage replaced by an article that is highly critical of the group. Under the headline of “This is not the hate-filled truth-distorting website you’re looking for” the article questions the anti-abortion group’s connections with extreme right-wing groups at both home and abroad; the source of their funding; their charitable status and the make-up of their membership.

The spoof homepage article – for which a considerable level of investigative journalistic work was done – also made public part of Youth Defence’s ‘subscriber list’.

The unknown hackers struck overnight, with the spoof homepage viewable until shortly after noon. It appeared to have been taken down twice, only to re-appear shortly afterwards.

Among those tweeting about the Youth Defence hacking were Father Ted creator Graham Linehan who said, “Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch”; foodie Tom Doorley who ventured, “I see #YouthDefence is trending. But not for the usual reasons. Hacked they may be, but not deserving of sympathy I reckon...” and satirical duo Rubberbandits, who sounded a cautionary note: “Those abortion lunatics are stealing all the public anger that needs to be directed at the bankers and politicians.”

The social media response to the hacking wasn’t all positive though, with Keith Mills tweeting: “Youth Defence now getting huge sympathy for having a low traffic website hacked. Well done to the geniuses behind that stunt” and Aisling Ryan proferring: “Are illegal attacks on websites the best way of challenging organisations like youth defence? It's just as sneaky and slimey as they are...”

Whatever way you look at that argument – and there is a genuine debate to be had about it – what can be said is that there was a lot of very interesting material in what was a thoroughly researched article.

Hot Press exposed the unpleasant truth about Youth Defence in 1992 when our man Mick McCaughan went undercover to infiltrate the group.

Available to read here, many of the key figures mentioned in his ‘I Was A Member Of Youth Defence’ report are still associated with Youth Defence – meaning that little has changed in the intervening 21 years years.