Brendan O'Neill (author)

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Brendan O'Neill
Born1975 (age 49–50)
NationalityIrish
Occupation(s)Author, columnist, political commentator
Known forEditor of Spiked (2007–2021) and columnist for The Australian and The Big Issue
Notable workAfter the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation (2024)

Brendan O'Neill is an Irish author and pundit. He was the editor of Spiked from 2007 to September 2021, and is its chief political writer. [1] He has been a columnist for The Australian , The Big Issue , and The Spectator .

Contents

Once a Trotskyist, O'Neill was formerly a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and wrote for the party's journal Living Marxism . In 2019, O'Neill said he was a Marxist libertarian. [2] [3]

Career

O'Neill's parents are from Connemara in west Ireland.[ citation needed ] He began his career at Living Marxism , the predecessor of Spiked and journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party. [4]

O'Neill has also contributed articles to publications in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia including The Spectator , the New Statesman , BBC News Online, The Christian Science Monitor , The American Conservative , Salon , Rising East and occasionally blogged for The Guardian , [5] before moving to The Daily Telegraph . [6] He writes a column for The Big Issue in London and The Australian in Sydney. He also writes articles for The Sun . [7]

Views

Northern Ireland

O'Neill is a supporter of a united Ireland. [8] [ non-primary source needed ] He was critical of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA supported. O'Neill wrote, in a 1998 issue of Living Marxism , "The new peace deal is a disgrace... The biggest losers in all this are the republican movement... [W]hat exactly will the republican communities gain at the end of their 25-year struggle? Sinn Fein and the IRA have not just agreed to down arms. They have effectively signed away everything they once stood for, accepting that there will not be a united Ireland." [9] [10]

Environmentalism

O'Neill has said that the environmental movement has become a "religious cult"[ citation needed ] that is "waging war on the working class". [11] [ better source needed ] He was later criticised for comments about the Swedish environmentalist activist Greta Thunberg. [12] [13] [14] [15] In 2020, in relation to COVID-19, O'Neill has argued that "this pandemic has shown us what life would be like if environmentalists got their way". [16] [17]

Brexit

In September 2019, he said on the BBC's Politics Live that British people should be rioting about delays to Brexit. [18] He said: "I'm amazed that there haven't been riots yet." When asked by guest presenter Adam Fleming: "Do you think there will be riots?", O'Neill responded: "I think there should be." In October 2019, 585 complaints about him calling for riots were dismissed by the BBC's executive complaints unit. [19]

Trans people

O'Neill called considering trans women as women "the most lunatic luxury belief of all", talking about "gender insanity". [20] He denied that Donald Trump was misogynistic after the Executive Order 14201 ("Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports"), saying it was a feminist action; [21] he also approved the UK Supreme Court's decision to consider only biological women (in his opinion "real women") as "women", [22] criticizing "the trans lobby". [23]

Israel-Palestine Conflict

O'Neill claimed that "the fashionable animus for Israel is more than a political position – it's a religious crusade" and said that the claim that Israel is committing genocide is a lie [24] and a calumny, [25] also praising Donald Trump as "the true anti-fascist hero", while criticising the Antifas, for stopping Hamas. [26]

Works

Sources

  1. ↑ O'Neill, Brendan. "It's time for a change at spiked 27 September 2021". spiked. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  2. ↑ "The Rubin Report 'What is a Marxist Libertarian?". YouTube . 30 November 2017. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  3. ↑ Marsh, Natasha (15 September 2016). "Brendan O'Neill, atheist blogger and the Church's biggest defender". The Catholic Weekly. The Catholic Weekly (Australian).
  4. ↑ Wells, Matt (31 March 2000). "LM closes after losing libel action". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  5. ↑ "Brendan O'Neill profile". The Guardian . London. 3 June 2008. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  6. ↑ "Brendan O'Neill". Telegraph Media Group. Archived from the original on 9 January 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  7. ↑ "Articles by Brendan O'Neill". muckrack.com.
  8. ↑ "Today with Sean O'Rourke, RTE Radio 1 18/12/20 at 1.11.35". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 18 December 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  9. ↑ O'Neill, Brendan (May 1998). "A peace of nothing". Living Marxism. Archived from the original on 8 March 2000.
  10. ↑ Aaronovitch, David (24 April 2019). "The shadowy past of Farage's motley crew – Comment". The Times. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  11. ↑ "Don't be fooled into thinking that climate activism is just for poshos". Dazed. 17 October 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  12. ↑ Hancock, Charlie (25 April 2019). "Like Greta Thunberg, I am on the autism spectrum. She gives me hope". The Guardian . Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  13. ↑ Moran, Layla (23 April 2019). "Greta Thunberg has changed the course of history – what has Brendan O'Neill achieved?". The Independent . Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  14. ↑ Hope, Mat (23 September 2019). "Attacks on Greta Thunberg Come from a Coordinated Network of Climate Change Deniers". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  15. ↑ Silberman, Steve (6 May 2019). "Greta Thunberg became a climate activist not in spite of her autism, but because of it". Vox. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  16. ↑ Pearce, Fred (17 April 2020). "Virus aftermath: Optimism or pessimism about its effect on climate change?". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  17. ↑ Hope, Mat; Derler, Zak; Hope, Mat (1 April 2020). "The Coronavirus Crisis: The Dangerous Crossover Between Climate and COVID Denial". Byline Times. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  18. ↑ "BBC guest says people should riot over Brexit delays: 'Why have the British people been so patient?'". Newsweek. 27 September 2019.
  19. ↑ Tobbitt, Charlotte (14 October 2019). "BBC dismisses 600 complaints over Brendan O'Neill's Brexit riots claim on Politics Live". Press Gazette. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  20. ↑ O’Neill, Brendan (30 September 2025). "Emma Watson won't recover from JK Rowling's takedown". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  21. ↑ O’Neill, Brendan (6 February 2025). "Donald Trump is liberating the US from the transgender madness". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  22. ↑ O’Neill, Brendan (16 April 2025). "Why did we need the Supreme Court to tell us what a woman is?". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  23. ↑ O’Neill, Brendan (20 April 2025). "The trans-rights movement's howl of male rage". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  24. ↑ O’Neill, Brendan (10 October 2025). "What will the Israel haters do now?". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  25. ↑ O’Neill, Brendan (14 August 2025). "Uefa's 'Stop killing children' banner isn't fooling anyone". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
  26. ↑ O’Neill, Brendan (13 October 2025). "Donald Trump is the real anti-fascist hero". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 October 2025.
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