In this episode, Luke Sheehan engages with Róisín Michaux, the self-described “unemployed Twitter TERF” who lost her European Commission role after co-founding a gender-critical staff network. Hired on a special contract which was not renewed, the Commission, in her account, used this grey-area employment structure to remove her as a dissenting voice.
The same grey-area contract status also allows the EC to deny that she was ever employed by them. The backstory to that provides a former EU insider’s perspective on a contentious topic.
Her TERF explorations have been taking her around the continent. A lacerating “shitposter” on X with a substack and podcast (Peaked), Michaux has taken up the task of exploring how “gender self-id” laws are being brought into force across the EU and among accession states.
From here, Michaux goes into depth on her own working-class Dublin roots, her Brussels career, and the internal battle that started on a message board and eventually got her fired.
The talk ranges from “autogynephilia” to detransitioning, the NGO-isation of Irish civil society, and parallels between the Catholic Church’s old moral authority and today’s activists and academics—weirdly, often based in the old ecclesiastical stronghold of Maynooth!
Michaux is a combative voice in this debate, and—like her fellow Róisín (Murphy, of Moloko)—she is channeling a fiercely vocal Irish womanhood into an arena where the cultural combat had turned vicious before she ever got embroiled. It is remarkable that prominent gender critical Irish women like her, Helen Joyce and Stella O’Malley have been largely ignored by Irish media. Cassandra Voices can slip through where official Ireland has installed its barriers.
Not everyone will welcome Michaux’s strong stances on trans policy and activism. Her doggedness, wit and talent for sustained argumentation will leave a strong impression on all who listen.
We welcome other voices on this topic; if you want to submit your point of view write to [email protected].
Episode Credits:
Host: Luke Sheehan
Music: Loafing Heroes – https://theloafingheroes.bandcamp.com
Produced by Massimiliano Galli – https://www.massimilianogalli.com
