'Their explanations are being drawn up on the back of a matchbox'... Galway Mayor first shared the false claim that she came to Ireland after husband's assassination a month before botched website went online... raising fresh questions for Ivana Baci

Published: 15:44, 8 July 2026 | Updated: 15:45, 8 July 2026 Galway Mayor Helen Ogbu shared a story repeating the false claim she came to Ireland in 2005, after her husband’s murder, at least a month before it appeared as a ‘typo’ on her website. Labour has repeatedly responded to queries about the erroneous claim by insisting ‘a mistake was inadvertently made on the website’, which Ms Ogbu and the party ‘only recently became aware of.’ The website had claimed: ‘In 2006, my family and I [Ms Ogbu] moved to Ireland, seeking safety and a fresh start after the tragic loss of my husband.’ However, Ms Ogbu’s husband was murdered in Nigeria in 2010, not 2006, and she came to Ireland in 2005, not 2006. And it has now emerged that Ms Ogbu shared a news report from Channels Television, a Nigerian news outlet, on February 11, 2025, at least a month before her website went live. The report, which was shared on Ms Ogbu’s own personal YouTube channel, said: ‘The 51-year-old fled to Ireland in 2005 after her husband was murdered.’ The Irish Daily Mail asked the Labour Party if it was aware of who provided the Nigerian news outlet with this false information. In response, a spokeswoman for the party said: ‘You would need to ask Channels TV in Nigeria where they sourced their information from. ‘Neither the Labour Party or Cllr Ogbu ever spoke with this TV news channel.’ It was also asked how Ms Ogbu could credibly claim to be unaware of the error on her website when she was sharing incorrect information from the aforementioned news channel before the website even went live. In response to the second query, the spokeswoman said: ‘As repeatedly outlined in multiple responses, the Labour Party and Cllr Helen Ogbu only recently found out about the website mistake.’ It is the latest in a series of inconsistencies in the Labour account of how the error came to be made. The falsehood was repeated by party leader Ivana Bacik in a letter to members announcing Ms Ogbu’s candidacy in the recent Galway West by-election. Last week, a party spokeswoman said: ‘Helen Ogbu did not make this incorrect claim.’ However, the falsehood was repeated by party leader Ivana Bacik in a letter to members announcing Ms Ogbu’s candidacy in the recent Galway West by-election. And despite Ms Ogbu saying on Galway Bay FM last week that she was aware of errors on her site since last year, the party this week said this did not relate to the statement on her arrival here, but incidents where her website linked to the British as opposed to the Irish Labour Party. A review of Ms Ogbu’s website using an online tool called the Wayback Machine, which allows users to see what was on a website at a specific time and date, shows the site was not yet live on March 16, 2025. At the time the website only said: ‘Councillor Helen’s website is launching soon. Come back and check it out.’ Ms Ogbu has blamed the company which set up the website, while George Lawlor, a Labour Party TD, blamed a party activist for writing the falsehood. Sources in the party have said that these were separate but related reasons for the error occurring. On Monday of this week, a spokeswoman for the party said: ‘Both the Labour Party and Cllr Ogbu only recently became aware of the biographical mistake on the website.’ On July 2, a Labour Party spokeswoman told the Mail: ‘We regret that a mistake was inadvertently made on the website and, as soon as it came to our attention, sought to correct it. The party accepts full responsibility for this typo. ‘Helen Ogbu did not make this incorrect claim. ‘Her account of her husband’s murder has at all times been consistent and truthful.’ And on June 29, when Labour first responded to queries from this publication, a spokeswoman said: ‘Councillor Ogbu only recently became aware of the mistake.’ The leader of Independent Ireland, Michael Collins TD, has called on Ms Bacik to set the record straight. Yesterday, he said: ‘I think Deputy Bacik needs to come before the Dáil. I think if there’s any other TD, we’d be all called before the Dáil.’ He said the media was now coming in for ‘huge criticism which I don’t think you deserve’. ‘But when you’re doing fair journalism, you’re asking a straight question. There’s discrepancies, there’s several discrepancies,’ the deputy said. ‘I’m not here to be judge and jury on another party, but I will say Labour have been very critical of Independent Ireland at several times on television. ‘Deputy [Conor] Sheehan said that Independent Ireland was put together at the back of a cigarette box, I think he said. ‘Now the carry-on, and the explanations that have been given today, are certainly drawn up from the back of a matchbox, and there needs to be fair and honest clarity.’ He said he had been contacted by ‘lots of people’ asking that he raise this issue. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.