Irish singer says she's been cancelled for supporting Supreme Court trans ruling

Sunday World

08-07-2025

'It was met with an intense internet pile-on and online harassment'
Singer Molly O'Mahony has spoken of the 'chilling effects of being quietly cancelled' after she publicly supported the UK Supreme Court's trans ruling.
The Cork native posted about how she had endured the 'quietest summer of music work in over a decade' as she was dropped from gigs and offers of work 'have all but dried up'.
She said this had followed an Instagram post on April 22 in support of the UK Supreme Court ruling on the definition of 'woman'.
'It was met with an intense internet pile-on and online harassment,' O'Mahony explained.
'I lost hundreds of followers within days, and individuals publicly called for my work to be boycotted.
'Since then I have experienced the chilling effects of being quietly cancelled from the Irish music scene that I've been a part of for 13 years. I've been dropped from bills I was due to play, and offers of gigs have all but dried up.
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'It is my quietest summer of music work in over a decade, in fact; quieter than the covid years, even.'
The Ballydehob musician said this had come as she is trying to finish and release her second record, 'a costly endeavour, as any independent musician knows' in the wake of her debut album, The House of David.
'It is a challenge, at the best of times, to find the resources to keep making music, let alone make a living as an artist in this country,' she wrote.
'Suffice to say, it all feels a whole lot harder now.
'The feeling that there is nowhere to turn is particularly pernicious,' she added. 'I have very little confidence that any of the institutions and gatekeepers of the industry will have my back.
'All are beholden to a culture which dictates that those who don't toe the line must be ousted.'
O'Mahony insisted that she was just one of many women and men in the public eye, 'who have been punished for trying to speak in defence of women's rights against the prevailing tide of gender ideology'.
'The myriad messages of private support I have received since April tells me two things - that my views are widely sympathised with in Ireland, and that people are terrified to proclaim it,' she revealed.
'Is it not the remit of artists to speak what's true for them? How can creativity flourish if we are all expected to be a monolith of sameness where our beliefs are concerned?"
Molly O'Mahony
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She added that she wanted to 'an end to the vice grip that tyrannical woke liberalism has on the arts and on free speech'.
'And an end to cancel culture. If there are artists out there who resonate, I dare you to sound the alarm with me. The culture is not going to change until there is enough of us calling for it.'
In her April post, O'Mahony had written how, 'this is an anomaly post about sex and gender issues'. 'If this is not your bag, you can just admire this especially beautiful piece of kelp and move on with your life,' she added, alongside a picture of her holding some seaweed.
'For the record, I f***ing love women,' she added.
She wrote about how, in light of the landmark Supreme Court Ruling in the UK 'declaring unequivocally woman means biological woman', she wanted to add a 'counter narrative to the online echo chamber I exist in'.
She wrote in part how trans-identified males are human beings – 'worthy of dignity, protection and the freedom to express themselves however the hell they want'.
'They are not however women,' she added.
She also highlighted how it is the 'likes of prisons and rape crisis centres that most high-stakes where male violence against women are concerned, places that house women who are especially vulnerable'.
O'Mahony had performed as part of the art-folk group Mongoose for which released their debut album in 2015.
Their second outing Suck the Wound landed in 2019 with O'Mahony releasing her first solo project three years later.