Backstory.ie

About

I am a volunteer citizen investigative journalist focused on exposing injustice and holding institutions to account. At the moment I only have the resources to concentrate on the Defective Concrete Crisis.

Main Goal

To create a documentary, or documentary series, on Ireland's Defective Concrete Crisis. I've been purchasing professional level gear so that I can make this happen.

In the interim, I do audio recordings (from time to time) with homeowners for my UpSet in Concrete podcast.

Work

I've been documenting the Defective Concrete Crisis since October 2021. I'm building an extensive archive of material including print media, radio and television coverage, and Oireachtas proceedings. The goal is to make these archives easy to search for the future documentary.

I am based in Cork but travel extensively around the country meeting affected homeowners. The idea is to establish a network of contacts within the community that might want to participate in a documentary.

Alongside this archival work, I conduct independent investigations into aspects of the crisis that the mainstream media are not following.

While this website gets built, please see Backstory.ie's reporting on Facebook

Motivation

I don't have a Defective Concrete house. I'm just passionate about exposing the injustice that is being done to thousands of people in the country I live in. I see myself as a volunteer investigative journalist with no formal journalism training. I will let my work stand (or fall) on it's own merit.

For the time that I spend traveling around the country meeting homeowners and for the time I spend editing and researching, making my website, developing software tools to help with things like transcriptions, etc I'm using my savings. Homeowners who know me will know that I go to some lengths to keep my costs down.

Soon, if I'm to keep up these efforts I will have to derive some form of income from this work. Even if that is just to break even.