WakeUpéiRe – Our Closing Statement

A Statement from WakeUpéiRe Founder and Head of Operations, Barry.

After more than four years of holding public information drops across the island of éiRe, placing our concerns directly into the hands of the Irish people through the written word, I am announcing that the volunteer-led WakeUpéiRe initiative has come to its natural conclusion.

This statement is both a reflection on the WakeUpéiRe initiative and an expression of my gratitude to the many volunteers who gave so freely of themselves over the past four years.

The initial members of WakeUpéiRe never saw their role as leading people in any sense. Rather, we saw it as facilitating and creating a space for others to step into. We believed that when people act from a place of genuine empathy and selfless intent, that sincerity naturally ripples out and is felt by those they encounter.

Throughout our work, we sought to ensure that the information we distributed was accompanied by references to published studies, official documents and source material, encouraging people to examine the information for themselves and reach their own conclusions.

As WakeUpéiRe progressed we highlighted many issues that individual volunteers wished to bring to public attention, but the overwhelming majority of our work remained focused on our concerns surrounding the mainstream COVID- 19 narrative, the resulting injections rolled out in its name and the rise in excess deaths that followed. Approximately three-quarters of the 1.25 million leaflets we produced related to those concerns.

The People Behind WakeUpéiRe

In keeping with WakeUpéiRe’s ethos of not promoting individuals, I have not named names anywhere in this statement. This is my acknowledgement and appreciation of the hundreds of volunteers who, at different stages throughout the initiative, gave their time and fulfilled the many roles that made WakeUpéiRe possible.

Over the past four years, our work extended far beyond public information drops. We brought our concerns directly to elected representatives, media organisations, public bodies and institutions, while continuing to engage with the public through respectful face-to-face conversations and the distribution of written information.

I would like to offer my immense gratitude to everyone who volunteered in their own unique way for the WakeUpéiRe initiative. Whether you attended public information drops, distributed leaflets, researched, wrote and created the resources that underpinned our work, organised events, wrote letters to the many establishment bodies we approached, supported our work behind the scenes, donated, or simply encouraged others to keep going, every contribution mattered. Together, you helped sustain the WakeUpéiRe initiative for more than four years.

The Work We Undertook

Information Drops:

It is one thing to express an opinion online from the comfort of your own home. It is quite another to quietly stand on the streets of éiRe and place that same opinion into the hands of complete strangers.

When we started in May 2022, there was only one objective: to be seen by as many people as possible, but in the public place. I was fully aware that online information of any narratives challenging the mainstream position on COVID-19 and the injections rolled out in its name was under full control of the algorithms. These were our primary concerns. Our target audience were taking the COVID injections, we were not going to reach them online, so we had to go out and meet them directly.

I had pondered some of the challenges we would encounter before we began. One of those realities was that, because of the subject matter we were covering, the number of people willing to stand publicly alongside us would inevitably be small. However, I also believed that those willing to do this work would be people of strong character, driven by genuine empathy rather than personal recognition. They would not be looking for a leader-type person, which I did not want to become.

My observations were proven to be correct. The people who attended our information drops to hand out leaflets were not driven by ego or self-promotion. At that time, WakeUpéiRe had virtually no online presence, nor were we recording our work. The vast majority of our leaflets were distributed quietly at busy road junctions and on high streets throughout éiRe without the presence of cameras.

There were no online thumbs-up, love hearts or reshares for the work undertaken by our early information drop volunteers. The bulk of this work was carried out at a time when the public’s reaction to us was often hostile. Yet we were relentless. We persevered, and we began to witness a shift in public mood directly from the front line, and that encouraged us to keep going.

I would like to express my deepest admiration to every one of our information drop volunteers who, in all weathers, travelled the country with us. You are the unknown, unsung heroes of WakeUpéiRe. Your presence alone undoubtedly helped thousands of people.

Research, Writing & Resources:

Over the course of the WakeUpéiRe initiative, we created a huge volume of practical resources. These included more than 1,200 message boards of varying sizes, several dozen banners, more than 200,000 stickers, and perhaps the most important of them all, the 1.25 million leaflets which were always the reason we went into the public place.

We didn’t casually throw words around. Every piece of written material was painstakingly assembled, with the end goal always focused on the people who encountered our work, never on those who created it.

The small team responsible for researching, writing and creating these materials were probably among the most underappreciated people within our group. I would like to thank every one of them for the thousands of hours they spent burning the midnight oil, sweating over every sentence, debating every word, and editing and re-editing our work in the hope that we could communicate our concerns as clearly and honestly as possible.

I would also like to say sorry for all the times I was a giant pain in the arse when we had to rip up days of work and go back to the drawing board because it simply wasn’t resonating in the way we had hoped.

Despite those moments, I wouldn’t change the care and attention we gave to our written work. Thank you all for your patience, your honesty, and your commitment to getting it right.

Events & Logistics:

The preparation and logistics involved in our information drops were no small undertaking. Every time we entered the public space, we brought hundreds of message boards, banners and thousands of leaflets with us. Many people spent countless hours stapling leaflets together in the days beforehand. Cars had to be loaded hours in advance before being driven, sometimes hundreds of miles, to our destination.

This is éiRe, it rains, when it did even more hours were spent drying everything out before our resources could be packed away and stored, ready for the next information drop.

We managed to host 255 public information drops, slightly more than half of which took place in the Dublin area, with the remainder held in locations throughout the island of éiRe. Throughout those four years, I kept a brief diary of every information drop to record where we went, how many volunteers attended (numbers only, never names), and to note and compare the public’s reaction to our presence as time went on.

I would like to thank everyone who undertook these practical tasks. This was the real hands-on work upon which everything else depended. These tasks were essential in giving the initiative the chance to succeed, yet they were rarely seen, rarely acknowledged, and even more rarely appreciated.

Letters & Representation to Establishment Bodies:

The first twelve months of the WakeUpéiRe initiative were focused solely on our public information drops. However, as we grew in confidence and became accustomed to working in the public space, we began bringing our concerns directly to recognised public bodies, primarily those representing the political system, the media, and the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE).

At the beginning of our second year, following the emergence of publicly accessible information indicating a notable rise in excess deaths that began in 2021, after the COVID-19 injections were rolled out, we embarked on what would become a three-year Excess Deaths Campaign.

This work required a different approach and a different skill set from our public information sharing activities. The letters we publicly read outside the headquarters of these organisations had to be thoroughly researched because they contained claims that needed to be supported by evidence. It also required a different kind of volunteer—people willing to step outside their comfort zone and speak publicly through a microphone and loudspeaker.

I would like to thank everyone who worked so diligently researching, drafting, and refining our letters to the various public bodies. I would also like to thank those volunteers who stepped outside their comfort zone to stand before a microphone and loudspeaker and publicly read those letters. Your willingness to lend your voice to the concerns shared by our other volunteers was an important part of this chapter of WakeUpéiRe’s work.

Home Leaflet Printing & Local Distribution:

Throughout the WakeUpéiRe initiative, we created 1.25 million leaflets covering different aspects of our concerns. All of our leaflets were made available to the public for local distribution in batches of 500. We only ever asked those interested to cover the cost of printing, packaging and postage. We also provided black and white PDF versions of every leaflet for those who wished to print and distribute them from home.

It is easy to oppose mainstream narratives in the digital realm from the comfort of your own home, or to host inward-facing chats and podcasts for an audience that already agrees with you. It takes real courage to present yourself and your concerns directly to the people in your own community, many of whom may be encountering this information for the very first time.

There is no personal glory in this work. Your resolve and your knowledge of the subject matter will be severely tested. You will encounter many people who are just as passionate in their belief that you are, in fact, wrong.

To everyone who took part in this type of information sharing, you have my deepest respect and thanks. I see the countless selfless hours you spent walking around your communities, placing leaflets into letterboxes and passing them into people’s hands. I see the times when you encountered hostility and anger. Most of all, I see the empathy, compassion and love you carry in your hearts for the people of éiRe that enabled you to dust yourselves down and keep going.

You are another group of unsung, unacknowledged heroes who made WakeUpéiRe so special.

Support for the Covid-19 Injection Bereaved & Injured:

Without any doubt in my mind, the toughest part of our work was when members of the public approached us to tell us of bereavement and injury caused by the COVID-19 injections. I can recall many occasions when we came home from our information drops in tears after hearing the harrowing stories people had shared with us.

As our public information drops progressed, many people who had suffered bereavement or injury volunteered with our initiative. They freely gave many hours of their time, sharing their own experiences in public in the hope that others would think twice before taking further COVID-19 injections.

Back in the summer of 2022, we pitched up outside St. Stephen’s Green every Friday evening for six months. It was there that, to the best of my knowledge, the first woman in éiRe to publicly speak out about her COVID-19 injection injury approached us and gave a live interview.

It was an injection-injured man and his partner, who had volunteered with us, that initiated our weekly information drop outside Pfizer’s headquarters in Ringsend, Dublin. That information drop continued for well over eighteen months.

It was during those information drops at Pfizer HQ that we met another man who had lost his 14-year-old daughter following the Pfizer COVID-19 injection, as well as a gentleman who had lost his wife due to complications attributed to the Pfizer injection.

During the delivery of our concerns to the HSE Head Office at St. Stephen’s Hospital in Dublin, we were joined by a woman who was no longer able to walk unaided due to the Pfizer COVID-19 injection. What struck me most that day was when she said to me:

“I am heartbroken because my young daughter is now taking on the role of her mother’s carer.”

The examples above represent only a small number of the bereaved and injured volunteers who joined us at different stages of the WakeUpéiRe initiative. In total, there were more than three dozen. These individuals brought something to WakeUpéiRe that no amount of research, statistics or reports ever could. They brought their lived experiences and shared them directly with the Irish public. That is something I do not believe can simply be dismissed.

As a result of these encounters, three of our volunteers—one of whom had been severely injured by the COVID- 19 injection began their own initiative entitled A Date for Your Diary. These informal coffee mornings provided a welcoming space where those who had suffered bereavement or injury could meet, support one another, and share their experiences.

It was only through the willingness of our volunteers to present themselves publicly that any of the above encounters could have materialised. We also produced and made publicly available several recordings of bereaved and injured people speaking about their experiences following the COVID-19 injections. Links to these recordings, along with other relevant resources, can be found at the end of this statement.

Donations:

I have very few regrets about what we were able to achieve with WakeUpéiRe, but one area where we could have done better was asking the public for financial help. For the first year, we operated entirely through the contributions of our volunteers. As the initiative grew and more volunteers became involved, wishing to highlight other issues, we had to expand our operations. It was at that point that the decision was made to ask the public for donations.

We are not corporate people, nor were we comfortable using clever marketing, persuasive fundraising techniques or shameless self-promotion to open people’s wallets. Asking for money never came naturally to us. We would exhaust every other avenue within the group before asking the public for help.

We never set up a GoFundMe or a “Buy Me a Coffee” page. Whenever we needed financial assistance, we first showed people the resources we had created and only then asked for help once the public could see exactly what their donations would be used for.

Throughout the entire WakeUpéiRe initiative, none of our volunteers received any financial reward for their time. The only contribution towards travel costs was given to the person responsible for transporting resources to the information drops. Everyone else covered their own expenses. It was not uncommon for some of us to go without life’s basic necessities in order to fund another print run of leaflets.

I estimate that around 90% of the total cost of running WakeUpéiRe was met by the volunteers themselves, with the remaining 10% coming from members of the public. I would like to sincerely thank every single person who contributed financially to the initiative. Your generosity enabled us to continue producing resources and bringing our concerns directly to communities throughout éiRe.

Since early 2023, when we first began asking the public for donations, we have kept a meticulous record of every expense. These records were shared regularly with all members of our core group through our private WhatsApp group.

Behind-The-Scenes Support

Social Media:

As I have already mentioned earlier in this statement, the digital space was never where I believed our efforts would be most effective. Given the level of censorship surrounding the issues that concerned us most, I knew our target audience was not online. They were out in the communities of éiRe, and that is where I believed our time and energy needed to be focused.

Even so, when WakeUpéiRe began, I created a Telegram channel to document our work. Although I had reservations about relying on digital platforms, I felt it gave our volunteers somewhere to see the work they had helped create and to share it with their own families and friends. It also provided a place where people who had similar concerns could find us and perhaps become involved. Looking back, I now believe the channel had outlived its usefulness, and around six months ago I made the decision to close it down.

I am not a slave to captain hindsight. I can look back honestly and acknowledge where we could have done things differently without carrying any great regret. If I were starting again, I would probably have stepped away from Telegram much sooner and invested even more of our time in face-to-face engagement with the public.

During our second year, some volunteers suggested creating a WakeUpéiRe Facebook page. I agreed, although I made it clear that I would not be involved in managing it. Through their dedication, they built a page that quickly grew to several thousand followers before Facebook eventually removed it.

During our third year, I personally opened and maintained a WakeUpéiRe account on X. Like Facebook before it, the account gained momentum before it too was eventually closed down by X.

Looking back, our experiences with social media were mixed. It undoubtedly helped some people discover WakeUpéiRe, but it never became the heart of what we did. Our work was always rooted in the real world, speaking to people face to face, one conversation and one leaflet at a time.

I would like to thank everyone who invested their time creating posts, maintaining our social media channels and helping to spread awareness of WakeUpéiRe and the issues that concerned us. I would also like to apologise that, because my own focus was almost entirely on our offline activities, I was never able to give them the support they may have deserved.

Website Development:

When we decided to establish a website, we simply did not have the skill set to get it up and running. However, as became a recurring theme throughout the WakeUpéiRe initiative, whenever we lacked the knowledge needed to complete a particular task, someone would come along with the skills to help point us in the right direction.

This was certainly the case with WakeUpéiRe.com. Although our website developer had never attempted to build a fully functioning website before, he had a good level of IT knowledge. Through countless hours of self-learning, trial and error, and three complete rebuilds before arriving at the website you see today, he created something that became an important part of the WakeUpéiRe initiative.

He was also incredibly patient and generous with his time in helping me develop my own IT skills. Before WakeUpéiRe, I had virtually no experience with computers beyond everyday use. Looking back over the last four years, I have learned skills that I never imagined I would possess.

Perhaps what impressed me most about our website developer was his character. Despite the many hours he invested, he remained completely unknown to the public, and even the vast majority of our own volunteers have no idea who he is. He was always content to quietly get on with the work, never seeking recognition or public acknowledgement. Much of that work was carried out long after midnight, fitting it around his family commitments.

For all of the time, patience and dedication he gave to building and maintaining our website, I offer him my sincere thanks.

The Time Has Come To End This Chapter

The initial issue that first brought us together was our shared belief that the mainstream narrative surrounding COVID-19 did not reflect what we believed was actually happening. Our concerns about the rollout of the COVID-19 injections gave us a common purpose, and that purpose united volunteers from many different backgrounds.

The strong bonds we forged were created through shared personal trauma. Many of the early volunteers were experiencing remarkably similar things in their own lives. Lifelong friendships were suddenly coming to an end. Family relationships, which had always been the backbone of our support networks, were breaking down. Many of us found ourselves unexpectedly isolated because of the views we held.

Looking back, it almost feels as though finding one another through WakeUpéiRe was meant to happen. At a time when many of us had lost important relationships, the initiative became far more than a place to volunteer. It became a place where people who understood one another could find friendship, support and a renewed sense of purpose.

The circumstances that brought us together also shaped the kind of initiative we became.

From the outset, WakeUpéiRe was set up in a way that rejected many of the traditional structures associated with organisations. The initial core group of volunteers wanted to remain a genuine grassroots, volunteer-led initiative, free from bureaucracy and unnecessary hierarchy. Although very few rules were put in place, one principle was clear from the very beginning: there was to be no self-promotion.

Our work was never about becoming known, building personalities or creating public figures. It was about quietly placing information into the hands of ordinary people who, because of online algorithms and the nature of modern media, may never otherwise have encountered it. This is why we never appointed official spokespeople or sought to control what individual volunteers could or could not say. There was no need to push people into the spotlight, nor did I want anyone becoming the face of WakeUpéiRe.

Perhaps the clearest example of this philosophy is that, until the publication of this statement, I have never publicly identified myself as the founder of WakeUpéiRe or as its head of operations. Throughout the initiative I consistently used the words we and us, and I declined every opportunity that i was offered to become more publicly associated as the lead WakeUpéiRe volunteer. As long as people were willing to volunteer their time, stand alongside one another, and help bring information directly to the public, I believed our objectives were being achieved.

The very structure that helped WakeUpéiRe succeed and attracted the right type of people in its early years also brought challenges as time went on. Without formally appointed spokespersons or clearly defined governance structures, more and more voices became publicly associated with WakeUpéiRe. Members of the public could understandably perceive these individuals as speaking on behalf of the initiative, even when they were expressing their own personal opinions. The lines gradually became blurred, making it increasingly difficult to ensure that WakeUpéiRe’s ethos and original intentions continued to be represented accurately.

When I honestly reflect on why and how WakeUpéiRe first came into being, accepting that an initiative like ours would one day reach its natural conclusion becomes much easier for me to understand.

When I compare the public mood today with the atmosphere that existed when we began, my overriding observation is that WakeUpéiRe is gradually becoming something that no longer truly reflects its original purpose. This is by no means an admission of failure. Rather, it is an acknowledgement that the public mood has shifted significantly, and what brought value to people then may not necessarily be bringing the same value today.

For me, the question of whether WakeUpéiRe remains effective in today’s climate is of paramount importance. Genuine grassroots, volunteer-led initiatives like ours only exist because a small number of people are willing to make extraordinary personal sacrifices for no financial reward. It is my responsibility to ask whether continuing to ask those people to give so much of themselves will bring sufficient value into the public place to justify those sacrifices.

For me, the answer is, it no longer does.

If I am being completely honest, I reached that conclusion almost a year ago. Continuing simply because we have existed for more than four years is not, in itself, a good enough reason to carry on.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The reasons why world affairs may compel people to stick their heads above the parapet and raise alarm bells are deeply personal to each individual. For me, becoming involved in something that could so easily be portrayed as activism was never something I had envisioned for myself.

If I am honest, I had never really warmed to the idea of full-time activists. My instinct was always to adapt my own life rather than try to change the wider world. If I believed something in society was fundamentally wrong and beyond my influence, I thought it made more sense to position myself and my family so that its consequences would affect us as little as possible.

As with most things I have undertaken in my life, it was only by becoming involved that I began to appreciate the nuance of the people around me. WakeUpéiRe was no different. As volunteers gradually joined us, I realised that the overwhelming majority were remarkably similar to myself. They were not seasoned activists or people looking to build public profiles. They were ordinary people who had reached a point where they simply felt they could no longer remain silent.

Another common thread that united many of us was the acceptance that the institutions we believed had misled the public were, in practical terms, beyond our ability to influence directly. Yet we also believed there was real value in presenting ourselves to ordinary people, face to face, and quietly sharing the information that had led us to our concerns. We may never have been in a position to stop the COVID-19 injections ourselves, but we could at least ensure that those we encountered had access to information that might help them make more informed decisions.

After doing what I have done over the last four years and meeting the people I have, I now have a much greater understanding of what compels some people to take on what may seem like an impossible task. The volunteers who joined WakeUpéiRe were very much cut from the minority cloth. They were ordinary people who reached a point where their concerns became greater than their fear of stepping into the public place.

As to what happens next, I can only speak for myself and make plans for my own future. However, I would be very surprised if this marked the end of public outreach work for many of the core volunteers who kept the WakeUpéiRe engine room running. They did not wait for a leader-type figure to come along and represent their concerns surrounding the COVID-19 narrative and the injections rolled out in its name.

They saw what they saw, and when a space was created for them, they quietly stepped into it. They acted not from a desire for recognition, but from a place of genuine concern and love for the people of éiRe. At a time when bringing those concerns into the public space was deeply unpopular, they found the courage to stand before their fellow citizens and speak honestly about what they believed.

I can still remember conversations during those early months when the hostility we encountered made us question whether the effort was worthwhile. What kept us going was a simple thought. If only three people out of every hundred who accepted one of our leaflets paused long enough to reconsider what they had been told, then every difficult day would be worth it.

Looking back now, I see WakeUpéiRe as a tremendous act of love carried out by a relatively small number of ordinary people who quietly gave extraordinary amounts of themselves. They asked for nothing in return, yet gave freely of their time, their energy and, in many cases, their own financial resources because they believed it was the right thing to do.

It has been a great honour to have been part of WakeUpéiRe. The people I have met over the last four years have changed me for the better. They have taught me what it truly means to place yourself in the service of others and to quietly give of yourself without expecting recognition or reward.

To every volunteer who stood beside us in the public place—whether once or a hundred times—thank you. It has been my privilege to stand alongside you.

My final hope for anyone who may feel compelled to bring their concerns into the public place is this: do not underestimate the value that ordinary people can bring when they act with genuine conviction. The goodness frequency is a real thing, and when your actions are truly for the benefit of others, all the help you need will be sent to you along the way.

For those who may be interested. After more than four years of running WakeUpéiRe and spending those years in the public place, I will shortly be launching a temporary Substack where I intend to share some personal reflections on what I have encountered on the streets of éiRe, along with my thoughts on the current landscape within the Irish opposition. I expect to begin publishing in September. You can subscribe here to receive an alert when I publish.

Barry

WakeUpéiRe is now officially closed. From this date onward no individual is authorised to represent, speak on behalf of, or act in the name of WakeUpéiRe.

Our website, WakeUpéiRe.com, will remain online as an archive of our work and as a resource for those who wish to access the material we have produced. Existing content will continue to be available, and we will continue to publish our own articles while the website remains live. However, no new activities will be organised under the WakeUpéiRe name.