A photo of someone dressed in half a white dress and half a man’s suit shows George Dunne from Drimnagh, a trans woman who has become the first person in Ireland to marry themself.
This isn’t true. The story is a joke from an Irish satirical website, and the image has been circulating online since 2013.
An image being shared widely online with a claim it shows a transgender Irish woman who has “married themself” is actually satire.
In the picture a person is standing wearing a ‘half and half’ outfit, sporting long hair and a white dress on one side of their body, and a suit, short hair and half a moustache on their right side.
The image has been circulating widely on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) with similar captions in recent days claiming it depicts an Irish trans woman.
One post on Facebook, which has been shared over 3,300 times, says: “A Dublin trans woman has married themself in what is believed to be the first marriage of its kind in the history of the state.
“George Dunne from Drimnagh said they’re proud to be the first person in Ireland to marry themself and told reporters they hope other people will now have the courage to do the same.”
But this claim originates from a satirical website—although many online are sharing it apparently believing it to be genuine.
When we look at claims that go viral on social media we cover a huge range of topics—and they include satirical claims which are shared without context, or claims which some may consider obviously false but which do not appear so to everyone, particularly more casual internet users.
The story of ‘George Dunne from Drimnagh marrying themself’ was published by satire website Ireland on Craic on 20 January this year.
The ‘about us’ section of the website states it is a “satirical website”, adding: “All our stories are made up and complete fiction, just like in other forms of comedy.
“Any mention of actual people is purely for satirical reasons. Names of fictional people are made up and if these happen to be the same names as real people, this is purely an unintentional coincidence.”
Using reverse image search tools, Full Fact found that the picture of the person included within the article has been online since 2013, although we could not find its original source.
The same image has circulated many times on social media over the years with different names and claims it depicts someone who has ‘married themself’—including a UK based satire Facebook page which said it depicted a man from York called ‘Craven Moorehead’.
Before sharing content you see on social media it’s important to consider whether what you are seeing is genuine, and the source is trustworthy. Our toolkit and guide to spotting misleading images can help you better navigate media online.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as satire because the story of Irish trans woman ‘George Dunne marrying themself’ is satire, and the image has been circulating online since 2013.
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