On last week’s Podcast 222, Johnny B told the story of his being hunted by cats! Fans got a taste of this tale of lies and intrigue at The 2 Johnnies’ live show at the 3Arena at the end of April, where Johnny B gave a backdrop to “GAA Catfish” with a photo. This week, the boys will delve deeper into this story of frenzy and uncover the multiple fake accounts that helped spread a web of lies across the four countries. They will also speak with Certified Occupational Psychologist Louise Carroll, who will explain why one person would go to such great efforts to catfish and cheat another person.
Initially, Johnny B was connected via Instagram, and spent weeks chatting with Limerick’s “Cora O’Donovan”, exchanging voice notes and talking well into the night. Her profile was filled with posts, her dance videos, and Instagram stories – with over 15k followers, she had to be real. Except she is not. Despite making multiple efforts to meet up, Johnny B is met with excuse after excuse and ends up meeting and hanging out with Cora’s friend “Nikki”! Nikki is a real person of flesh and blood – she claims her boyfriend is a well-known GAA football player – and Nikki is who the boys suspect is behind the fake accounts.
The night after the 3Arena show, the boys got a few messages from a guy named “Muireann” explaining that she was on the 3Arena show and were shocked to find out that her photos had been used on Cora O’Donovan’s Instagram account. She was playing the detective herself and in just 24 hours, she found out who is managing the account and made a Zoom call to these girls. I also discovered that the videos on the account actually belong to an American dancer named Madison Cubbage. Madison is completely innocent of all this and had no idea her photos would be used in this regard. The boys and the podcast team spent weeks searching for the owner of the images trying everything from reverse image searches to Smacks who paid €79 on an image search app, all to no avail. There can only be one solution: Muireann is another fake account operated by Nicki. Once Johnny B realizes it’s a fake account blocking ‘Cora O’Donovan’ on all his social media and WhatsApp, that doesn’t stop her from posting fake pictures of them together on Instagram (see attached picture), of course Johnny B has no The idea that they do this until the screen is sent.
The podcast will take you through the ups and downs of this smug scam story, as the team discovers multiple accounts run by Nicki. One such novel is Emma McCarron who has been sought after by many GAA players. The boys receive a series of emails from Lauren Murphy – who is trying to prove her identity through a fake passport photo – and Laura Lou has all admitted to playing a role in Catfish. All fake!
Since the catfish was revealed, the pair have received a slew of emails and phone calls from GAA players and well-known media personalities who have all fallen victim to the same catfish. In each case the story was similar but equally crazy! Excuses for not punctuality ranged from car accidents to people dying and even falling into a diabetic coma!
“At this time all roads lead to Nikki. We have strong evidence that Cora O’Donovan, Emma McCarron, Derblahla O’Donovan, Hannah Ferguson, Lauren Murphy, Laura Lou, Nia, Derbla Connolly and Shannon Boyle are all Instagram accounts run by Nick. These accounts have been used in the stalking of at least 40 A man we know from all four counties. said Johnny B.
Announcement – Continue reading below
