ABUSE allegations have been made against a senior Irish politician.
First-time TD Kate O’ Connell has written to the bosses of the Fine Gael political party alleging that she has been subjected to online abuse by a fellow party member.
O’ Connell has named the abuser as senior party figure Barry Walsh.
According to the Dublin Bay South representative, the abusive activity directed at her came from Mr. Walsh’s Twitter account, and O’ Connell now wants to raise awareness of the online conduct of her fellow Fine Gael member.
O’ Connell went as far as to print out the social media posts in question and passed them around at last night’s party meeting.
According to a source, “Kate stood up at the end of the meeting to raise the issue of online abuse. She asked colleagues for their support and handed out screengrabs of posts.”
Ms. O’ Connell claims that on the Twitter account of the Vice Chair of the Fine Gael Executive Council, there are a number of derogatory tweets about her and other female politicians, referring to Mary Lou McDonald and Roisin Shortall as b******.
The abuse is said to have begun following a debate on the Eighth Amendment at the party’s national conference last weekend, after which Mr. Walsh took to Twitter to claim that Ms. O’ Connell exclaimed: “Look at all them men, discussing our uteruses!”
Mr. Walsh, who is pro-life, has also had a Twitter spat with comedian and Repeal the Eighth campaigner Tara Flynn in recent days, questioning why she is regarded as a “feminist hero”.
Another tweet which was contained in Ms O’ Connell’s dossier, Mr. Walsh referred to Sinn Fein’s deputy leader as a “stupid bitch.”
When talking about the Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall, the tweet says: “The hypocrisy of this b****!”.
Kate O’ Connell has written a formal letter of complaint to the Fine Gael’s General Secretary Tom Curran.
