Online abuse of politicians grows increasingly sustained and vicious 

Labour senator Annie Hoey received online criticism about her appearance  Picture: Collins Courts

Politicians from across the political spectrum say the online abuse they are receiving is becoming more personalised, more vicious and more sustained.

While all politicians stress they are by no means the most targeted group online, the comments range from personal abuse about their appearance or religion to messages about family members. Earlier this week, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told the Fine Gael parliamentary party that his tweets attract around 10% homophobic replies and another 10% racist.

Many politicians say that the level of abuse they receive means that they either engage less or not at all on social media, making their streams merely political broadcasts.

In one case, Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond received an Instagram message which read: "I hope your child gets autism." 

Mr Richmond said the abuse does not happen between public representatives necessarily. 

"It’s not the Trump style of attacking an opponent, but there are individuals who are vicious, both anonymous and not. With the Instagram message, aside from not making any sense, the person was identifiable — it was an 18-year-old boy."

Mr Richmond is a member of the Church of Ireland and is outspoken on Brexit. He says that while some of the abuse he receives comes from Brexiteers, much of it questions his Irishness and mocks his religion.

"I get called a West Brit a lot. For someone like me from a minority religion, that kind of stuff leads from the mocking stuff like Lord Rugby of Kingstown, leads to West Brit, which leads to Orange Bastard and that’s the path. It seems to be fair game, but it is sectarian."

Labour senator Annie Hoey recently posted to criticise the leaking of thousands of images of Irish women on a Discord server. In response, there were scores of comments about her appearance.

"I’ve had comments before but that was shocking. I think people were a little shocked by the stream of comments about my appearance. Brendan Howlin did the same video and the comments were all “good on you” but mine were a lot about how I looked."

Ms Hoey says that she is not sure of a solution other than users "being less rude and a bit more sound".

Social Democrat TD Holly Cairns, who in recent days was called "an ignorant little girl" by an Irish Greyhound Board board member, said the abuse is "an unfortunate part of political life" to which she doesn't take personal offence. Green Party TD Patrick Costello said he believes that the platforms have always been breeding grounds for abuse.

"I’ve always found Twitter to be a place of personal attacks. Maybe it is the character limit. Is 280 enough to do a valid critique or are you just going to call someone a name?"