'What you’re doing is playing with somebody’s life, destroying a reputation'

Just prior to the general election in February 2020, then Fianna Fáil TD Frank O'Rourke found out about a leaflet doing the rounds trying to discredit him. He is still fighting a court case seeking justice

Frank O'Rourke, the former Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare North brought a High Court action last November for defamation against Twitter and Facebook over the postings and tweets. Picture: Moya Nolan

Frank O'Rourke got word about the leaflet a few days after the general election in February 2020. He had known there was a campaign online to discredit him, but this brought it onto a new plane.

O’Rourke was a sitting Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare North, having been first elected in 2016. The leaflet, he was told, had been dropped through letterboxes in a housing estate the night before the election. It was typed out in large lettering on an A4 page.