CAROLINE O'DOHERTY: ‘Stallion’ using Dáil for horseplay should be put out to pasture

“Horseplay” was an unfortunate phrase for Fine Gael to use in trying to excuse the behaviour of the party’s very own venus flytrap, Tom Barry.

Notwithstanding the uncomfortable connotations about fine fillies and stallions, the notion that high jinks are somehow acceptable in the Dáil chamber is truly depressing.

Especially when the buffoonery comes at cost to a female TD who will already have had to jump far more fences than her male counterparts just for the privilege of entering the political arena.