Politics is no fairytale with trolls online, outside and in the Dail

Representing the public is an increasingly dangerous business. Britain has been rocked by the tragic murders of two MPs, Jo Cox and David Amess, since 2016. In a recent interview with Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, the veteran broadcaster Piers Morgan asked whether it was time to give every member of parliament a bodyguard.

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This was no piece of typical Morgan showboating but rather seemed a genuine concern for the wellbeing of public representatives in an age when politicians are easy targets.

It has become difficult for many politicians to go about their business in public. Alan Dillon, the impressive Fine Gael TD for Mayo, who has been forensic and unshowy in his questioning of RTE executives as a member of the public accounts committee, was accosted by members of Enoch Burke’s family when trying to do his shopping in a supermarket in Castlebar on Christmas Eve.

Just this week it was Roderic O’Gorman’s turn to be publicly accosted by the evangelical Christian family after addressing a debate at the University of Galway about the forthcoming referendums.

The minister for children, equality, disability, integration and youth affairs was told he was a “disgusting disgrace” and asked whether he had any respect when challenged about Burke’s continued imprisonment.

O’Gorman can of course do nothing about Burke’s imprisonment and everyone, including Burke’s family, knows that the former teacher could walk free from prison at any stage if he would only purge his contempt of court.

O’Gorman has become the political poster boy for online abuse from those who complain about everything from the government’s position on immigration to his sexuality. Wisely, he now rarely uses social media and never looks at the comments about him.

Another Fine Gael TD, Paul Kehoe, in announcing his decision not to contest the next general election stated that anonymous abuse on social media had played a part in his decision to retire from politics.

No one listening to Annie Hoey, the Labour senator, on Morning Ireland last Thursday could fail to have been moved by her resilience as she recounted the horrific online abuse she has been subjected to, particularly on Twitter/X.

Both Hoey and Kehoe called on the government to be stronger in its approach to tech giants, that are seemingly incapable of, or unwilling to do, anything about such abuse on their platforms.

And yet just last week two people who have forged impressive careers outside of politics decided to enter the political arena and face not only the gauntlet of the public in the ballot box but also the online trolls.

Last Sunday the Labour Party announced that Niamh Hourigan, who holds a senior academic position in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, would be the party’s standard bearer in the Ireland South constituency in the forthcoming election for the European parliament.

Back in 2015 Hourigan, then at UCC, wrote a very important and influential book, Rule Breakers: Why ‘Being There’ Trumps ‘Being Fair’ in Ireland. It was a searing account of the role of insider intimacy among elites and how the principle of who you know rather than what you know often guided political and administrative decisions.

Last Thursday John Mullins, former chief executive of Bord Gais, declared that he was seeking a Fine Gael nomination to also stand in Ireland South. Mullins, who grew up in the socially disadvantaged area of Knocknaheeny on the northside of Cork city, has a serious track record in both the public and private sectors.

He is a former president of the Cork Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Port of Cork board, where he built a reputation of listening to all stakeholders, from its painters and stevedores to his fellow board members, while exponentially growing the port.

The verdict must remain out on Hourigan’s and Mullins’s chances of securing a seat. Every election that Labour faces is part of its battle for survival, and Hourigan must be considered a long shot. Mullins will be trying to hold Deirdre Clune’s seat for Fine Gael but also must face ennui wearing on Fine Gael thanks to its longevity in power.

Nevertheless, both candidates are likely to bring something new to the electorate and campaign with energy and brio. In that context it is refreshing to see new blood willing to stand for office.

While politicians are rightfully critical of anonymous online trolls and it is something far more easily said than done to ignore these ignoramuses, the political class itself must take some blame for the shallowness and downright nastiness of political debate.

One only has to think of the weekly tetchiness on show in the Dail when McDonald, the Sinn Fein leader, crosses swords with Varadkar, the taoiseach, and Micheál Martin, the tanaiste.

All sorts of allegations are liable to be thrown about and without much thought. In March 2006, for instance, Michael McDowell, as tanaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats, accused Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton of being the “Dr Goebbels of propaganda” in a row over garda numbers.

In 2018, Fianna Fail’s Marc MacSharry accused the government of a “Goebbels-style launch” over its Ireland 2040 national development plan, while Labour’s Alan Kelly compared the government’s spend on adverts for the plan as “akin to something from the Third Reich, Goebbels territory”.

This is deeply odious and those who use the name Goebbels should be ashamed of themselves. At least McDowell had the good grace to apologise to Bruton the following day, after having endured what he described as a sleepless night.

The Holocaust remains the greatest crime committed by a state in living memory. The architect of selling it to the German people was the Reich propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. His is a name that shames history and stains democracies. It has no place in modern political discourse.

The online trolls can shame themselves but it is incumbent on our political class to show the way in public discourse.