Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When women came in at the beginning of this Dáil session, a query came in fromThe Irish Times asking us to discuss what abuse we had been subject to. I answered the questions and recall including in it a reference to my very first Facebook post. Somebody had said to me that posts on Facebook could be boosted. I had never done so before so I innocently did a boost. It was very simple. I was running a public meeting on cybersafety and took a photograph of myself under my poster, which in itself is a very scary thing to do the first time your poster is up. I put the photograph on social media and got rape threats and everything like that. I recall that.

When the article was published in The Irish Times- the journalist rang me and did it - gardaí in Terenure rang me to ask why I had not contacted them about the abuse. I told them it was because I took it as par for the course in politics. The gardaí said to never do the slightest thing like that again but talk to them. They may not be able to do anything but at least I would know they were there. There have been instances since, including letters hand-delivered to the Houses of the Oireachtas that I have had to bring to the attention of the Garda. The team in Leinster House has been fantastic and very supportive, as have my local gardaí. Maybe it is a confidence thing, but in the beginning I thought I just had to endure this, whereas I have now reached the stage where I will not tolerate this. I have a right to be here and I will not take this kind of threat. It is something we need to constantly call out and support each other in.