*Cathal Crowe and Micheál Martin.
CLARE TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) has said he has not witnessed bullying within political circles but that he has had to contact Gardaí after he was threatened at a constituency clinic.
Female politicians in Ireland over recent months have highlighted the abuse they have suffered both verbally and from social media while others including Holly Cairns (SD) have shared stories of how the public have been intimidating by visiting her home in Cork.
It has been cited as one of the barriers to encouraging more women to enter politics in this country.
Matters between politicians is generally cordial, Deputy Crowe admitted. “I generally find most people in political office when they engage with each other that they are robust but very respectful, that would be how I would get on with the six other Oireachtas members in Clare, there would be many things that we would disagree on times and clash swords on but I’m glad to say that they would all be on my Christmas card list, I would have respect for anyone in elected office no matter what party they are from and yet I engage in robust debate and they do too, I think it’s perhaps akin to a courtroom at times where you give it everything when you’re trying to represent a county or a group of people for an issue and yet it is a job, behind every politician is a human and I would have the utmost respect for others in the game”.
He told The Clare Echo he has filed complaints with Gardaí following one constituency clinic but would not divulge the location of this incident. “I think social media is a way that has set us up more for online abuse, I would receive a fair bit of online abuse, some in-person as well, I have called the Gardaí on a number of occasions, for instance one was at a clinic I held in the county where a man who I subsequently found out was recording me, he threatened me and I would have reported him to the Guards, I don’t want to say anymore on that. I would have also made a speech in the Dáil some months ago where afterwards it drew harassment from some people online and I would have reported one of those instances to the guards”.
During the early days of his political career at the time of his election to Clare County Council in 2004, the Meelick native said he suffered “reverse ageism”.
Crowe said he was not concerned with the age profile of Fianna Fáil’s councillors in the county. “I don’t think age matters too much. When I began as a councillor I was 21, there was reverse ageism because people said I hadn’t enough life experience to properly represent people, I think I’ve proved people wrong. There’s two elements to ageism, people seen as too young are viewed as not being able to go in and do a proper job whereas people seen as too old are sometimes cast aside as being too long in the tooth, I don’t think either is the case.
“The best way is when we’re selecting candidates for the next local election, we should run all of our councillors again who want to run, I think they are doing a great job and I think strategically we need to look at geographical areas where we have nobody, we need to get more females in and I would like to see more younger people going in but it’s not to displace anyone, it’s to augment our ticket”.
