Supporters of same-sex marriage have launched an orchestrated hate campaign against a prominent Fine Gael TD in the run up to Friday's General Election.
Lucinda Creighton (pictured), who represents Dublin South East, has had her official Facebook page taken over by a range of commenters who have attacked her for stating her opposition to same-sex marriage.
Comments describing Ms Creighton as a "disgusting human being,” "a homophobic idiot" and "a disgrace of a woman" have been posted on her page.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” wrote one contributor to her page.
On Wednesday, she told the Evening Herald paper that she believes a person involved with a rival political party even posted her personal mobile number online.
"It's pretty vicious. I started getting text messages and calls from anonymous numbers last night," she confirmed.
"I've no problem having a discussion but this nastiness has evolved from people who want to whip it up," she said.
The attacks started after the Dublin South East candidate and Fine Gael's spokesperson on equality revealed that she does not support same-sex marriage.
"I supported the Civil Partnership Bill fully, I don't support gay marriage," she said on Twitter, adding that marriage "is primarily about children.”
Another wrote, "You and your party are a joke and you should be ashamed of yourself, you made an absolute fool of yourself on twitter.”
"You should be sacked for gross misconduct."
Ms Creighton told the Herald that she decided not to censor the comments or remove them from her Facebook page so that ordinary people can see the extent of the abuse.
"There's no point trying to censor it. It's an orchestrated campaign. It's better to let people see the venom and nastiness that people engage in," she said.
Supporters of the TD, who is engaged to a Fine Gael senator, have hit back with several arguing that a dirty tricks campaign was underway.
"Lucinda - fair play to you for actually having a spine to speak your opinion. Some of these comments refer to us living in archaic times. Hypocrisy. Apparently no body is allowed express an opinion in this country any more," said one reply.
Another said, "If the people who have abused her below believe what was said about her, then they should check the facts out. It was a case of negative politics coming from another election candidate in DSE. Shame on THEM!"
During the Dáil debate on the civil partnership last year, Ms Creighton spoke strongly of her support for the Bill. She is on the Dáil record as saying: "We are all well acquainted with gay couples and individuals who, like all members of society, live normal lives. They are no different from anybody else and are in most cases accepted and embraced in their communities, local environments and by their families.”
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