Women of Dublin Central by-election call out 'disgusting' online hate speech
Putting your face on an election poster shouldn’t mean opening yourself up to hate and ridicule, but that’s exactly what happened to some during the Dublin Central by-election.
Speaking with Dublin Live, Sinn Féin candidate Councillor Janice Boylan outlined the horrid online hate campaign she was subjected to throughout the election. Feeling the need to speak out, not just for herself but for any young women thinking of entering politics, she wants to expose the brutal realities female candidates face during their campaigns and refuses to allow faceless trolls to decide who gets a seat at the table.
“There was a social media page set up of people talking about how I looked, how I sounded, my hair, my skin, and makeup references,” she said. With online platforms littered with misogynistic backlash, Cllr Boylan did not even realise at first that those comparing her to Eastenders’ Patsy Palmer were being derogatory about her appearance.
“I thought it was a compliment,” she joked. “She’s a stunning woman with a working-class accent, so I was actually quite impressed they made that connection.”
But the consistent abuse took its toll, and although she remained strong throughout the campaign, she said it’s difficult not to allow these things to get to you. “In elections they try to target women first and foremost because they expect us to be some kind of weaker person,” Cllr Boylan said.
The unfortunate result of this is that some women who would have had political ambitions shy away from public roles because of "disgusting" rhetoric they have to deal with online. Cllr Boylan believes the trolls saw her as a threat, but rather than shy away from it, she wants to speak out.
The Dublin Central by-election had 14 candidates in total , and just three of them were women. In an age of supposed gender equality, politics remains an incredibly male-dominated sphere with women making up 25% of TDs in Dáil Éireann despite making up just over 50% of the Irish population.
This lack of representation reflects a need for more women in politics, but when these voices are being consistently derided and abused it’s not always easy to put oneself forward. One politician who knows this better than most is Green Party Cllr Janet Horner , who ran for Dublin Central despite being physically assaulted by a man while out canvassing during the 2024 local elections.
Having become so desensitised to online abuse, Cllr Horner told Dublin Live she didn’t even fully comprehend the seriousness of what had happened to her when a man lunged at her and threatened to kill her while she was hanging election posters. “I'd been so used to a level of hostility towards me, I didn't even notice at the time that actually a significant line had been crossed,” she said.
For years, the standard advice given to women entering public life is to grow a thick skin. But Cllr Horner sees this as deeply flawed, as it shifts the blame onto the target rather than force societal change.
“You shouldn't have to have skin as tough as a rhino to get involved in politics,” she said. “The system should be made safe.”
“There's a lot of emphasis on training women in politics to be super tough, but it should be possible for people to enter politics and for it to feel survivable and be protected from that commentary.”
While there’s a lot that needs to change according to Cllr Horner, some strides have been made in recent years. Back in 2024, Cllr Horner said she felt no choice but to actively use X ( Twitter ), as it had the largest reach of any social media platform.
A lack of oversight, an overabundance of bots, and the questionable politics of X owner Elon Musk made this platform a less than hospitable place for female politicians. “The Twitter trolls and the bots and everything else had just turned completely toxic,” she said.
The free-for-all nature of X saw a kind of lowest common denominator type of hate speech prevail, and Cllr Horner said her replies would often be filled with hundreds of people saying “you're a joke and you're ridiculous and you don't belong and you shouldn't be representing us”. "People who would have otherwise commented positively or asked questions or started conversation in a constructive way stopped engaging with me because my Twitter had become so toxic because of the amount of abuse," she revealed.
Now that huge swathes of politicians and even Dublin City Council have abandoned the platform , it no longer holds the same political sway, and Cllr Horner felt comfortable abandoning it during this campaign. While trolling and hate speech is still a problem on other platforms, she said the difference is noticeable now that X is no longer in the picture for her.
The physical danger that Cllr Horner felt in 2024 highlights there are reasons to be concerned when canvassing as a woman, minority and even a man. But all the female candidates agreed that the difference during interactions online and in-person is, for the most part, like night and day.
The Labour Party’s Ruth O’Dea was a first-time candidate in the Dublin Central by-election, although as a staff member in Deputy Marie Sherlock’s constituency office and with 11 years’ experience in Women’s Aid she’s no stranger to issues of equality. Ms O’Dea told Dublin Live that her campaign was mostly focused on door-to-door interactions and she felt relatively sheltered from the online abuse so many face.
Canvassing door-to-door was a positive experience for Ms O’Dea, who said that even when people were angry or upset about certain issues, they mostly handled them in a respectful way. “The interaction with people face-to-face is something that we're lucky that we still have in our political system,” she said.
However, Ms O'Dea has noticed a darker, more aggressive atmosphere creeping into public spaces in recent years and said since the pandemic there’s been a coarseness to some situations. She said she had a positive experience on the doors, but out on the street can be aggressive as passers-by shout at canvassers.
This is a problem that women face, but Ms O’Dea explained it stretches beyond this to all minorities as homophobia and racial bigotry have become more pronounced. She cited the abuse faced by her fellow Labour candidate for Galway West Helen Ogbu, who came to Ireland from Nigeria as a refugee and made history as the first African woman to be elected to Galway City Council in 2024.
Cllr Ogbu’s status as an African woman saw her face both misogyny and racial abuse online. Ms O’Dea said the intersection of these two identities made her colleague particularly prone to online hate speech. Ms O’Dea said it’s disappointing to see that the positivity and inclusivity that felt so prominent during the the same-sex marriage referendum in 2015 has “soured a bit”.
When it comes to tracking the source of abuse faced not just by women but by all those in public life who have to put up with uncalled for maltreatment, all three candidates point to the systemic failure of social media platforms to regulate themselves. Cllr Boylan recalled the frustration of attempting to flag abusive content, only to be met with a shrug from moderators.
“We have had situations where we’ve actively got lots of people to report this type of negative activity online, only for social media platforms to come back and say there were no community standards breached,” she said.
“That has to stop. Aggression, misogynistic, racial abuse, anything like that - if it’s being done on that high of a level, it has to stop. People need to be held responsible, you can’t just be a faceless troll on social media and think your words don’t affect people.”
Cllr Horner agrees that the onus of safety has been unfairly dumped on the victims of abuse, rather than the multi-billion euro companies who allow it to prevail. “The idea that it's increasingly on the individual impacted to keep themselves safe, as opposed to on the system to provide a safe environment, that's the bit that frustrates me endlessly,” she said.
“It shouldn't be up to us every time to have to moderate everything ourselves. The regulatory bodies are very limited because all they can do is tell you how to navigate toxic, hate-filled, horrible stuff.”
For Ms O’Dea, the dangerous reality of unregulated algorithms is that they begin to feed into real life situations and promote the radicalisation of everyday people. As hateful rhetoric spills into everyday life, the safety of all marginalised people is increasingly at risk.
“The online stuff is feeding it. The misinformation online pops up then in everyday interactions. This milieu of online stuff is fueling and amplifying hate.”
Despite ideological differences across political parties, it’s clear from speaking to these women that online, and even in-person, abuse is something universally experienced within the politically fraught landscape of today. While Cllr Horner said she often tries to stay out of comment sections for her own mental health, fellow councillors will often reach out to each other to check in if they notice vile, hurtful, or radically charged online spaces.
It can be an isolating career, but Cllr Horner said she’s determined not to give the trolls the satisfaction of stepping away. She said there’s a real fear that passionate and politically engaged young women will rule themselves out before even getting involved, because the price to be paid in public commentary is too high.
Similarly, Cllr Boylan said there’s a desperate need for more women in all aspects of public life and that their input is needed to shape policy and society. “I always say men are fabulous, but women are better,” she joked.
Cllr Boylan called for the commencement of Part 5 of the Electoral Reform Act, which combats disinformation, manipulation, and inauthentic behaviour during elections and referendums. This would provide a stricter legal framework to pursue those who spew hateful and false information online.
Ms O’Dea agreed that real change comes from everyone being represented in the room, and that those who fear the abusive consequences of a life in politics will also find a strong sense of community and support within their chosen political party. “Just being involved in your local constituency is an empowering thing,” she said.
For Cllr Horner, the final takeaway for any young woman interested in politics today is to remember that the internet is a distorted mirror of Irish society. “The message for people thinking about politics has to be that the online narrative doesn't represent how people are in real life,” she said.
“When you actually meet them face-to-face, people are much more decent. The internet needs to become a safer space, but we cannot confuse freedom of speech with relentless abuse.”
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme