Meath councillor says she felt unsafe after personal details shared on social media
A Meath councillor has spoken out about feeling unsafe after her home address and phone number were shared online last year following a local issue she posted about on social media.
Speaking on Meath County Council’s podcast Local Lens, Fine Gael Councillor Sarah Reilly described the darker side of social media and how it can be used to target local politicians.
The podcast returned this week with a new episode entitled “Did You Vote Yet? In Conversation with the Cathaoirleach”, featuring contributions from An Cathaoirleach Cllr Wayne Harding, Cllr Reilly, and Virgin Media political correspondent Gavan Reilly. Hosted by Elaine Keogh, the discussion included the role of social media in local democracy.
Last year, Cllr Reilly had made a post involving flags that were erected on the approach roads to Kells. After receiving calls and emails from constituents, she posted on Facebook saying she had asked Meath County Council to have them removed.
“It was a random Thursday a few months back, and I had gotten calls and texts about an issue in Kells. I just popped a post up on Facebook stating I had brought it to the attention of Meath County Council,” she said on the podcast.
Later, she returned to the post to check for errors and noticed a flood of reactions.
“There were mixed emojis, some thumbs up, an awful lot of angry faces, and many comments in the space of two minutes. I thought maybe this isn’t the platform to have this conversation, so I deleted it, and really didn’t think any more of it.”
She later discovered that a “certain” group had shared a screenshot of her original post on their page, which escalated the online attention.
“It grew legs from there,” she said.
The post was also picked up on X (formerly Twitter), where her address and phone number were shared publicly.
She added that while many comments were about her physical appearance, one post stating that “the people of Kells need to sort Sarah Reilly out” made her feel unsafe.
“I got young kids… I'm so glad neither of them have mobile phones, because if they were seeing the level of hate their mammy was getting, that would have been horrible for them.”
Despite the backlash, Cllr Reilly said she remains committed to her role.
“I’m very open to debate. I love hearing other people’s opinions… that’s the job of being a councillor. It’s listening to people. You need to be a special type of crazy doing this job, but I do love it. I love representing people in my community.”