SCANDAL OF FG OFFICIAL’S VILE ONLINE ABUSE
Hurtful and shocking personal insults went on for several years
FINE Gael was left reeling last night after a senior party official posted a series of hurtful, highly offensive and sexist tweets that went unchecked for several years.
Barry Walsh, who sits on the party’s executive council and served as Fine Gael’s Director of Elections in Richard Bruton’s constituency at the last election, went to ground last night after it emerged he had called a number of female political figures ‘bitches’.
He had also launched shocking attacks on pro-choice campaigners, accusing one woman of killing her foetus because she ‘couldn’t be bothered’ to raise it.
The issue was brought up by Dublin Bay South Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell
THERE were references to an ‘angry young man’ on the radio yesterday in the political storm over Barry Walsh – yet the former President of Young Fine Gael is more than old enough to know better.
Far from being an ingenue, he is 32 – and has been a mover and shaker within Fine Gael for more than a decade.
Mr Walsh has plunged the party into scandal after it emerged that he had a propensity for using the word ‘bitch’ when referring to female politicians – even those on his own political side.
Fine Gael – like many political parties – is split on the Eighth Amendment and the abortion issue in general, and Mr Walsh has also shown himself to be virulently opposed to easing of the laws.
However, Mr Walsh has also demonstrated public support for the liberalisation of our laws on homosexuality, and in particular the arrival of same-sex marriage.
At the same time, he is proIsrael, pro-Trump, and a hardline conservative on a range of political and social issues – at least by reference to his expressed opinions on social media.
Mr Walsh is a frequent letterwriter to national newspapers, where his opinions range from his opposition to abortion to his views on the best way to preserve the Irish language. In one letter to the Irish Examiner newspaper, he accused a priest of running a campaign ‘against homosexual people generally’.
Another missive to the Irish Times took issue with claims made about Donald Trump’s election by prominent IrishAmerican journalist Niall O’Dowd.
A native of Mitchelstown, in Cork, Mr Walsh joined Young Fine Gael at the age of 16 before moving to Dublin in 2005.
He joined the local Fine Gael organisation, before being elected to the prominent role of President of Young Fine Gael in 2007.
He served in the position for three years. As a result of this role, he was effectively invited onto the Executive Council in 2012.
Although he is not yet a qualified solicitor, he is nonetheless employed by A& L Good body, one of Ireland’s most prestigious law firms.
Ironically, Mr Walsh is a committee member of the very party body charged with administering internal discipline. He is expected to now recuse himself.
A Fine Gael source said yesterday: ‘He has to be given due process. There may be more to this than meets the eye. He has a grievance with the Eighth Amendment Committee.’