Ed O’Brien commemoration cancelled as Sinn Féin allege ‘significant online abuse’
THURSDAY marked 25 years since IRA volunteer Ed O’Brien from Gorey died after a bomb he was carrying exploded prematurely in Aldwych, in the West End of central London. O’Brien was killed instantly and seven people were injured. Last week a planned commemoration, promoted by Sinn Féin Loch Garman, was pulled at the final hour in the face of national media scrutiny and what the party said was ‘significant online abuse targeting the family’.
While Sinn Féin councillor Tom Forde last week clarified his position in relation to the sharing on social media of a commemorative plaque for the IRA bomber, he stated that it was a personal gift from the O’Brien family and that there was nothing political about it.
No sooner had the story gone to print, however, than Sinn Féin Loch Garman shared details of the Ed O’Brien commemoration, due to take place on Saturday night. With Cllr Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin sharing the information, the Gorey councillor came to national attention and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar even took Sinn Féin TD Johnny Mythen to task in the Dáil over the commemoration, branding it ‘deeply offensive’ and calling on Sinn Féin to ‘disassociate itself from the commemoration’.
A short time later, it was announced that the online commemoration had been cancelled at the family’s request. A statement issued by Sinn Féin Loch Garman said: ‘The Edward O’Brien online commemoration, which was organised by Ed’s father Miley and supported by Sinn Féin, has been cancelled at the request of the family, due to significant online abuse targeting the family.’
It caused some confusion, as there was no mention of it being a family event on the poster, which bore the Sinn Féin logo.
‘Some people in the party helped to put it together and were helping with technical things,’ said Cllr Ó Súilleabháin. ‘We would have been working with the family on it, but it was their idea. Just like the plaque was personally made by the family before being turned into a political football.’
Councillors Forde and Ó Súilleabháin found themselves being singled out by faceless Twitter accounts during the week, accusing them of ‘radicalising children’ in their roles as teachers, but Cllr Ó Súilleabháin did not wish to get into the exact nature of the abuse targeted at the O’Brien family.
‘It was just awful, a lot of the comments online,’ he said. ‘It was unrepeatable stuff. I didn’t even want to draw the families attention to it.’
The Wexford Sinn Féin reps say that they have been the victims of prolonged online abuse, which has now come to a head following the coverage received by the Ed O’Brien commemoration.
‘There’s been a 12-month long, highly organised campaign of online bullying, abuse and targeting directed against me from a locally-based political gang, which began following last February’s election,’ he said. ‘Clearly organised by someone with a serious political vendetta, it has intensified the longer I have refused to respond to their online abuse, and it culminated in several pieces of character assassination this week in both print and online media.’
Cllr Ó Súilleabháin quickly found his photo being used online and in print in national newspapers around the country.
‘My sharing of the event ad as the local Sinn Féin representative resulted in an immediate national media pile-on,’ he said. ‘One of these articles used a 6 year-old photo of me with darkened glasses, obviously found on Google images, and was accompanied by a highly vitriolic, agenda-driven article, with several inaccuracies, and juxtaposed the words ‘teacher, grooming, children, Donald Trump, Daniel Kinahan and ISIS!’
The Gorey councillor acknowledges that the circumstances of O’Brien’s death is an extremely emotive issue.
‘I always try to see other people’s point of view,’ he said. ‘I totally understand people being hurt by an emotive issue in terms of recent conflict in general. I would always try to put myself in other people’s shoes.
What I don’t accept is other people feigning concern on this to further a particular political agenda.’