Racism in Sport
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Patrick O'Donovan (FG), Limerick County

I agree with the Deputy. To be honest, unfortunately, it is not isolated to one cohort in society. People in this House get their fair share of it as well and it is totally unwarranted. Whether a person is in Opposition or Government, there is a common thread that unites all of us who put our name on a ballot paper and get in here. The abuse some people get, particularly women Members of this House and the other House, is absolutely unbelievable. These nameless and faceless trolls hide behind makey-uppy names and invariably have a flag of some description stuck on after them. They besmirch our national flag and invariably bring it into disrepute.
Those people, if they stood for election to a bin collection committee, would not get elected. They are very brave men and women who hide behind faceless troll accounts and fake names. They think they are really brave men because they are ganging up on people who actually have done the State some service by putting their names on a ballot paper, regardless of what party or no party gets in here. The same can be said of sport. Any co-operation and suggestions members of the Opposition have on this are welcome. Going back to the previous question, I will take every bit of it on board because collectively, we have to get serious and get real on this. None of these people are any of our friends, by the way. Some people or some political parties might benefit occasionally from trolling but none of them are any of our friends.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-03