Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan has received an abusive letter in the post which hurls insults at the Fine Gael TD.
Madigan, who served as a councillor in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown between 2014 and 2016, posted a picture of the letter to Twitter accompanied with the caption: “Apparently I’m as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike or a rubber crutch in a polio ward. Charming. Particularly the sign off. Hopefully someone will recognise the handwriting. Do RT.”
The letter is handwritten and addressed to Deputy Madigan’s office at Leinster House.
Among the invectives include: “U Brazen B****” and “U f****** g****g – somebody should redden ur a******* with a few good kicks.”
“So, u have nothing to say! That’s not like u! What about getting up on an altar and saying a few prayers – as is your want?” the letter begins.
“A pity Dermot Mahony didn’t give you a belt of his crozier and put f****** manners on U!” it continued.
Dermot O’Mahony was an auxiliary bishop in Dublin between 1975 and 1996. He was strongly criticised in the Murphy Commission for his handling of child sex abuse claims made against members of the clergy.
He died in 2015 at 80 years of age.
“I think by tweeting the letter, the Minister just wanted to highlight the abuse that some public representatives are subjected to on occasions,” said a spokesperson for Minister Madigan.
“Thankfully it doesn’t happen too often but it can nasty sometimes when it does. As Benjamin Disraeli once said ‘How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.’”
