A minister is limiting her public appearances after a bag of excrement was thrown at her last month.
Minister of State for Disabilities Anne Rabbitte and Fine Gael TD Ciaran Cannon had cow dung hurled at them while they attended a public meeting in Co Galway last month.
She said the shocking incident left her querying why she was in politics.
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Ms Rabbitte also spoke about the “relentless” online abuse suffered by female politicians after they make media appearances.
She told RTE’s This Week: “I was mortified beyond belief. It was, how do you react? I am a public figure, I have to behave in a particular way. I just wished the ground could have opened and swallowed me.
“Last Thursday was the first bit of TV I’ve done since.”
“It is continuous, it is relentless and it is tiring.
“The criticism about how you look, your weight, how you dress, how you speak. It is never about the issue.
“When men get abuse, they get abuse on facts.
“When a female gets abuse it is about their looks, appearance, how they speak, how they conduct themselves.”
Asked if she had curtailed public appearances since the horrific assault, Ms Rabbitte said: “Absolutely. I want to focus on the job at hand. I don’t want to be derailed. I want to stay clear-visioned in my thinking process of what is expected of me and so by curtailing public pieces.
“You are always looking over your shoulder and you shouldn’t have to.
“In the past I wouldn’t have given a second thought, but since January I plan my moves and I don’t do anything off the cuff anymore.
“I have reduced radio and TV as well. On that night in January there were moments when I queried why I do this.
“That is the first time in my politics I doubted myself.” Labour leader Ivana Bacik is among a group of female TDs who will meet the Dail speaker this week to discuss female security.
She said: “It does illustrate starkly the reality endured by many public representatives.
“This had a dreadful impact on her but this is relentless. It happens every time there is a media appearance.
“All of us, particularly women in politics, we are subjected to this.”
Farmer Joseph Baldwin admitted throwing the dung in protest at plans to build a biogas plant in the city but has refused to apologise.
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