ALMOST WITHOUT EXCEPTION, if you are a politician in 2026, you will have some sort of a presence on social media.

Posting videos and engaging with constituents on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, or X has become part of the job in a way that knocking on doors and old-school canvassing have long been.

For outside observers, the abuse that elected representatives get online can also be seen as almost part and parcel of the role, but some Irish politicians are keen to stress that this should not be the case.

In recent weeks, there’s been a noticeable shift in the content Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora Neale Richmond shares on social media. 

Alongside his usual content about his day-to-day work, the Dublin Rathdown TD for Fine Gael has been screenshotting rude and abusive comments made in relation to him and sharing them with jokes on his Instagram story (with the individual user’s names attached).

Richmond told The Journal that he has started to highlight some of the more “out there” comments, partly for his own amusement and partly to show the sort of comments politicians receive every day.

“Maybe it’ll embarrass a few people, maybe it’ll give people cause to think before posting a needless or nasty comment; maybe it’ll just keep me sane.”

“A few years ago, I would have regularly pushed back & exposed some of the online abuse, especially on Twitter, as it was, but when it started to get a bit more sinister, I just turned off replies.

“After a while, I turned them back on and couldn’t believe the ridiculousness of the comments, especially on Facebook,” Richmond said.

Richmond isn’t alone in taking this approach.

Green Party councillor for Dublin South West Inner City, Michael Pidgeon, has long engaged directly with hateful, cruel and insulting comments, often posting videos of himself directly responding to them.

“You get some comments that are just terrible, and in some ways, you don’t want to platform them, but in other ways, I see some of the comments as quite helpful, not necessarily the abusive ones, but ones which are oppositional. Sometimes they can be a useful springboard for stating your values,” Pidgeon said. 

“When you see nastiness online, the tendency is to switch to just going broadcast. So you just put out your message, you fire and forget, and that’s it. But sometimes, and this is easier for me as a man, you can actually still engage, and some of the ‘analysis’ can be useful as a springboard to push back.”

Similarly, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore recently made headlines after she posted a video of herself phoning a man who left a nasty comment about her appearance on one of her posts. 

This was the first time Whitmore had filmed herself confronting one of the trolls, but she told The Journal that her approach has long been to call them out, where and when she feels like it. 

“I have pushed back online, particularly on Facebook, because Facebook is a lot more local…You’d see that you have friends in common and stuff, and because it was so local, it felt a lot more personal,” Whitmore said.

Jennifer Whitmore TD Alamy Alamy

The Wicklow TD said often times when she replies to a person who leaves a nasty comment, they will privately message her to apologise and say they have been having a “really bad day”. 

“That’s the reason I sort of push back publicly as well, because I want people to see that it’s a very small minority of people who are saying awful things, but they seem very loud.”

There are certain issues in particular where the abuse skyrockets. 

Immigration, women’s health, and animal welfare are three areas where Whitmore sees the most negative engagement on her posts.

“Sometimes it does get in on you, and it can certainly, if it’s local people, be more hurtful,” Whitmore said. 

Part of her reason for choosing to call it out is that Whitmore said she realises can deter people from putting themselves out there and getting involved in politics. 

“I’m really worried about it, because the people who are doing this consciously, they have no regard for women. I imagine they have no regard for minorities. They don’t want women and minorities, or people with disabilities, in positions of decision-making.

“They want to create an environment where people can’t be represented fully. Where women are afraid to get into politics, where people, minorities, are afraid to get into politics, that’s what they want.”

Whitmore wants to make sure that the online abuse doesn’t put decent people off getting involved in politics or putting themselves forward for an election. 

“It does happen, but actually, 99% of my interactions with people are fabulous. And I think that’s really important to say, because I could go downtown and I would literally have people stopping me on the street and saying, ‘Thank you for the work you’re doing’.

“So the majority of interactions I have are fabulous. The really awful ones are from people I wouldn’t give, and I try not to give two thoughts to,” Whitmore said.