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YOUNG FINE GAEL has said it hopes a tweet about killing a child, aimed at a Sinn Féin councillor, did not cause offence.
The now-deleted tweet was sent late on Friday night after Sinn Féin councillor Sarah Holland tweeted criticism of the Late Late Show interview with Health Minister Leo Varadkar.
In response to one of her critical tweets, the official Twitter account of Fine Gael’s youth wing said:
Sure why don’t we all join the populist movement. Where’s that child I killed?
The tweet was deleted a short time later, but Holland’s screengrabbed it and tweeted it herself, asking who was behind it and seeking an apology.
Holland, a mother-of-one who is running for the Dáil in Dublin-South West, said the tweet was “hurtful and offensive” as it tried to associate her with the murder and violence of the Troubles.
She told TheJournal.ie:
It’s kind of upsetting but Young Fine Gael have form for that and to be honest I would not try and judge them too harshly because they are teenagers and people in their 20s.
She added: “It’s hard to reconcile being associated with violence and murder when you are someone who is anti-violent.
“What I presume they were doing was associating me with violence and murder, that association that Sinn Féin had as the political wing of the IRA. But I joined Sinn Féin after the IRA ceasefire, from a community-based background.”
Young Fine Gael declined to offer an apology when approached today. A spokesperson said:
The tweet came to our attention this morning, Monday. It was sent in error from the YFG Twitter account & it was deleted immediately. We hope no offence was caused.
They would not answer questions about who sent the tweet and whether any action was taken against the person who did.
More-or-less the same wording was tweeted at Holland this afternoon after TheJournal.ie raised the issue with YFG:
Holland admitted that this was not an apology but said it was probably the best she would get.
“I meet these kids face-to-face now and again and they’re okay, they’re teenagers. They don’t seem to realise that these things are really hurtful. They’ll learn as they get older,” she added.
A spokesperson for Fine Gael said: “Young Fine Gael (YFG), the youth branch of the Fine Gael party, is an autonomous organisation which maintains its independence from the Fine Gael Party. Fine Gael has no control over the YFG Twitter account.”
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Lack of accountability again …. just like daddy.
Lack of accountability – Full Stop.
Daddy is accountable, especially when he’s a partner in KPMG! :D
Fair play to her for being mature enough to recognise it was probably an offensive comment from some snot-nosed teenager.
Fair play to her also for admitting that SF is the political wing of the Provisional IRA.
She’s given a lesson in maturity and honesty we all could follow.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a bush for decades they have always stayed they were the political wing.
Diarmuid, how do you feel about the Labour party’s quite recent links to OIRA murderes and counterfitters?
Well maybe the snotty nose teenager shouldn’t be able to post on behalf of YFG. He/she was mature enough to try and cover their tracks. Late at night as well.
Maybe a bit of courtesy and good manners would be a start. Reflective of the group I wonder?
These are the future of FG? Sorry but no thanks morons!
so you mean the ones in the 70s or last week’s?
Young Fine Gael aka Hitler Youth.
No offense.
The offensive thing here is YFG clamouring to use the victims of conflict to attempt scoring perceived party political points, they have Learnt well from their daddies in FG alongside DUP TUV et al.
The apple never falls far from the tree.
she said she joined up after IRA declared a ceasefire, acknowledging that both orgs were the same
The victims of the conflict would not receive a second thought from YFG if Sinn Fein were at circa 2% in the Opinion Pollls and not circa 20%…cynical in the extreme
Lead by example id say ! the young blue shirts have Frank Feighn as a suitable mentor, remember his rough handling of a very old man as he approached Enda.
Yfg are fascists end of
Young fine gael are just like old fine gael, No principals…. GURRIERS
“They would not answer questions about who sent the tweet and whether any action was taken against the person who did.”
As if that would happen…
More like fast tracked up the ranks, for showing sociopathic narcissism, a “quality” highly revered by today s EPP / EU Corpo fascists… Looting our country as they go, for a cut of the proceeds of course.
next lot of fine gaelers just as arrogant insensitive and down right ignorant as the present crop,,
A significant number of these Young FG , are on these threads , day after day, setting out to cause as much offence as possible ,with their Fascist Blueshirt and Anti-Republican views !
Am I surprised at this ? – not at all – just showing their true ‘Blue’ Colours !
Fascist bleushirts? You don’t half do hyperbole ciarroch, maybe you can show one government fascist act? Do you know what fascism even means? You’re a deluded young boy.
Left,left,stop – look up Eoin O’Duffy and the history of your party,then you might be less prone to public displays of ignorance in future.
Vice president Cheney; it’s not my party. I’m not in any party. Eoin o Duffy was a generation ago and was a moment in time. Again, name one fascist current government policy?
Blueshirts, Labour, Fianna Fáil…jail, jail jail them ALL!!
YFG are independant to FG and have their own set of policies etc that they have full control of implementing
Yet you are expected to “graduate” from the youth wing to a FG politician!
Joan Collins, Paul Murphy and political policing….
People see through the FG bullsh!t now so your party is finished at the next election..
I think these ring a bell left , stop , stop.
Defining Characteristics Of Fascism.
Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
@littleone – you’re an idiot.
And we’re setting out to cause offense?? I’m a member of FG and yfg and I find it very offensive to be called a Blueshirt so by your logic am I entitled to deduce that your a shinners/ira member?? I don’t think so… First of all don’t assume things you know little about. Secondly when your accusing a group of something don’t do the very same thing as part if your argument.
Yes and the far more recent history of sinn fein is that they are one and the same with the ira
Don’t forget Labour party close links with the OIRA going back as recently as the 1980s, there’s some murderers even employed by the labour party in various roles which they keep very quite about, yet harangue Sinn Fein daily.
that should take all of about 10 minutes judging the calibre of the current lot.
Good man Brian, first post you state that as a member of FG you find it offensive to be called a blueshirt, and then in your next post claim that Sinn Fein ‘are one and the same with the ira’.
The farce is strong with this one.
Incidentally, why is the headline about the apology when there has not been an article run about the offensive tweet first?
Irish Water…there’s but one example of fascism.Forcing a company and all legislation pertaining to it on the opposition and the populace.
Selling Aer Lingus without public consultation.Proven acts of political policing against minority opposition parties.Garda comissioner ‘asked’ to retire…how’s that for a start…deluded child.
Eddie, well done with the spin. My views are taken as pro FG. Hand on heart I’ve never voted FG, but they say the best form of defensive is attack.
@brian you are a blueshirt.
I dislike SF and FG equally but I think it hilarious when shinners scream about the blueshirt history of FG but then cry about being a changed party, how its all in the past when their terrorist heritage and the murder of innocents is brought up.
Littleone – Well said !
Some of these Fascists clearly don’t even look at themselves in the mirror ???
Deutschland uber alles, all you young FG people learn the words yet?
Brian you should concentrate on your own parties activities during the troubles.
Stephen M. No-one else thinks it’s hilarious – or finds you amusing either. Everyone on this forum is aware of your bias.
@supernova. Be that as it may atleast I have the balls to use my real name an account here unlike alot of the shinnerbots and aaa heads on here hiding behind pseudonyms
Ya Brian, that like totes takes balls.
Brian, sometimes anonymity is required especially with dedicated fraperooms on the prowl hacking and harassing anyone who doesn’t tow the party line. I hope there is an investigation to look into the activities of these online menaces.
@Rasher – Don’t be getting bitter because people aren’t afraid of being kneecapped by shinners anymore. Bunch of pussy cats these days. I don’t really give a shite what anyone else on this site thinks to be honest. Some people put far too much stock in the opinions of the great unwashed. I’m glad to hear that my opinions have irritated the leftist crusty commune that was developing here enough that you have a general consensus on me. Mission accomplished.
Isn’t wasting decent Irish taxpayers’ money to collaborate with British Forces mass murderers bordering on fascist? Helping Franco, Mussolini & the Nazis violently overthrow the democratically elected government of Spain was certainly fascist.
StephenM, by the ‘great unwashed’ I take you mean the folk who quietly suffered the savage austerity cuts and who foot the bailout bill.
Gabby , guess I hit a big nerve since journal have removed my comment.
Here I will post it again. Would love to know why journal removed it.
Have I hit a nerve gabby. Is yfg very sensitive this morning.
Guessing they are. While else have it removed gabby?
“I don’t really give a shite what anyone else on this site thinks to be honest.”
“Stop being such a pathetic waster Corky” On August 27th 2015 , Stephen M sent this private message to West Cork Lad..
So cute!
@ Whynotme
The “great unwashed” will have a great laugh at Stephen M’s expense, if it is true ?!
There teenagers? Hardly.. YFG takes in members into early 20s
I have no idea WHY Stephen M is even commenting on this article because his plastic panties are decidedly tossed in the UK, on the Tory side of life. Makes one think what the serious ??? Right?
Honestly, every once in awhile he comes across appearing to be potentially normal but then his true self comes out. Yes, he did try to abuse me on twitter, as if this was some major pronouncement, and he was showing off his linguistic skills (that he learned getting 2 masters in the UK don’t you know) …. Must be a boring day for Stephen, perhaps he should don his tight leather pants and let his hair down. I can’t WAIT to see the response to that in Ireland. HA!
Go back to school you clown, Your so called party has destroyed our country…Time to go with a good kick up the a*** & good riddance to the pot bellied under educated over paid bunch of morons
Brave words from someone who woulden’t dare show their face, One word….COWARD
“The tweet came to our attention this morning, Monday. It was sent in error from the YFG Twitter account & it was deleted immediately. We hope no offence was caused.”
So basically one of YFG’s members meant to send it from their own account.
I’m no fan of SF, but YFG are a bunch of dicks.
and then they try disassociate themselves from fine gael. trying to insulate the party from any fallout. would like if they had the decency to name the culprit.
That’s it exactly. Some YFG eejit tweeted from the wrong account. Just shows that they are intent on causing offence and stirring up hatred.
Reminds me of the Fianna Fail affair when extremely abusive tweets were sent by one of their public relations officers and he was forced to resign because of the offence he caused even to members of his own party.
Have a quick look at the twitter feed and FG TDs spend alot of time at their independent youth wing.
The also spend a lot of there time retweeting stuff from the independent lol
They’re as detestable as young DUP or young TUV.
This YFG cult seems to be a bunch of contrarian ‘young fogeys’ doing their best to be to Irish politics what Katie Hopkins is to the British media…
Well the Indo is a Dinny rag at the end of the day, and that’s who gives the party their marching orders!
Mer, It is also important to note that, in addition to the FG shenanigans, that august Organ has stated clearly the Labour game plan for the election ” concentrate on fear and the need for stability”. Look out for a positive tsunami of scare stories over the coming six months. Jeez, I don’t think I’m able for it. The tedium combined with disgust – I’ll have to take more vitamins :-0
Rashers, you only have to read Pat Rabbites drivel in the Sunday Business Post each week to understand Labour’s game plan as you correctly stated it above.
Pat as in the self-confirmed liar?
If this is the mindset of yfg , then its giving a good insight of the what’s to come from fg in future. Suspect it is , you see the same mindest here on the journal.
Littleone it shows the mentality of young people not realising their actions have consequences. The fact the tweet was deleted shows someone had the sense to realise how wrong it was.
@littleone you should see some of them having a go on Vincent Browne, some of the arrogance is scary.
Norman, the upper age limit in the Junior Blueshirt club is 35 years.
And even if it wasn’t, 18/19/20 year olds aren’t babies.
Norman I think it was the fact it came from yfg account was the reason for its deletion. The damage it could do. Don’t think sense had any anything to do with it. It still shoes the mindset of yfg that it was sent at all.
Shows the mindset .
Littleone I would like to think even in YFG there is some decency and the tweet was deleted on that basis.
YFG suffering from foot in mouth disease once again
lol this is not surprising for those of the YFG minset, I can imagine one of the little gimps posting it being one of those in the pic in the link below XD
@mer they remind me of little Torry wannabes haha
Norman, I think you are being way too generous. The problem was that the account, unlike many on this forum, was directly traceable to YFG. No decency whatever was involved.
@littleone, fortunately the mindset is on a small minority of the commentator here.
Sadly most of the actual staff of the Journal are firmly in the FG camp.
You can nearly hear YFG hastily setting up new Twitter/FB accounts so this can be defended vigorously.
Seems the youth fg group thats coming along is as brain dead as the current bunch of muppets!
The arrogance shown from all aspects of that party from the roots to the twigs is just sickening. Never will I vote for or entertain them in any way.
Why do you usually do to entertain political parties Mike?
I’m too polite to tell them to **** ***
it’s seems to be the way they are taught. cop on
Just look at the wording of that headline. Author is focusing on the statement after the offensive tweet, rather than the tweet itself. Had Sinn Fein done it? (Not a SF supporter) ‘Sinn Fein are in heat because of this offensive tweet’
I’m far far from a Shinner too. But sure what else would do expect from Hugh?
At pains to point out Fg have no control over Yfg, hard to believe that. Possibly Stockholm syndrome from working amongst them.
Tweet was sent in error from YFG account, so are they saying they actually meant to send it from one of their troll accounts? With that sort of brass neck they are definitely going to grow up to be blueshirts.
It wasnt the first tweet in the conversation. It was a reply. Itvwas targeted and delivered as intended.
Sent “in error’ is more a regret if bad publicity.
Who sent it is the question to be answered.
Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. .. Didn’t see ppl keep.throwing that in his face when he was accepting.noble peace prize. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
Goebbels would gave been proud of Fine Gael. (All right, I know it’s a Godwin!)
John actually he wouldn’t, Gobbels was a propaganda genius, this tweet just smacks of immaturity and stupidity.
I suppose they were not to know but Sarah’s father was murdered in Belfast a few years ago. So this was very offensive.
That Gabbi is a loose cannon
The future of politics is dark if this is the standard they have set themselves
Why not show the ‘tweet’, the Facebook page of the SF guy referring to ‘west brits’ was shown.Double standards?
Sorry only showed up now on my feed.
The FG fraperoom should be investigated fully.
Horrible thing to tweet/write/say but apology made and accepted. Well done to the SF lady for her magnanimity.
I wish to assure Young Fine Gael that they couldn’t be more offensive, objectionable or right wing than they already are. This offensive tweet will make no difference whatever. The Hitler Youth were in the halfpenny place.
Mike Godwin called. He wants you to leave the internet.
FOAD
Fine Gael Cllr Darren Scully is a bit old to be running the Young Blueshirt Twitter account ? or is FG just obsessed with insulting dead children
Just a stupid comment, all party representatives are capable of making a fool of themselves but guess what the world keeps special spinning! No need for attacking people personally of how they look etc. (fine Gael trolls)
The YFG brigade on twitter are really to the far-right of crazy town in most cases, so not shocked by this at all. They have some neck discussing dead children when YFG themselves are foaming at the mouth for Ireland to join NATO and help out in whatever country NATO pick from a map to bomb the hell out of next.
they are repulsive.. spoilt, jumped up. over privileged tin pot Hitlers… & no exceptions there in my view..
Yes.
YFG fraped itself,
teaching the youth wing in fg lovely attitude, manners. they express the type of person fg supporters are.
Just because she joined SF after the IRA stopped (?) murdering people, doesn’t mean that she can disassociate herself from those activities entirely.
So you subscribe to the philosophy of punishing ‘the children for the sins of the father’.
no hes referring to FG roots ( roll eyes). honestly foot-in-mouth disease is rampent. they just can’t help it Norman.
Should we then hold FG to account over what their grandparents did.
Phil, we should definitely keep them away from the steering wheel until they give up the train of thought that “everything my granddaddy did is good because they’re my granddaddy. why do you think I’m such a great politician?”.
Denito – Presumably , on that assumption of yours , those of the present generation , who are Members of FG , are equally responsible for the sins of O’Duffy and some Free State Army Murderers , during the Civil War , such as Ballyseedy etc – this theory is equally clearly ridiculous and outrageous too ?
So what about everyone that fought in the civil war? Does.the filthy failures and the blueshirts not have blood on their hands?
Unsurprisingly this is nothing new, yfg have a dedicated team who monitor social media and engage in online harassment, there needs to be an investigation into this fraperoom to examine the extent and legalities of these activities.
Eoin O’Duffy left Fine Gael in September 1934, so anyone who joined FG before then would rightly be associated with his fascism.
I don’t think, however, that there are any photos of currently serving FG representatives being hugged by Eoin O’Duffy similar to the photo of Sarah Holland being hugged by Gerry Adams above.
Pretty poor whataboutery, even by the standards of SF apologists.
Yet another one! Yes, I am directly responsible for things that happened before I was born, as are you, “Denito”. Would you ever ask me arse.
JMJ. 2015 – 1934 = 79. stance none around to be photographed.
*strange
@ Denito,
I take a similar view towards those joining the political wing of a former facist outfit who fought alongside Franco’s Falangists and Nazi Germanys Condor legion.
Fine Gael has no control over the YFG Twitter account.” well they must have if they are allowed to use the FG brand name
Another article about someone being “hurt or offended”. It’s the feckin’ internet! You don’t need to write an article every time someone says something that others deem inappropriate.
Imagine applying the same logic to non-internet based insults.
“Man called a sh*tbag on Grafton street demands justice, Gardai appeal for witnesses over heinus verbal attack”
All you’re doing is giving people a platform. People now know that if you tweet something racist, or highly controversial, the Journal will probably do an article about it. There is plenty of real news you could report on there lads
Yet you would imagine the youth wing of a sitting government party would have the sense not to engage in inflammatory crap like the above tweet. Btw calling someone a shite bag is a whole different league than child murder.
Sorry if it caused offence does not mean sorry we put it out in the first place but rather sorry we were caught
It would be very insensitive for anybody to associate IRA/SF with violence. They are the people of peace who did their best to put an end to the mass suicides that resulted in the deaths of thousands during the so-called Troubles.
Most of the murders of unarmed civilians during the troubles were perpetrated by the British Forces & their loyalist proxies. Didn’t stop FG/FF/Lab wasting billions of Irish taxpayers’ money in collaborating with them.
Killings carried out by each Group by Community:
(Only groups who killed 25 or more people are shown)
Organisation Total Killings Protestant Catholic Not from NI
IRA 1696 (49%) 790 338 568
UVF 396 (11%) 89 265 42
British Army 299 (9%) 32 258 9
(unknown loyalist) 212 (6%) 50 212 7
UFF 149 (4%) 17 132 0
INLA 110 (3%) 55 33 22
UDA 102 (3%) 41 58 3
(unknown) 77 27 42 8
RUC 56 9 44 3
Official IRA 51 7 24 20
PAF (loyalist) 37 0 37 0
‘Real’ IRA 29 11 13 5
(others) 117 27 87 3
http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/troubles/troubles_stats.html
The IRA murdered more people more than all others combined.
Facts mean nothing to IRA/SF supporters. They inhabit a mythical world, a world devoid of reality, devoid of meaning, devoid of morals, devoid of truth and devoid of integrity. Only an organism with the intelligence of an amoeba or a paramoecium could comfortably inhabit such a place. Such imbeciles are incapable of logic and reason. They regurgitate learned nonsense in a parrot-like fashion and seem incapable of change. Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error – Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Tap there has been many killings and atrocities that have been wrongly attributed to republicans, Dublin/Monaghan for instance.
God love him quoting Cicero. probably thinks he’s an ‘ intellect’
You’re dumb
I think YFG need to have their access to the internet during school hours strictly prohibited! Would space them a lot of embarrassment.
Avatar image
1916+2016 = 3932 > 3+9+3+2 = 17
The Number “17″
What’s with the.numbers? Genuine question. Seen few of ur posts so far and don’t get the logic.
Illuminati confirmed
John Doherty This would be a good guide and mentions the Number “17″
Something is wrong when a tweet is offensive but killing kids gets dismissed.
SFIRA are very similar to all other crazy guys around the world.
FG doing a lot of hoping lately.
Looking at the comments and red thumbs – it’s clear the readership is very young and has no recollection of what happened as they were not alive when it happened. Under 40 and you can have no recollection, it must seem like distant history.
It’s not history. It happened when I was in school, in college.
That child YSF refers to was the same age as one of my children is now. Killed doing nothing other than going out for a shop.
So – grow up and cop on. The tweet only caused offence because it was true.
Get rid of Adams et al and then thing might move on.
Why then will FG not commit to a truth and reconciliation commission, have they something to hide.
The number of red thumbs I’m getting proves I’m right. If I showed that comment to any of my peers (ie 35 or over, educated, hard working family people) they would agree with me.
Red thumb all you like but the truth is IRA murdered children and SF tried to, and still try to, legitimise it.
And yes other groups murdered as well but the only one looking for my vote and looking to govern me is SF and for that reason SF deserve any scrutiny they get.
Alo, you are totally correct.
‘The number of red thumbs I’m getting proves I’m right,’ haha that’s a good one, way to spin a negative there, comical alo.
the pseudo intellectuals are put in ‘force’
Tim Parry was an innocent child. He was blown up in an IRA bomb.
If you red thumb this……
If you red thumbed that you’re no better than the IRA murderers who blew that child to bits.
I’ve never understood why the term ‘populist’ is thrown about as an insult. Coming from Roman times, the term means representative of the interests of the common people. A good thing surely?
Are we all supposed to pretend that there are nice people in Sinn Fein?
Looks like young fiana gael need a leason in maturity just like their older party
Trendy new style Shinner gets in a hissy over a tweet about provo child murders. But happy to be pictured with man who failed to inform youth club in Dundalk that an individual he knew to be a paedo was working for them as a volunteer.
Another internet slagging match. That’s FG bullying now. But seriously, shouldn’t be on the internet these people if they are that sensitive. Regardless of any party. Instantly descending into party lines when all the political parties of Ireland are all jokes. All just well trained monkeys and dogs doing as they are told under the whip system. Whip, more like whipped. It’s all just for the public drama to divert attention away from their universally incompetent operations. While in the Dail bar they are all probably great drinking buddies and the FG/FF/SF/Lab/Oth-ind public image is left at the door while the booze it up
I’m a member of YFG and being called a “Blueshirt” is the equivalent of calling a Sinn Fein member an IRA Member. Also nearly all of our member are studying or have college Degrees and are much more qualified than most in This forum so I don’t think we really qualify as “Babies”
Jude Perry – Coming from you and that gorgeous photo of you holding Prince Charles by the hand , the current British Queens Son , I can now understand that you have got some appreciation of The British Royal Families Fascist past, in your interests too !!!
Did you tell him about The fantastic FG Party connection to Fascism ?
Eddie, sure Charles could swap stories with him about his grand uncles love-in with the nazis :)
I also see the Jude Perry has the usual rancid snobby attitude and arrogance that most YFG seem to posess -”nearly all of our member are studying or have college Degrees and are much more qualified than most in This forum”
What a stupid arrogant assumption to make – about 60 or 70% or the general population have 3rd level qualifications these days, you really believe you blueshirt ‘KMPG daddysboys’ are some sort of elite in this day and age??
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