Tragic death throws spotlight onto anonymous social media attacks

 The tragic death of Shane Mcentee has cast a shadow over the entire political system. When news filtered around Leinster house of his sudden death, it was shocking. And then when details emerged that he had taken his own life, it was awful beyond words.

There is no set profile of people who commit suicide and the reasons are often very complicated, impossible to discern. But, on the face of it, Shane Mcentee seemed so unlikely. he was an innately decent man who wore his emotions on his sleeve. Generally, he was seen as very solid although prone to sometimes saying things without first thinking them through.

It is known that he was very upset about the reaction to comments he made after the Budget. In an interview with The Sunday Times, he excused the cut of €400 respite care grant on the basis that you could get a room for a week in a top hotel for €700. What he was trying to say that with prices falling in society as a result of the recession, the fall was relative as people could get more bang for their buck these days.

But it sounded bad and he received a barrage of criticism for it on the radio, on the phone and through social media. There has been a lot of commentary since the weekend that all of this was a factor in his decision to end his life. To be quite honest, it's not possible to tell or reach any kind of conclusion on this, as we just don't know the full facts or circumstances surrounding the tragedy.

But one of the repercussions has been a renewed scrutiny of the role that social media and more traditional forms (radio shows and even the humble telephone) have played in recent political discourse.

I spoke to quite a number of politicians from all hues over the weekend and they were all at one on a number of points. The first was that the volume has been pumped up on vitriol and vile comments since the recession started. It's not hard to see why. People have lost jobs and are struggling with debt and are worried about making ends meet and are angry. But the anger becomes personalised and sometimes manifests itself in personalised abuse of the politician involved.

Liam Twomey, a Fine Gael TD from Wexford, is also a family doctor. He made the observation at the weekend that the anger has almost become self-perpetuating. Among the angry people, he said, you sometimes find people who have very well paid public jobs and whose mortgages have been found out. he said if they really looked at their own situation compared to others they would find that the anger is misplaced and that they have assumed a common conception without examining it.

The second has been the growth of social media and the huge popularity of Facebook and Twitter. Many of the politicians (mostly younger) have gone onto the platform. But every time they or their party has been involved in a controversy, they have encountered a blizzard of abuse. That in itself is a problem but the worst part of it is that a lot of is comes from those who use a pseudonym, which allows them hurl abuse under the cloak of anonymity.

This has become a real problem on Twitter and Facebook. The Cork South Central TD Jerry Buttimer was subjected to horrible abuse on Facebook after the Budget, some of it bordering closely on incitement to hatred. The Roscommon TD Frankie Feighan got similar treatment over Roscommon hospital.

When the Minister of State at the Department of Communications Sean Sherlock introduced regulations that would have implications for online copyright, he encountered a huge campaign opposing it from the tecchie and web community. Which was fair enough, except that a small proportion started personalising the abuse in a horrible way.

Politicians are sentient – and sometimes sensitive – human beings and are prone to the same fears, anxieties and shock as anybody else is. And there are idiots out there who hide behind the cloak of anonymity and think that politicians are fair game for any abuse and lies and insults and hate they can conjure up. And obviously they aren't inured. I spoke to half a dozen TDs over the past few days who were deeply hurt and upset by the stuff they had to deal with.

The Minister of State who has responsibility for mental health Kathleen Lynch pointed out to me over the weekend that you should never assume that politicians – because they are public figures and more used to being at the eye of the storm – are resilient to the kind of personal abuse that has become common since the recession and the advent of social media.

It must also be added that it's just not an online phenomenon. Anger and venom has become the currency of some radio talk shows. And there are also anonymous telephone calls. It's just a sad fact that modern society provides far more opportunities for those who want to use the poison pen.

For more of Harry McGee's column see this week's Tribunes