Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 29 Mar 2022

Go raibh maha, go talas, go hirlich. Firstly, I want to welcome the fact that the Taoiseach has asked the Russian ambassador to expel a number of officials from this country. Sadly, it's only four. We're not following the example of other countries across Europe. That leaves somewhere around about 28 or 29 still here. Why we need that many in this country, I don't know. Leader, it's not unknown that I'm pretty active on social media. This weekend, somebody decided to attack using my wife and my children's names. That to me is totally unacceptable. I contacted Twitter and I told them what had happened and Twitter came back to me and told me no rule was broken. No rule was broken. Now, I'm used to people attacking me on a regular basis because I was a former member of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Irish Rangers. I served with over a thousand Irishmen, all proud Irishmen, Catholic, Protestant, North, South, East and West. All of us were proud for what we did and I will never, ever, ever be anything but proud of it. And indeed, the day I got elected to this house, Sinn Féin were the first people to welcome me. And Mary Lou MacDonald was asked how did she feel about a Brit being elected, a former Brit being elected by members of Sinn Féin. And she said the world has moved on and it had moved on. But every day of the week, somebody has a go at the fact that I'm a former Brit. So here you are in this house. I'm a former Brit. I served in the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rangers, and I'm damn proud of it, so I am. I was a bloody good soldier when I was in it. But I will not stand over the likes of Twitter allowing my family to be used as a weapon to try and beat me. My wife and my children are private citizens. They never, ever, ever come into the public domain. They never speak publicly on anything. And nobody has a right to use their names. And it is time now that we curtailed these social media platforms with respect to being able to identify who it is that speak. And I think my colleague, Senator Ward, mentioned this only the other day. I have no difficulty about somebody having a pseudoname, but I must be able to identify who they are, where they are, and what they're about. And I deeply resent the fact that this clown decided to use my family. Attack me any day you want. Meet me outside the gate and talk to me if you want. But do not use my family, never. Let's go.