Maverick Green TD Paul Gogarty has blocked several Irish followers on his twitter account, labelling them time-wasters and in one case “master of the online pit of scurrilous vipers.”
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Among those Gogarty has blocked are award-winning blogger Twenty Major and David Cochrane, who runs Politics.ie, a leading online forum.
Also blocked is Trinity college economist Brian Lucey.
The blocks let to a twitterstorm of protest, with one tweet labelling the Dublin Midwest TD “the Jedward of Irish politics.”
“Paul Gogarty reminds me of the sandwich-board wearing folk that congregate outside bus stations and food shelters,” wrote another.
In his twitter bio, Gogarty writes: “Promise I won’t tweet anything controversial.”
Yet although he rarely uses the account, his tweets have several times led to minor controversies, most recently when he criticised the Labour party and said he didn’t “give a f*** about Gutless Gilmore” [asterisks in original].
“I am blocking abusive people because there are more important issues to be concerned about. Like the budget, education, etc, etc,” the Green TD said.