Kilkenny election candidate subjected to vile ‘homophobic’ abuse, posters defaced
A LOCAL election candidate in Kilkenny city has revealed she has been targeted by “homophobic” thugs who defaced her posters and subjected her to vile abuse online.
Stephanie Hanlon discovered several of her election posters had been ripped apart and daubed with homophobic graffiti after she received a call from Kilkenny County Council saying they had received a number of complaints.
Around 10 of her posters are missing altogether, while five others were defaced and ripped up.
Ms Hanlon, a People Before Profit candidate in this month’s elections, said she does not believe the vandalism is the result of political ‘dirty tricks’.
But she said the nature of the abusive graffiti on some of the posters is “in line” with some of the comments that have been made on her social media platforms in recent weeks.
Ms Hanlon told KilkennyNow.ie: “It was fairly shocking to see. About 10 of the posters had been lowered down. Some had been ripped apart and others were vandalised with homophobic graffiti, which wasn’t nice.
“Some of the abuse was in line with some of the stuff I’ve been getting online.”
However, Ms Hanlon, who has campaigned strongly on health, equality and disability issues, said she will not let the incidents affect her campaign in the remaining weeks before the May 24 poll.
