GREEN Party TD Brian Leddin has been dragged into fresh controversy over his WhatsApp group, which posted mysogynistic slurs against female rivals, after a screengrab detailing another instance of an anti-female slur emerged.
The new details come as six Green Party colleagues – including Deputy Leader Catherine Martin – strongly condemn Mr Leddin’s inaction in the face of the original comments, and query the lack of sanction from the party for Mr Leddin.
Today the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal a fresh exchange from July 2019, in which a member of the group posted a screengrab of a tweet by Limerick Independent Councillor Elisa O’Donovan.
The member then posts a number of angry emojis followed quickly by: ‘What an absolute c***’. These three separate comments are all timestamped 8.37am.
At 8.38am, Deputy Leddin posts three laughing emojis. Three minutes later at 8.41am he then posts the following comment: ‘Might be worth retweeting that?’
It is not instantly clear at that stage what he is referring to. But Green Party sources suggested last night his two comments – including the laughing emojis – were a reference to the original screengrabbed tweet and that he had not been responding to the offensive post containing the C-word.
Sources suggested that although the comments are time-stamped a minute apart, they could in fact have been posted within seconds of each other given the nature of the WhatsApp platform.
In the group, at no stage did Deputy Leddin respond to the side-by-side juxtaposition of the vile misogynistic slur and his laughing emojis.
‘I have apologised to her for it’
Asked last night whether he had actually seen the slur, Deputy Leddin did not respond – a fact that is likely to reignite an internal Green Party debate over how the party dealt with last week’s revelations.
In response to disclosures in this newspaper last week Deputy Leddin – the chair of the prestigious Oireachtas Climate Action Committee – apologised for personally calling Cllr O’Donovan ‘unhinged’ and someone who ‘craves fame’.
‘On one occasion, I made an offthe-cuff comment in the group about Elisa O’Donovan. I regret my comment. It was inappropriate and I have apologised to her for it,’ he said in a statement.
Deputy Leddin also said he regretted not intervening to call a halt to other abusive group posts – but he has not yet apologised to another victim targeted by those messages, a well-known Limerick female professional.
The shocking WhatsApp posts included one in which a photo of a prominent female professional, with the word ‘c***’ superimposed across her face, was temporarily adopted as the group’s icon.
In other posts threats of violence were posted by other members of the group against the professional.
To date, Deputy Leddin has not apologised in person to the woman abused in this fashion, even after the MoS asked him last week if he wanted to do so.
Instead he issued a statement expressing regret at not intervening to stop the abusive chats, but stopping short of apologising to the victim who he did nothing to help.
‘On an isolated number of occasions some of the language used by a few of the members was unsavoury and inappropriate,’ his statement said. ‘To be clear, I did not encourage such comments or engage with them, but on reflection should have intervened to voice my unhappiness with such language.’
Pressure has continued on the Green Party all week, with protests outside their offices on Friday.
Leader Eamon Ryan accepted his TD’s defence.
‘The comments in this group were totally unacceptable. Deputy Leddin has accepted that he should have intervened to stop the use of such language.
‘Deputy Leddin has apologised for the one occasion he used an inappropriate term towards Cllr Elisa O’Donovan. There is no place for insulting language in politics,’ Mr Ryan said last Sunday in response to the MoS revelations.
Subsequently the party decided not to sanction Deputy Leddin following an emergency meeting of its 14-member executive on Monday.
In a communication to party members afterwards, the executive sought to draw a line under the matter, saying Deputy Leddin’s apology had been accepted.
‘Deputy Leddin has apologised, saying that he does not condone the inappropriate posts in a WhatsApp group and has expressed his regret at not intervening [in relation to comments by others in the group],’ the executive’s communication reads.
The message to members added the party had an ‘ongoing dignity and respect training programme, as part of a wider inclusion plan’.
‘In line with our values as a party, we would like to ensure that all of our members, officers, and elected representatives feel empowered to act as allies and challenge noninclusive behaviour,’ it said.
But the decision not to sanction Deputy Leddin – made just 24 hours after party leader Mr Ryan said there was no room for such abuse within the party – has again drawn attention to concerns about sexism and bullying in the Green Party.
It has highlighted deep divisions that persist within the party, with one camp completely loyal to Mr Ryan and the other critical of his leadership.
Deputy Leader Catherine Martin is one of several prominent TDs and MEPs this weekend who were sharply critical of Mr Ryan’s decision not to sanction Mr Leddin.
Deputy Martin said: ‘I was unavoidably absent [due to Government business], from Monday’s Executive Committee meeting which discussed and reached a decision regarding the revelations in The Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘I have since conveyed to members of the Management Committee ‘I am disappointed and frustrated’
my deep disappointment on the conclusion reached and statement issued by the EC.
‘The language used in the Limerick WhatsApp group as reported last week was disgusting, insulting, demeaning and misogynistic. And as I said to members of the party’s MC and to Brian himself on Sunday, silence is an enabler in such scenarios and should not be excused.
‘I will respect the decision of our democratically elected EC, but as a female member in a leadership position in this party I am disappointed and frustrated by the lack of understanding of the hurt caused and the perceived trivialising by the party of serious issues which impact women,’ she said.
These sentiments were echoed by Dublin Central TD Neasa Hourigan, the party’s finance spokeswoman.
‘The WhatsApp messages involved derogatory and misogynistic language used in a semi-public forum,’ Deputy Hourigan told the MoS.
‘That is wrong and should be addressed by party leadership in a way that sets out the party’s stated principles of respect and decency.
‘In recent months we have had female members of the party very publicly leave and accuse the party of bullying and misogyny. That has been an ongoing and pervasive issue over the last few years and this was an opportunity for the party to plot a course away from that accusation and from that kind of culture. It’s really disappointing that we chose not to do that.’
Ms Hourigan said she has been contacted by female party members who were relinquishing their membership in the wake of the decision not to sanction Deputy Leddin.
Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan said the party should have sanctioned Mr Leddin.
The Waterford-based politician told the MoS: ‘I think a sanction would have been the appropriate response… A sanction would indicate not just that the Green Party is taking the matter seriously, and representing the deep concerns of many members of the public as well as party members (particularly women); it would indicate also, that the Green Party will work to counter even unconscious misogynistic behaviour or the condoning of same, by lack of leadership in “calling it out”.
‘While I accept that Deputy Leddin regrets his behaviour and poor judgement at the time, I think he himself would benefit from reflection and further learning around women’s rights.’
Male party members also criticised the decision not to impose any sanction on the Limerick TD.
Dublin South-West TD Francis Duffy, husband of Ms Martin, said: ‘I don’t condone that behaviour and I have expressed that to Brian.
‘There should be a sanction of some description – otherwise it implies that the party hasn’t a problem with this behaviour. To do nothing just doesn’t seem right. ‘ Dublin South Central TD Patrick Costello was also critical of the Green Party leadership.
‘For me the lack of concern is disappointing,’ he said. ‘We talk a lot about needing to do more for women in politics. A lot of our elected reps engage with and support women for election. They spend a lot of time working with them and this just flies in the face of that. The fact that genuine concerns of party members are just dismissed is disappointing and I don’t believe reflective of the ethos of the party.’
Irish Mail on Sunday – September 5, 2021. 
Irish Mail on Sunday – September 5, 2021.
Deputy Costello is married to Dublin councillor Hazel Chu, who has previously spoken out against her own party’s record on bullying and sexism.
Senator Vincent P Martin, brother of Ms Martin, said: ‘It is disappointing that it appears that a sanction was not even considered and that there has been no communication from our party’s Executive Council or Brian to the party membership.’
Long-time party activists also expressed their frustration. ‘I am so disappointed as a long-standing party member that Brian Leddin will not be sanctioned by the Green Party,’ said Edel Hackett, a prominent PR guru and former Green Party press officer.
While Mr Leddin has some support, none of the three Oireachtas members who privately told the MoS they backed him were willing to say so on the record.
The remainder of the party’s 18 TDs, senators and MEPs declined to comment either way.
A Green Party Government spokesman said: ‘The matter was discussed in depth by the executive committee on Monday evening. The party has already issued a statement on this which has been sent to you.’
Last night the professional woman abused in the group called for Mr Leddin to resign – a sentiment also expressed by members of socialist feminist group Rosa who picketed the Green Party’s Dublin HQ and the embattled TD’s constituency office in Limerick on Friday.
‘Minister Ryan is saying Brian Leddin has apologised but there was no apology to me,’ the professional woman told the MoS.
‘Either Mr Ryan wasn’t informed by his TD or he was informed by his TD and he is protecting his TD. I don’t know which it is.
‘Brian Leddin hasn’t apologised to me and he is so defiant in not apologising to me it actually compounds what he has done to me.’ Meanwhile, Cllr Elisa O’Donovan said she was disappointed Mr Leddin had sought to justify his behaviour by telling the Limerick Leader this week that he had been in a ‘personal relationship’ with her that had ended badly.
‘I made one comment which can be considered derogatory. It was about somebody I had a personal relationship with,’ he told the paper. ‘My thinking wasn’t divorced from the fact I had a personal relationship with that person which ended quite badly. I’ve apologised to Ms O’Donovan. I don’t believe that what I’ve done should require me to stand down from politics.’
Speaking to the MoS this weekend, Cllr O’Donovan said she was ‘disappointed that anyone – especially a public representative – would offer that as an explanation.’
She said: ‘He has used that as an explanation for his bad behaviour and the use of that sort of sexist language. But judging by the amount of people who have reached out to me as a result of that, it has started quite an important conversation.’
Cllr O’Donovan said she has been heartened by the response she has got from members of the public since the MoS revelations were published last weekend.
She added: ‘This has given an opportunity to have difficult conversations about respect because this is what it all comes down to. Whatever about sexism and misogyny this is about having respect for people in both political and professional life.’
