A BLACK BRITISH woman who has been tweeting from the @Ireland Twitter account says she was subjected to “eight hours of nonstop hate”.
The @Ireland Twitter account is curated by a different person every week with the aim of providing differing viewpoints on Ireland and Irishness.
Taking over the account yesterday Michelle Marie, a model who usually tweets under the account @ChocCurvesModel, stated up front that she is originally from Oxford but has lived in Ireland for three years.
After noting that people had been ‘finding issue’ with her race, Marie addressed it directly.
It was this series of tweets especially that provoked a string reaction online, both from people supporting her and also from people who subjected to to what she later described as “racism, sexism, fatphobia and homophobia”.
The discrimination she received came from both inside and outside Ireland.
Support for her curation of the account also came from both Ireland and abroad.
One of the people who supported here was British journalist James Hendicott who pointed out that he didn’t receive the same level of abuse when he curated the account.
Later in the day, Michelle Marie addressed the abuse she received in a lengthy post, explaining that Ireland is her “adopted home”.
She wrote:
I understood the @Ireland account to be a platform for all people who have an Irish connection or a grá for the country/culture. I am in no way claiming to be Irish or to reflect the native Irish in any way. I moved from England to Ireland three years ago. My other half is Irish, My daughter is an Irish citizen. It is my adopted home and I love living here.
The @Ireland Twitter account is run by social media manager Darragh Doyle and the application process to run the account specifies that “the varied voices of @Ireland come from Ireland and across the world.”
Commenting on the abuse Michelle Marie received yesterday, Doyle said that some of the tweets were “horrible, vile, tasteless and unacceptable” but that the majority were supportive.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say