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Joan slams critics of her hands and says she's not 'Downton Abbey and teacups'

The Tánaiste suggested that sexism lays behind criticism of her body language in Monday’s debate.

JOAN BURTON HAS hit back at critics of her body language in Monday’s leaders’ debate, suggesting that comments about the use of her hands are sexist.

The Tánaiste was responding to the suggestion by a questioner at today’s press conference that her stridency and “excessive use of her hands” in the RTÉ TV debate had endangered many of her Labour colleagues’ seats and her own.

joan hands

But Burton said that female politicians are scrutinised to “an extraordinarily detailed degree” and hinted that sexism was behind the criticism.

“People would say that to a woman who’s running for very senior office. Lots of male colleagues have peculiarities, foibles, mannerisms that not everybody cares for.

But, clearly, when women are involved in politics they’re properly scrutinised to an extraordinarily detailed degree.

“Yes, I feel passionate about politics, I don’t regard that as a fault. I regard that as what drives my concern to make people’s lives better.

17/02/2016. (L to R) Minister of State at Departme Joan Burton makes light of using her hands at today's press conference in Dublin Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

“Other people may feel there’s something inappropriate in a woman not standing back and sitting down and doing a little bit of Downton Abbey and the tea cups. That’s not me.

“I feel very very passionate about this country, about the potential for its future, about our young people.

“So I apologise if I didn’t meet the standards of everybody, but I am very confident as well that our Labour TDs and our candidates are actually going to surprise on the day and do very well.”

The Dublin West TD was speaking at the launch of Labour plans for the arts sector at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin’s Temple Bar this morning.

Among the commitments the party is making is to invest €150 million into Irish culture and the arts over the next five years and set up a capital arts fund to upgrade cultural spaces.

Labour in government would double the budgets of the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board and maintain the artists’ tax exemption.

Read: Leo Varadkar compares Micheál Martin to Arnold Schwarzenegger

FactCheck: The truth and the lies from TV3′s Deputy Leaders’ Debate

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142 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lurfic
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    Jan 26th 2016, 7:49 PM

    Did you genuinely write an article saying you can get messenger on a computer?

    268
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    Mute Daniel Wilson
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    Jan 26th 2016, 9:25 PM

    But did you know it existed? I didn’t.

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    Mute nf
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    Jan 26th 2016, 8:01 PM

    I often read posts here about journal having weak stories and think what a bunch of moaners. But now seriously, journal you can’t publish an article about a ‘little known app like messenger’. Everyone uses messenger and there’s not much need for a tutorial on a news site

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    Mute tk0CXKzL
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    Jan 26th 2016, 7:45 PM

    Always on the cutting edge of new technology eh journal? Not really.

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    Mute Killian Raynor
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    Jan 26th 2016, 7:33 PM

    Did no one know about this?

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    Mute Rashers Tierney
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    Jan 26th 2016, 7:48 PM

    Young persons of my acquaintance made me aware of this some time ago. However, since I’ve no interest in Facebook (or Facebook lite) the information wasn’t much use to me.

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    Mute Tom Colgan
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    Jan 26th 2016, 7:51 PM

    i use this in work and i also use whatsapp web which is also very good and also owned by Facebook

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    Mute Christmas Carol
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    Jan 26th 2016, 8:44 PM

    Being an auld one (in terms of tech) I hadn’t a clue what this was. So you’re going to get at least one thank you anyway for writing this article ;)

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    Mute David Moylan
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    Jan 26th 2016, 7:52 PM

    Oh my good God, is B for blather

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    Mute The Dublin Cynic
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    Jan 26th 2016, 10:44 PM

    If Facebook is banned so is messenger

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    Mute onlybuzzinwitcha
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    Jan 26th 2016, 8:09 PM

    Firefox has an add on that disables your news feed. Very useful as the news feed had turned to crap with adverts and posts from people I don’t know and you can still post happy birthday to friends’ walls etc. Just no more stupid posts.

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    Mute Nigel Healy
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    Jan 26th 2016, 8:18 PM

    That would be all of them then.

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    Mute SickOfCorruption
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    Jan 26th 2016, 8:34 PM

    Yeah, why not let face book data mine your personal relationships.

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    Mute Johnneary
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    Jan 26th 2016, 8:43 PM

    It’s an essential part of modern life?

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    Mute Peter Murphy
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    Jan 26th 2016, 9:43 PM

    A post about facebook? Pitchforks out. I didn’t know about this myself, surprisingly. Gotta find out about it somewhere I guess.

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    Mute Terry Cahill
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    Jan 27th 2016, 4:53 AM

    Jeez I’m 68 and I’ve been using messenger to chat with almost all my acquaintances for a year now ! Little known ! Like Brennan’s Bread ! Of course you must have a Facebook account…. And real butter for the Brennan’s !

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    Mute Bobby Phelan
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    Jan 26th 2016, 9:50 PM

    I would rate this a good as Skype if not better

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    Mute colm connolly
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    Jan 27th 2016, 6:02 AM

    What the f did I just read , really ? I want my 20 seconds back

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    Mute Zotabox
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    Jan 27th 2016, 5:23 AM

    Hi Rob, Did you know that ALL businesses can now support their customers via Facebook Live Chat directly on their websites with Zotabox’s easy to use integration tool? http://bit.ly/fb10001. Messenger is ubiquitous, free and easy to use and both parties have a permanent chat history.

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