FORMER MEP AND NOW by-election candidate Paul Murphy has said he accepts an apology from Sinn Féin after several members of the party shared an allegedly fake Facebook comment that appeared to be from Murphy.
The post, which appeared on social media early yesterday and is now said to have come from a fake profile, suggested that Murphy was ‘saying what he had to say’ about Sinn Féin policies on water charges in order to gain support.
However, Murphy said that this post is now believed to have been fabricated by creating a fake Facebook profile. The person who initially shared the image has apologised for not checking its veracity before posting the screenshot.
Sharing the post on social media forced the Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary-Lou McDonald into a public apology.
It was also shared by other members such as MEP Lynn Boylan.
In a statement yesterday, Murphy called the fake post “a dirty trick designed with a specific purpose in mind”.
“It is to divert attention from their opposition to a mass campaign of non-payment of water charges, which represents an abandonment of working class communities who are in revolt against water charges and cannot pay,” he claimed.
Speaking to RTÉ’s This Week programme, he said that he accepted Sinn Féin’s apology.
Cathal King, Sinn Féin candidate in Dublin South-West, told the same programme that if the person who fabricated the post was a member of Sinn Féin, which there was no evidence to suggest that they are, they should face suspension from the party and an investigation.
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