The mother of a 10-year-old girl who was the victim of an egg attack at a protest gathering against the same-sex marriage referendum, has said she has received a serious amount of online abuse since the tragic incident.
The incident caused caused 10 year old Muireann DeClár a great deal of stress as suffered a severe allergic reaction after she was hit by the egg, which resulted in her having to be treated with emergency medicine. It is understood that the egg was thrown by a heckler in support of yes vote at the upcoming marriage equality referendum, at the protest held in Navan Co Meath where Muireann was attending the protest gathering with her mother, Aoife, at the time.
Muireann’s mother Aoife has said since the disgraceful incident she has received a serious amount of abuse online for bringing her daughter along to the protest.
Aoife said: “I hardly slept at all last night, there were some terribly hurtful things said, like ‘I shouldn’t be able to have children’, ‘what kind of a mother would do this to her children to expose her children to this?’. “I was so hurt. I am very passionate about being a mother, I’ve given up everything to be at home with the children, I’ve sacrificed an awful lot for the lifestyle that we have now with the children at home. “It just proves that I can’t have an opinion, I wasn’t arguing with anybody, I didn’t do anything, I just stood there supporting these people that said No, and that is why I was targeted, that’s why my child was targeted.”
However Aoife has strongly denied that the event was a political rally. She said: “It wasn’t a rally, it wasn’t a protest, it was a meet-and-greet that was only going to be on for an hour. “We have been at other protests, we’ve brought our children to the anti-water charge protest in Dublin and to other ones that have been on here in Navan. “I want my children to know that it is important to us that we are thinking about their future, the society that they are growing up in.”
Aoife also said that she normally carries an adrenaline pen with her when she is with Muireann.
She said: “Yes, I should do, and I almost always do, they have an expiry date and I had new ones at home. “But we are very lucky that we live in the town, literally two minutes from where we were, my husband came out and brought us immediately home.”