*Cllr Rita McInerney (FF).
A SITTING councillor has said a political slurry spreading has tried to smear her name in advance of the local elections.
Doonbeg based Cllr Rita McInerney (FF) has said “fake news” has been circulated among WhatsApp groups in West Clare attributing comments to her over which are critical to the farming community regarding the West Clare Greenway.
Messages have been sent with quotes alongside an image of the businesswoman styled in such a way to suggest Rita made the remarks that the Greenway needed to be rail-roaded through. The latest instance was a message suggesting she was against the spreading of slurry.
She said, “With the first cuts of grass due in a number of weeks, please God if the weather holds, the slurry spreading will begin as it always has. Unfortunately, life in politics can be similar, it seems the political slurry spreading has started before the first blade of sweet grass has been cut, so I have to address an issue that was brought to my attention. It is not the first issue of fake news being scurrilous passed around in WhatsApp groups in recent weeks, so I feel I have to pull the ragwort rumours from life and social media’s meadows”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Cllr McInerney explained that she had an inclination three weeks ago “that something was going on” but a message that was forwarded to a friend on Monday prompted her to call out the “fake news”. She said, “It was sent to a friend of mine in order to alert me to the situation, it was an image of me with quotation marks of a statement I made purporting to be something I said, it was circulated in private WhatsApp groups in West Clare predominantly at the farming community”.
Cllr McInerney admitted she had an idea as to who is behind the smear campaign but is unable to prove it as of yet. “I’ve some ideas in my head but I wouldn’t say because I can’t prove it and I’d only be adding fuel to the fire by adding unsubstantiated statements. With the nature of WhatsApp groups things can be forwarded and we live in a small community so it generally comes out of the wash who initiated it or who started it. I take a positive from it in that I’m running a good campaign and that people see me as a threat”.
From what she can gather, Rita said the campaign has originated in her locality and the western section of the Kilrush local electoral area.
Rita is currently discussing whether she needs to seek legal advice or contact An Garda Síochána on the matter. “I have spoken to a few people about it but I haven’t done anything official about it, I’m extremely busy, I’m trying to run my own business and canvassing every day, my priority is addressing the issues constituents present, it is on my agenda but I’d be working hard on dealing with issues rather than focusing on it. An Garda Síochána have a lot to do if, if it escalates I will escalate things but I’m well able to handle myself”.
McInerney felt the slurs were “very undemocratic” and such stunts put people off entering politics. “Friends do say to me that I’m a mad, politics is a dirty game but you have to get involved, I want to encourage more people to get involved, more women and people from different backgrounds but you won’t get people involved if things are murky and if there’s fake news which is what this was”.
She added, “it circulated within private groups, they don’t know where it is coming from, that is the danger of social media and this technology. It shows how important good journalism is, we used to say don’t believe everything you read, now you can’t believe everything you see with AI that is why local radio and newspapers are so important because they are reputable sources”.
Indeed it was a fellow business person with strong Doonbeg connections that coined the ‘fake news’ term, little did we think it would be applied in the sense of the local elections for the Kilrush local electoral area. “When you think about it, what happens on a political level globally tends to filter down, this is another way that people use a political campaign or operate within a political campaign, unfortunately. We have to be smarter and get our correct message out there better”.
