“I find it particularly telling that she deliberately chose a particularly unedifying picture, with the sole aim of humiliation.”
Matt Barrett, partner of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, has hit out following the circulation of a photograph that showed Varadkar relaxing at a festival held in the UK last weekend.
Varadkar was pictured at the Mighty Hoopla festival in London last Saturday (4 September) on the same weekend that the Electric Picnic festival was originally set to take place in Stradbally, Laois.
Though the Tánaiste was visiting the UK for business purposes, the image, which was originally distributed via Twitter, attracted widespread criticism. In response, the events industry in Ireland called for an immediate full capacity reopening ahead of the planned lifting of all restrictions on Friday, 22 October.
In a letter written to the Irish Times, published on Saturday morning, Varadkar’s partner Matt Barrett argued that the picture was taken and shared “with the sole aim of humiliation” while questioning the general right to privacy.
“The notion that the right to privacy is one which is conditional on the attitudes, sensibilities and prejudices of another is both ridiculous and dangerous,” Barrett wrote.
“The individual who photographed the Tánaiste does not have a right to violate this merely because she believed it was justified and consistent with her own beliefs about what constitutes appropriate behaviour.”
Barrett further opined that the picture in question was taken with an ulterior motive in mind.
“I find it particularly telling that she deliberately chose a particularly unedifying picture, with the sole aim of humiliation,” he wrote.
“If people continue cyberbullying as some sort of perverse public service, how can we hope to attract young people, women and minorities into public office?”
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