Limerick election candidate suggests women ran by 'establishment parties' were 'handmaidens'

DEFEATED General Election candidate Elisa O’Donovan has appeared to suggest Fine Gael and Fianna Fail’s female Dail candidates were “handmaidens” helping men get elected.

The Social Democrats councillor missed out on a Dail seat at the last count in Limerick City, a development which means the local area does not have any female elected TDs for the second term in a row.

Her campaign manager, Karen Sugrue, posted on X, formerly Twitter, pointing out all seven of Limerick’s new squad of TDs are male.

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In response to this post, Cllr O’Donovan wrote: “The women from the establishment parties got the men elected so they did their job well #handmaidens.”

Well @elisaodonovan doesn’t have much respect for her fellow female candidates who ran in Limerick City, pity @deecorbettryan & @maria16byrne are genuinely great people & both got a very respectable vote pic.twitter.com/pUD9vrj1so

— Cllr Seán Hartigan (@seanohartigan) December 3, 2024

The definition of a handmaiden is a personal maid or female servant, or someone whose essential function is to serve or assist.

Across the country, many running mates to male TDs were female, with many speculating this was in response to new gender quota rules.

These stipulated that in order to qualify for greater State funding, 40% of party candidates needed to be women.

In Limerick City, Fine Gael ran Senator Maria Byrne alongside Kieran O’Donnell.

And Fianna Fail fielded former Chamber chief executive Dee Ryan with Willie O’Dea.

Mr O’Dea and Mr O’Donnell were both elected.

In his own social media post on X, Green Party councillor Sean Hartigan wrote: “Well Elisa O’Donovan doesn’t have much respect for her fellow female candidates who ran in Limerick City. Pity - Dee Ryan and Maria Byrne are genuinely great people and both got a very respectable vote.”

When contacted by Limerick Live, Cllr Hartigan added: “It's a shocking thing to write, it's childish behaviour if you ask me.
“Obviously, she is referring to Dee Ryan and Maria Byrne, both very genuine people. Both of them put in enormous effort into their campaign and when they were out in the count centre had a smile on their face, and were happy to meet and greet everybody even though they were not getting over the line.”

Also speaking to Limerick Live, Ms Ryan, who came sixth said: “I'd like to think it wasn't a comment specific ally directed at myself or Maria Byrne. I ran my own campaign, stood on my own two feet, didn't ask anyone to do any of the work for me.”
Fianna Fail activist Derek Daly added on X: “I was delighted to be part of Dee’s campaign and see her come fourth on first preferences, the highest polling woman in the constituency, pushing the party 5% above the national result.
“Dee knows, her team knows, and Fianna Fail knows, Dee is no quota filler.”

Senator Byrne declined to comment.

Many people on social media agreed with Cllr O’Donovan's comment.

One person wrote on X: “She has a point”.

Another added: “Across the country women candidates were tacked onto the bottom of tickets for no other reason than gender quotas.

“They had no chance to get a seat and it was humiliating to them, and to the goal of the gender quotas in the first place.”

Limerick Live has contacted the Social Democrats’ head office for a response.

When contacted on Sunday, Cllr Elisa O'Donovan replied: “Of course you're writing an article on this Nick!” followed by a laughing emoji, “Maybe instead you could write about the lack of women representation?

“This is a non story and I'm embarrassed for you again at your poor journalism standards”.

She went on to write: “ You can quote me on all of the above”.