A comic has been sent vile rape and bomb threats after an article she wrote appeared on a State exam.
A number of students sent Aoife Dooley “nasty” messages after her piece appeared in the Junior Certificate English paper without her knowledge.
The illustrator, from Dublin, said at first the memes were funny – but they later turned sinister.
She added “15-year-old d**k pics, rape [threats], bombing my house are literally some of the messages I’ve been getting”.
Aoife, 28, said: “If you have a son or daughter please talk to them about this and explain why it’s not funny or OK.”
Wednesday’s piece was about buses and how passengers behave on them.
One sentence discusses a popular brand of pickled onion crisps and how someone always “opens a pack at half-seven in the morning and doesn’t give a damn”.
Some of the messages included “I f***ing love Meanies, don’t chat s**t about them again” and “talk s***e about Meanies again and you’ll be getting a brick through your window.” Others found the article amusing, with one saying: “Aoife Dooley’s article about the bang [smell] of Meanies on the bus made my stressful day of the JC so much better.”
Another added: “Why is everyone hating on Aoife Dooley’s piece? Like I found it great and really relieved stress.” Aoife, who has autism, told how she has been “extremely overwhelmed” by the abuse and has reported it to gardai.
She said: “I’ve had to deactivate my Instagram and will probably have to deactivate Twitter too. It’s really making me consider the work I do.”
Eela Carr, of the State Examinations Commission, branded the treatment of Aoife “as completely unacceptable” and said the use of the article does not infringe copyright legislation
She added: “Authors of pieces used on papers cannot be informed in advance their material will appear on a paper as any effort to secure the permission in advance would entail disclosing information about the prospective content of a future examination paper.”
