She said, “The sustained and obsessive attacks on myself by these accounts occurred at a time and in a manner that was clearly designed to damage my professional reputation.” She added: “As a female journalist and commentator, the posts also had a deeply misogynist tone to them, all too common on social media.
Women working in the media are not fair game for those who wish to control every aspect of our profession and dictate who is entitled to a platform.”[8] On 29 March 2021 Journalist and novelist Paul Larkin was attacked by 'Barbara J. Pym' and also by 'Dolly White', after the Irish Times published Larkin's review of Brendan O'Leary's three-volume, A Treatise on Northern Ireland.
He reported that a week earlier Paul Larkin communicated to the Sunday Independent his correct suspicion that Eoghan Harris operated the Barbara J Pym account.
[15] Cunningham observed: Film maker Seán Murray, director the collusion documentary Unquiet Graves, announced that he too was taking legal action.
[17] Another target, writer and Irish citizenship campaigner Emma DeSouza from Derry, commented, “I’m surprised to see so many defenders of online abuse and harassment in the aftermath of the Eoghan Harris scandal.
[21] Harris admitted use of the Barbara J. Pym account to Sunday Independent editor Alan English, who described the columnist's position as "untenable".
[26][27] On 15 May in an Irish Times letter Harris, referring to himself as a "78-year-old man with terminal cancer", denied that attacks on Grace Moore were sexualised and defended hiding his identity.
He said, "Sinn Féin has mobilised its social media army to gender a political issue and ruin my reputation by depicting me as a misogynist.".
[2] Naming one other suspended account, he observed: Sunday Independent Editor Alan English reported on 9 May 2021, On 16 May Eoghan Harris's partner Gwen Halley stated that she was 'Dolly White'.
I wanted to cut down on the amount of Sinn Fein badgering I would get if I went under my own name.”[18] In a radio interview on RTÉ Drivetime on 7 May, Harris discussed founding the account with five others, including "trade unionists, historians and businesspeople".
[4][30] Harris said he admitted his involvement with the account, "because I am proud of the tweets which are mostly addressed to loyalists, the most recent of them urging restraint on protests against the [post-Brexit Northern Ireland] Protocol and assuring working class unionists that most of us in the Republic have no malign agenda against their heritage and political freedoms.
[4][30] Aoife Moore, Emma De Souza and Sarah McInerney (during her interview with Harris) announced that, as a result of attacks, they had 'muted' the Pym account.
[31] Alongside Paul Larkin and Sean Murray, Aoife Moore and Allison Morris are undertaking legal action against Harris and Twitter.
They were joined by Denzil McDaniel, a former editor of the Impartial Reporter in Enniskillen, Colin Harvey, a professor of human rights law at Queen's University, and citizenship campaigner Emma deSouza.
The Twitter accounts associated with Harris are subject to a Norwich Pharmacal order, requiring disclosure of information to applicants undertaking legal proceedings.
Morris's solicitor sought "full disclosure of each and every targeted account pertaining to Mr Harris directly and from Twitter" in the High Court in Dublin.
Moore's solicitor said she "will take all the steps necessary to protect her reputation and will not be deterred as a young female journalist by the actions of men operating faceless Twitter accounts.