THE EQUALITY MINISTER Áodhan Ó Ríordáin and the independent senator Rónán Mullen have had some sharp exchanges on Twitter today.

This morning, Ó Ríordáin tweeted this in response to the Pro Life Campaign’s Cora Sherlock appearance on Morning Ireland to discuss yesterday’s UN report on Ireland’s abortion laws:

The Labour TD’s tweet appeared to draw a parallel between those who opposed the recent same-sex marriage referendum and pro-life campaigners.

It did not get a great response on Twitter:

It took a few hours but Mullen, a prominent conservative commentator, who opposed the referendum last month, responded with this:

But Ó Ríordáin wasn’t taking that lying down, and tweeted this response:

We’re waiting to see what Mullen has to say to that, but he’s not the only anti-same-sex marriage politician to respond to Ó Ríordáin today.

A minute before Mullen’s initial tweet, here’s what Tipperary South TD Mattie McGrath had to say:

This one could run…