There has been some controversy after the newest individual to hold the @Ireland Twitter handle, Maria Oswalt, was revealed to be a pro-life American citizen.

The @Ireland Twitter handle is a handle that is used by a different person each week. Here is the official description on their website:

"The @Ireland Twitter account rotates each week with a new voice introduced every Monday morning. As the Ireland of today is not confined to the island of Ireland, the varied voices of @Ireland come from Ireland and across the world."

Maria Oswalt has been selected to curate the handle this year but a number of people have become upset by her private opinions on the 8th debate and have raised concerns about outside voices coming to Ireland to influence the debate.

The issue was first raised on Reddit when a user posted this picture of her father:


Though some people are concerned with her stance affecting her content, the vast majority of things she has been posting thus far has been cute animals and silly socks.

Another Reddit user pointed out some posts from her personal Twitter account that indicated that she has protested outside abortion facilities in the USA and wants to make the abortion issue 'unthinkable'.

Maria took to Twitter last night to address the issue:

Okay okay, I feel like I have to address this now because people are starting to even question why I'm here in Ireland & why I'm on this account.



Yes, I'm pro-life. Yes, I was hoping to volunteer during my time here. — Ireland / Catherine (@ireland) February 5, 2018

I'm sorry if my stance or past work makes you no longer like me, but I honestly did not come onto this account with any sort of agenda in mind. I'll show you my spreadsheet of tweet ideas if ya want. — Ireland / Catherine (@ireland) February 5, 2018


Her post attracted a huge amount of negative attention on Twitter and many are calling for her to remove herself from the curation of the @Ireland handle.

It is not unusual for curators to have a stance on these issues but, historically, the @Ireland Twitter account tries to avoid political issues.

Though, in the past, some have even posted 'repeal the 8th' in the past on the handle.