{"id":603947,"date":"2026-08-25T08:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/603947\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T08:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:10:10","slug":"limerick-social-democrats-member-appeals-decision-to-expel-her-from-party-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/603947\/","title":{"rendered":"Limerick Social Democrats member appeals decision to expel her from party \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Social Democrats<\/a> party has moved to expel a prominent member of its Limerick branch who claims she is being punished for raising a \u201clack of representation\u201d in an internal party meeting. <\/p>\n

The activist, Karen Sugrue, is appealing the decision under the party\u2019s complaints process, arguing it is \u201cmanifestly disproportionate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sugrue, who is a sociologist and psychotherapist lecturing in the applied social sciences department of the Technical University of the Shannon (TUS), wrote to the party\u2019s Leinster House representatives and local councillors on Monday morning criticising the decision. <\/p>\n

In her email, a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times, she said she had been \u201cpermanently expelled\u201d from the party having been accused of bringing it into disrepute. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy actions were to speak at a small online meeting about lack of representation,\u201d she wrote, arguing that a male branch colleague had spoken at the same meeting and said the same things. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow did I bring the party into disrepute but my male colleague did not? Is a woman saying something different to a man saying the same thing at the same time?\u201d<\/p>\n

In her email she referenced the controversy surrounding the party\u2019s Dublin Bay South TD Eoin Hayes, who was suspended from the party<\/a> after it emerged he had given misleading information about the timing of his disposal of shares in a former employer that had lucrative contracts with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was suspended from the party for eight months and [deputy leader] Cian O\u2019Callaghan publicly said he had been \u2018punished enough\u2019,\u201d she wrote. \u201cBut I have been permanently expelled from the party for speaking about (a) lack of representation at a small closed meeting in Limerick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillors in Limerick have previously been supportive of Sugrue during the internal investigation.<\/p>\n

Limerick City North councillor Shane Hickey-O\u2019Mara was previously reported to have written to party members to say the suspension was \u201cabsolutely devastating\u201d for him and the party\u2019s Limerick City West councillor Elisa O\u2019Donovan. <\/p>\n

Asked for comment on the intended expulsion of Sugrue, the councillors gave a short statement to The Irish Times outlining that they were proud of how well the Social Democrats were doing in Limerick, adding they would focus on representing the constituents. <\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of any internal party difficulties, we will continue to represent our communities and remain true to the values that brought us into the Social Democrats in the first place: fairness, equality, transparency and a commitment to better public services.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a request for comment, Sugrue told The Irish Times that while she was a volunteer and the proposed expulsion would not affect her livelihood, there was an \u201cendemic\u201d practice of punishing women who complain across the public sector. She did not expand on what she meant by a \u201clack of representation\u201d. <\/p>\n

She said she intended to \u201ccontinue to proudly work closely with the fabulous Limerick team who work tirelessly on the ground for the people of Limerick\u201d. <\/p>\n

In her email to party representatives on Monday, she said the expulsion was \u201cvery sinister and worrying and profoundly anti-democratic and counter to every single core tenet of social democracy\u201d. <\/p>\n

She told them that amid a backlash against women\u2019s rights globally, and when elected women experience sustained attacks, \u201cwe in the party of more mn\u00e1 are not allowed to even mention sexism without being punished for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Social Democrats spokeswoman said it does not comment on internal party matters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Social Democrats party has moved to expel a prominent member of its Limerick branch who claims she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[128330,20207,61,60,43,1419,99250],"class_list":["post-603947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cian-ocallaghan","tag-eoin-hayes","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-social-democrats","tag-technological-university-of-the-shannon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}