Howlin speaks of hate campaign against him

Labour Party leadership candidate, Mr Brendan Howlin, has spoken of a hate campaign against him amid allegations about his sexuality.

He said he had received hate-mail earlier this week accusing him of being gay. The envelope also contained a "bit of white powder in it that I was supposed to believe was anthrax."

The letters were "mostly to do with my stand on refugees", and accused him of being a "nigger-lover", he said. "I don't want to be a martyr in any of this... These are things that, if you take a strong line in politics, happen to you."

Speaking on RTÉ's Livelineprogramme, Mr Howlin said the accusations about his sexuality stretched back to the mid-90s, when there had been a poster campaign alleging he was having a homosexual affair with a well-known public figure in Dublin.

"It was somebody that I don't think I've ever met in my life, but there's loads of people who would take that as a matter of fact," the Wexford TD said. "That's all history."

The issue arose today following the publication of a newspaper interview in which Mr Howlin denied rumours that he was gay. Asked why he didn't merely dismiss the question as unimportant, Mr Howlin said that had he failed to answer, he would have been accused of refusing to comment.

"I don't regard [my sexuality] as in any way important. In a way that was part of my dilemma - do I deal with it, or do I just let people believe what they believe? It doesn't matter to me what anybody's sexuality is, in terms of the work I do, the campaign I want to lead and the type of society I want to build."

"But I decided `I'm going to put this issue to bed'. I'm going to finish talking about it today, and people can believe what they like...and judge me only on what I've done and what I am."

He had received lots of messages of support today from his constituency in Wexford, he said. He added that there are journalists ringing his friends asking who stays in his house and where he socialises, and this media intrusion into his private life was "annoying".