Hundreds wish Minister well online

A NUMBER of Facebook sites set up to wish Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan well following his cancer diagnosis have attracted…

A NUMBER of Facebook sites set up to wish Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan well following his cancer diagnosis have attracted hundreds of messages of support.

Mr Lenihan’s teenage son Tom, a student at Belvedere College, posted a message on one of the sites thanking people for their good wishes for his father.

It reads: “Hi, I’m Tom, Brian’s son. I showed my dad the page. Thanks to everyone for your kind wishes. We appreciate it.”

Two anonymous Facebook sites were set up over the past 48 hours. As of early yesterday evening, one had attracted almost 500 members and the other has more than 100.

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One site titled “Politics aside, we wish Brian Lenihan well” states that it is a page for people to send good wishes to the Minister.

“It doesn’t matter who you vote for, nobody wants their son, father, brother or husband to go through this and in such a public way. (Please no health/treatment speculation, negativity),” it says.

Among those who have subscribed to the site are councillors from all political parties, as well as Fianna Fáil cumainn from throughout the country.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland said the authority was not yet in a position to say if it had received any complaints in relation to the St Stephen’s Day news broadcast on TV3, which first disclosed his illness.

Another Facebook site has encouraged people to complain to the authority.

Harry McGee

Harry McGee

Harry McGee is a Political Correspondent with The Irish Times