Analysis: How many more will decide abuse means politics is no longer worth it?

Many of Eoghan Murphy’s numerous online critics will argue that he brought the outrage on himself but when a politician’s loved ones are being abused on the street, things have gone too far

Eoghan Murphy has argued that the slowdown in construction caused by the pandemic robbed him of the opportunity to show how house building had recovered under his watch. Picture: Fergal Phillips

The clock had probably begun to tick on Eoghan Murphy’s political career last summer, the minute he told Leo Varadkar he didn’t want to be reappointed to cabinet.

Politics is full of former ministers who go on to play an important role as elder statesmen and women from the backbenches but, at 39, Murphy was clearly far too young for such a role.

Instead, he had to choose whether to try to rehabilitate his public ...