Labour TD and former tánaiste Joan Burton has finished her evidence in the trial of seven men charged with falsely imprisoning her during a water charges protest in November 2014.
Ms Burton told prosecuting counsel, Sean Gillane that she had never experienced anything like it during her time as a public representative.
She said that being called a c**t and a b**ch was not part of political discourse in her experience.
She said she found people were usually very polite and kind. And she said people from a working class background, like herself, did not use that kind of language
Ms Burton told the court she has reduced her use of social media because of the abuse directed towards female politicians.
She also said her social media accounts have to be read by other people and cleaned of certain material before she reads them.
Ms Burton was being cross-examined by a seventh senior counsel on her fourth day in the witness box in the trial of Solidarity TD Paul Murphy and six other men who are charged with falsely imprisoning her in during a water charge protest in Jobstown, Dublin in November 2014.
Ms Burton was being questioned again about a direction to her assistant Karen O'Connell to go on social media and say it was shameful that children at the protest were roaming free and not supervised.
Defence counsel Michael O'Higgins suggested it was direction to an employee to use social media to smear the demonstrators and was a strategic move.
Ms Burton denied it was an instruction and said it was "just conversation".
She said her assistant was more familiar with social media than she was. It was put to her that all politicians knew the power of social media to get a story out.
An audio recording was played during which Ms Burton can be heard saying: "What you should do now is go on social media and say it is just shameful, all the little kids there no one minding them they were just free to roam the streets".
Ms Burton said it was "just talk" and said she never pursued it or checked if it was done.
Questioned about her knowledge and use of social media, Ms Burton said she had reduced her use of it because of the vile comments directed towards female politicians in particular.
She said her social media accounts now had to be read and "cleaned by people" before she reads them.
It was put to her that the reason she was telling Ms O'Connell to go on social media to comment about the children was designed to paint a picture of the protesters as an uncaring group.
Ms Burton denied this but accepted she was angry at the protesters.
She denied it was a strategic move and said she was a "frightened person sitting in the back of a car".
She said she was "not at my most thoughtful strategic best, I will acknowledge that".
Ms Burton repeatedly denied she was familiar with social media and its strategic use and said her use of it was moderate.
Mr O'Higgins said this was a misleading and false impression to give the jury when she had previously given interviews detailing the power of social media and her use of new technology.
"Why tell the jury I'm not a Twitterati, I'm more of a tea and buns in Kilkenny. It is a false impression?" Mr O'Higgins said.
Ms Burton said her family would regard her as "an IT idiot".
She said social media had become a "very sad and difficult space so people like me don't get involved in it as much as we should or used to".
Ms Burton became very emotional as she watched a piece of footage showing her being moved from a garda jeep towards the end of the protest. A man can be heard shouting at her that she was a "f*****g disgrace". She told the court it was very very distressing to her what happened.
The courtroom was cleared briefly to allow her to watch it on her own.
Mr O'Higgins apologised if the footage was distressing for her but he said he had his client to represent and this was a very serious matter for him. "This has to be done," he said.
Mr O'Higgins then showed Ms Burton a number of other clips which showed protesters sitting down, blocking vehicles and gardaí attempting to remove them.
During the attempts, which Mr O'Higgins described as "quite chaotic", Paul Murphy's top was removed.
Mr O'Higgins asked Ms Burton if she could identify Mr Murphy in the footage. There was laughter in court as Ms Burton asked Mr O'Higgins to identify him to her as she had not seen Mr Murphy with his clothes off.
Mr O'Higgins put it to Ms Burton that the videos showed that there were two sides to this story and that she had told only one side of the story.
Ms Burton said there were two sides, but she said she and her assistant were inside the car, they were not able to leave or use the public road and she felt quite frightened for quite a lot of it.
She said she had been asked to come to court to give her evidence about her experience.
Ms Burton said Paul Murphy, like her, had the honour to be a member of Dáil Éireann in this democracy where there was the freedom to vote, speak and engage in peaceful protest.
She said he was one of a very elite group of people who had the right to speak in the Dáil. She said he had quite a number of opportunities to speak.
Assistant tells court she was 'petrified'
Ms Burton former special adviser, Karen O'Connell, told the court she was "petrified" as anti-water charges protesters surrounded them at the event.
Ms O'Connell said protesters surrounded them and she felt they were trying to get at them as gardaí tried to help them to leave. As they sat in the first car protesters placed placards over all the windows and they could not see out.
She described how "horrible language" was directed at the former tánaiste and people shouted "I hope you die", "you ugly b**ch", "how do you sleep at night".
She said the protestors were chanting anti-Labour and anti-water charges slogans.
She recognised Paul Murphy standing a short distance away taking pictures on his phone.
She said gardaí had to "almost carry" them from the first car to a jeep to escape the protesters who had blocked the first car from moving.
During this time the crowd swarming around it "felt like an angry mob".
She said she was crying and hyperventilating and felt very scared.
Ms O’Connell said gardaí had to physically push Ms Burton into the car and before she could get in one of the protesters grabbed the collar of her coat and their grip had to be released by a garda.
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The jeep was then prevented from moving by a sit down protest for up to two hours more and eventually she had to run to a third vehicle.
She said gardaí had told them to "run, run, run" and she had stumbled at one point before being thrown into a car and driven off at speed.
She said it was "one of the most scary experiences I have ever experienced."
During cross-examination by counsel for Paul Murphy, Seán Guerin, Ms O’Connell agreed the reason she had been there that day was because she was a special adviser to the tanaiste.
Having traveled there in her own car, she said she decided to stay with Ms Burton because she was upset and she was trying to assist her, adding: "I'm not sure if that was in a capacity of a special adviser."
During cross-examination by counsel for Michael Murphy, Raymond Comyn, Ms O'Connell agreed that she had followed the advice of gardaí about the best way to leave the church in Jobstown.
Ms O'Connell also agreed she had previously taken part in protests, including the Shell to Sea campaign, during which sit down protests had been staged and some had been arrested.
She said she had not been arrested.
While she accepted that lorries had been prevented entering a refinery she said no one had ever been prevented from leaving a place.
Her cross-examination continues tomorrow.
All seven defendants have pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Ms Burton and Ms O'Connell on 15 November 2014, as the former tánaiste was attending a graduation ceremony at An Cosán Centre in Jobstown.
The defendants are Paul Murphy, 34, from Kingswood Heights in Tallaght; Cllr Michael Murphy, 53, from Whitechurch Way in Ballyboden in Dublin; Cllr Kieran Mahon, 39, from Bolbrook Grove in Tallaght; 34-year-old Scott Masterson from Carrigmore Drive in Tallaght; 71-year-old Frank Donaghy from Alpine Rise in Tallaght; 46-year-old Michael Banks from Brookview Green, Tallaght and 50-year-old Ken Purcell from Kiltalown Green also in Tallaght.
The trial is expected to last at least six weeks.
