East Belfast Irish language teacher Linda Ervine has criticised a TUV local election candidate for putting "inflammatory" statements on social media in a bid to "raise tensions and win votes".
Linda Ervine manages the Turas Irish language project, and was responding to a lengthy post by TUV candidate Anne Smyth - the mother of BBC Northern Ireland Director Adam Smyth.
In her Facebook post, Mrs Smyth spoke about East Belfast GAA club and said that while Ms Ervine was associated, their page was "remarkably coy about naming other participants or the location of the club's activities".
She added that Ms Ervine "first came to public notice for her attempts to persuade east Belfast people to learn Gaelic," questioning how she received National Lottery funding for a report suggesting a substantial number of First World War Soldiers from East Belfast only spoke Irish.
"This misrepresentation flew in the face of common sense, never mind genuine research, but the group ‘doubled down’ on it regardless," she said.
Mrs Smyth went on to criticise East Belfast GAA after a primary school had offered to hold a taster session, but halted it after social media threats.
Following this, there were moves on the part of Belfast City Council to convert football pitches at Victoria Park for GAA use, but the work was halted after discussions with local political representatives.
She quoted an open letter stating the decision to cancel was "justifiable in view of the sectarian nature of the supposed 'sporting' organisation that is the GAA."
Mrs Smyth also spoke of "GAA expansionism," claiming that proposals to use council owned playing fields was ignoring the concerns of unionists and council procedure.
Read more - Linda Ervine: I realised Irish belonged to me - a Protestant - and I fell in love with it
She added: "If the club is sincere in its wish to reach out to the unionist community of East Belfast, all it has to do is dissociate itself from the GAA’s fixation with violent republicanism, both historically and currently."
Ms Ervine told The Irish News: "I’m very grateful for all of the positive responses and support shown to us after this recent attack from the TUV".
Commenting on Facebook, she had accused Ms Smyth of "putting inflammatory and untrue statements on social media in a bid to raise tensions and win votes - negative electioneering which offers nothing positive to communities."
She also told the Belfast Telegraph: “This is a misrepresentation of the outcomes of the First World War project carried out by a group in east Belfast.
“If Mrs Smyth would like help in understanding the actual findings of the research, we would be happy to meet with her.
“Our research shines a light on the diversity and shared history within east Belfast and contributes to greater community cohesion.
"It is unfortunate when electoral candidates use negative electioneering to attack and criticise local people and projects rather than focusing on the positives that they could bring to a community.”
Ms Smyth's comments were also criticised by principal and Irish News columnist Chris Donnelly.
Posting on Twitter, he said: "Hounding schools because of rumours they might let people play sport in their grounds; speculating that the East Belfast GAA club may merely exist to provoke and indoctrinate, as opposed to give a chance for people to play games.
"Anne Smyth is a new low for even the TUV."
