Hotel offers 50% discount to anyone who rips down NO posters

If you can’t see this post you can view it here.

It’s not the first time the hotel’s Facebook page has caused controversy. It previously offered a discount to people to make paper planes out of

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Reacting to the post today, the Mothers and Fathers Matter group, who are advocating for a NO vote, have called the post an “attack on democracy".

“Since they were erected last week, our posters have been subject to an orchestrated campaign of theft, defacement, and vandalism,” said Mothers and Fathers Matter spokesperson Keith Mills.

“That this would now be overtly encouraged by a prominent business supporter of the YES campaign is a little bit pathetic, but still an attack on democracy."

The Yes Equality campaign said the removal of any poster in the run-up to the Marriage Equality Referendum is not something they want to see.

“It is an offence to take down any poster. We unreservedly condemn any such act,” said Brian Sheehan, Yes Equality spokesperson.

“Members of the public who witness the removal of posters should report it to their local Garda station.”

A subsequent statement on the hotel's Facebook page, attributed to owner Paul Stenson, described the post as a “joke” and made light of the dangers involved in illegally removing posters from poles.

If you can’t see this post you can view it here.

We asked Stenson some follow-up questions. Those questions and his answers are below:

Q. Firstly, can you just confirm that this is in fact a “joke” post as you have described it?

Paul Stenson: The post was just as serious as the one we posted the day before stating that guests who take progress selfies in our gym mirrors would be electrocuted.

Q. Also, even if you are joking as you say, organisations representing both sides in the marriage equality referendum debate have condemned the post – have you a reaction to that?

PS: Some condemn, others applaud. Such is the nature of provocative social media strategies. If we didn't get people giving out, we wouldn't be doing our job.

Q. What will you do if anyone does comes into your hotel with a clearly taken down NO poster?

PS: Firstly I will shake their hand. Secondly I will give them a €10 voucher for Easons so they can buy a book on common sense.

Q. Finally, given that you have made it clear that the hotel is on the YES side of the referendum, even if your post was a joke, do you feel like it is damaging to the YES campaign in anyway?

PS: If people believe that a publicity-seeking, joke post by a gob shite hotelier on a satirical Facebook page can somehow damage the yes campaign, I am abundantly flattered on the one hand, and incredibly ashamed that the human race is capable of such naivety, on the other.