Féile Derry has condemned abusive comments directed at former Sinn Féin politician Martina Anderson on social media.

The festival stated it received hundreds of hateful remarks on its own platforms and elsewhere since the middle of last week. The material included both misogynistic and sectarian content.

The abuse began after the launch of Anderson's memoir, Choosing the Struggle, at the opening event of Féile in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin in Derry on August 5. The book traces her journey from her youth in the Bogside, through republican activism and imprisonment, to later senior political roles.

In the memoir, she describes her decision to end a pregnancy in 1985. At the time, she was due to participate in an IRA mission. Later that year, she was arrested and convicted of conspiring to cause explosions, receiving a life sentence.

A Féile spokesperson said no one in public life should have to endure such treatment and called for zero tolerance. The festival restated its opposition to all hatred and intolerance, and specifically to misogyny.

Martina Anderson, from Derry's Bogside, spent 13 years as a political prisoner. She was first elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007 for Foyle and later served as a Junior Minister in the Executive. She was an MEP for Northern Ireland from 2012 to 2020, and returned as an MLA from 2020 to 2021.