‘A line was crossed’ – Brian Dowling opens up about scary trolling incident

Brian Dowling said his address was leaked online

The dad-of-two has been dealing with waves of hate and abuse online for years, but one person took a step too far when they leaked his family's address online.

Brian told The Sun that he was so frightened following the incident because the person was trying to "incite some form of hatred."

Brian said: "I was in contact with people and it was just scary. Like when your address goes up online and people are... they're doing that to incite some form of hatred, that's not good."

He said nobody is sharing his personal address "for the sake of it."

He explained that it was such a dangerous thing to do because of his young family.

The dad-of-two told the publication: "That was very, very dangerous because obviously at the time at home; Aoife was heavily pregnant with Blu, Blake was a baby, everyone knows I'm on radio and telly over there, so I'm not there."

He was concerned for his family's welfare and said "a line was crossed."

Both Brian and Arthur have bravely risen above the trolling but the dad said this person went too far.

"And I just think that was when a line was crossed. Because it was our GDPR, it can't be broken," he said.

Brian Dowling said he has to laugh at trolling or else it'll get to him

During an interview on Doireann Garrihy’s podcast, Brian discussed the immense trolling he has faced since becoming a father.

Brian said he found it incredibly difficult, but noted that 90% of the responses he gets online are positive.

He told Doireann:

"I find if I don’t laugh at it, I’ll cry, but I cried so much over the years…

“I don’t wanna cry anymore, I want to laugh,” he shared.