After Tánaiste Simon Harris and his family were threatened online last weekend gardaí quickly identified a Dublin woman in her 30s as the chief suspect.
The woman was arrested on Tuesday and then released without charge pending further investigations.
Ironically, although the woman is alleged to have threatened to kidnap Mr Harris’s children, she had previously used a TikTok to round on a foreign man accused of kidnapping children in Dublin, branding him “scum”.
This is not the first time Harris has been targeted.
RM Block
There have been protests, some by masked people, outside his home, as well at the homes of then taoiseach Leo Varadkar, former minister for children Roderic O’Gorman and former minister for health Stephen Donnelly. Harris and minister for education Helen McEntee last year both received bomb threats at their family homes.
Green Party councillor Janet Horner and Independent councillor Tania Doyle were assaulted, while canvassing, in separate incidents on the same day in May 2024. The attacks were linked to the far right.
Minister for State Michael Healy-Rae, the Independent TD from Kerry, needed to be escorted by two gardaí down Kildare Street in Dublin as he was pursued during a protest in September 2023, outside Leinster House; his assistant’s phone was stolen.
On the same day mock gallows were erected close to the gates of Leinster House, with photographs of high-profile politicians from Sinn Féin, Fine Gael, People Before Profit–Solidarity and Fianna Fáil. There were 13 arrests made at the event, attended by the far right and other anti-establishment agitators
This week, Coimisiún na Meán, the broadcasting and online media regulator, released a report setting out how often extreme online abuse was directed at more than half the candidates in last year’s elections.
Beyond the high-profile and well-documented incidents – and the abuse recorded in the latest research, politicians who spoke to The Irish Times this week told of their personal experiences of the abuse and online threats they have received.
The politicians reveal how they were accosted and assaulted on the streets. Some of those who told their stories are current or former ministers, but have spoken on condition of anonymity. Mr Harris is not among the people interviewed.
One says he was driving last year, and stopped in traffic, when a man who “looked normal and reasonable” tapped on his car window. When he opened it, the man threatened to “shoot me in the head”.
“If you speak publicly there is the risk you come across as weak and someone looking for victimhood,” says another politician.
Another says an “army” of abusive people has made nuisance and threatening calls to their mobile for a long period. The issue is now “so bad” they have given permission to gardaí to monitor – or “tap” – their phone in a bid to trace the callers.
Another says the “vitriol” they have been repeatedly targeted with by people who have approached him on the street has been shocking.
“We saw a case recently of a guard being stabbed on the street [in Dublin] and, I’m telling you, we’re one inch away from that happening to a politician.”
One of the politicians says on the days they are in Leinster House, it is no longer possible to go for a walk through the city centre as they once did. Gardaí have also asked they not to go for such walks.
“It would be out of the question now anyway. Some of these people spot you, they take out the phone and follow you and they are just looking for that reaction from you. These people are calling you scum, a bollocks, a traitor.”
But who exactly are “these people”?
The politicians said that although immigration is the main issue they are tackled on, often in a threatening manner, their targeting is motivated by subjects ranging from Israel, gender, sexuality and the housing crisis to farming, climate change, vaccines and abortion.
One of the politicians says that although he finds the abuse, which has been in-person, by phone and via social media, very negative and annoying, he is not in fear.
However, his family is fearful and, as a result, he has undertaken significant security measures at his home, such as installing an extensive lighting system and security cameras outside the property.
“We even have alarm buttons on the doors now ... all because of politics,” he says. “Years ago there was nothing like this; this is completely alien to me. I never thought this is what politics would be.”
Another politician says they have fencing and electric gates erected at their home. At one point they moved their children and partner out of their home for a brief time out of fear they may be targeted as part of a specific campaign against them.
One politician was out with his wife in a restaurant when a man came over and “screamed” abuse in his face
One says that, as his profile grew, “it got pretty nasty very quickly”.
This is partly due to social media, which is now fully “weaponised”, including the use of “bots” and the suspected involvement of bad actors from Russia and elements of US society.
However, he also believes some media outlets are “completely skewed to the negative”. This has “sadly convinced people growing up here that it’s a shit country”, with “corrupt” politicians largely to blame.
When students come into the Dáil for internships, he often asks them where they believe Ireland places in the Human Development Index, which ranks 200 nations using health, education, wealth and life expectancy as key metrics.
Down the years “not a single one” has ever ranked Ireland in the top 50. This is despite Ireland having been as high as equal second in the index.
The politician says mainstream media and “toxic” content on social media are both reinforcing an extreme negative view of Ireland that is at odds with reality and making politicians “targets” and “fair game”.
One of the politicians was out with his wife in a restaurant when a man came over, put both his hands on their table and leant in and “screamed” abuse in his face.
On another occasion he went to the beach with his young child and was followed by a man shouting at them. The man continued to wait for them, shouting abuse, as they went on to the sand and into the water.
On one occasion, as the politician walked a short journey in Dublin city centre to a government department, he was threatened “six times”.
On a couple of other occasions he thought, “I really could be in trouble here”, when challenged on the street.
He was assigned an armed Garda driver – as were all ministers – in changes to their security arrangements between three and four years ago.
Another was approached and abused many times. “You curtail your movements. Grogan’s is one of my favourite pubs in Dublin but there’s no way I’d go for pints in Grogan’s – no chance – even if you had your guard sitting in a bar. Any of your normal haunts, you just wouldn’t go,” he says.
Another politician used to canvass twice a week in his constituency and it was “probably the most positive part of my week”. But that changed significantly in recent years, especially from January last year in the run-up to the local elections in June.
The atmosphere on the doorsteps “turned” acutely negative and many encounters were “nasty”, mostly related to people saying: “You’re destroying the country with asylum seekers.”
On one day, over a period of about an hour, “five people called me a c**t going past me ... it wasn’t pleasant”, says the politician.
Another, with ministerial experience, was initially assigned one armed garda to drive him and then a second “to go walking beside me” as the risk to him, and other politicians, was deemed to be growing.
Even when he went shopping in his local Tesco, one of the gardaí waited outside in the car and the other would be in the supermarket with him.
Despite this, he has come to the conclusion there is only one way to avoid being abused.
“After a while I said to myself: ‘No more holidaying in Ireland’. If I’m taking a bit of time, I need to get out of the country,” he says.
“I can’t, in any way, let my guard down when I’m around the place.”
