Simon Harris being ‘hounded out of office', says former Fine Gael TD

Olivia Kelleher

A former Fine Gael TD has warned that threats which are being made to Tánaiste Simon Harris are the work of people who are “seeking to hound him out of office".

A garda investigation is underway after two threats were made to Minister Harris and his family in the space of a week.

One caller to gardaí suggested that a bomb had been left at the home of the Tánaiste in Greystones, Co Wicklow.

Following the calls yesterday, Garda launched a major security operation and the property was searched.

Minister Harris described the threats as a “clear and sinister pattern and a very apparent motivation; to intimidate me out of public office.”

Former Galway East TD Ciarán Cannon told Newstalk Breakfast that threats against politicians have intensified and become more sinister in nature in recent years.

“What mostly resided on social media for the last number of years is now beginning to filter out into what you might call the real, physical world with these horrific threats against the Tánaiste and his young family.

“What’s causing it? A general effort, I would argue, globally to divide people, to polarise people into their respective camps.

“That, unfortunately, is beginning to have an impact here in Ireland; there’s no question about that.

“When we allow really abusive and threatening behaviour… people are emboldened to take that abuse out into the real world, the physical world and call up police stations and threaten to bomb the Tánaiste’s home.”

Mr Cannon said that the Tánaiste is "completely correct” in drawing attention to the threat. He believes that the people involved are “seeking to hound him out of office”.

“We need to see leadership from the leadership of all our political parties here in Ireland and, indeed, those who lead the independent groupings to say that this is simply not acceptable,” he said.

“If we get that kind of response from the body politic as a whole, I think it would be really important in sending out a very strong message to those who are engaging with this behaviour that it’s not acceptable in any form and has no support in any political quarter.”

Mr Cannon added that people often fail to realise that politicians have feelings and are just like everyone else when it comes to their private life.

“We forget sometimes that politicians are just parents, neighbours, members of our local community,” he said.

“But the moment they’re elected, they somehow get treated as symbols instead of human beings and that makes it far too easy to justify the abuse.

“And it’s corrosive right now, it’s becoming deeply corrosive to democracy in Ireland.”