Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has revealed she was the subject of a death threat and has reported the threat to the Gardaí.
In a video, verified by the Irish Independent, a masked man threatens the life of McDonald and Garda commissioner Drew Harris.
In the video, the man says that Harris will “be getting shot” by the end of the year.
The man states “and see that Mary Lou? I’ll shoot her meself, for free. I’ll do her for free.”
The man also made reference to the ongoing anti-immigration protests in Coolock in a separate TikTok clip verified by the Irish Independent.
“This is ridiculous lads. Get up the lads in Coolock. F**kin’ love yas, lads, petrol bomb the f**k out of the lot of them”
McDonald posted on Twitter “last night a threat to kill me was issued online. The individual said he would shoot me dead. This represents an escalation of targeted online abuse directed at me over the last year; it is totally unacceptable.”
She said she reported the video to An Garda Síochána and noted that the threat was being made while she was hosting a discussion on the need for zero tolerance of violence against women.
A Twitter user noted that they had reported the video in question to TikTok, but the video sharing site failed to take it down after a report was filed.
Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has spoken out about the threats made against him, with the Daily Mirror reporting a far-right plot to assassinate him in 2022.
Speaking on RTÉ on the current environment politicians operate in, he said “I’ve spoken to people who are heads of government in other countries, or people who are senior politicians in other countries, and some of them can’t even go to a restaurant because they have to shut down the whole restaurant or the block. Some of them can’t go to the shops, can’t go to the cinema and really do live in a security bubble.
The run-up to June’s local elections was overshadowed by threats and assaults against female candidates, including councillor Tania Doyle in Ongar (in which she said she feared for her life) and Green Party councillor Janet Horner revealing she was threatened by a man while hanging up posters, with Horner reporting that her assailant shouted “Dublin 1 is far-right country” at her.