People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy says the threat allegedly made during a canvassing event in Tallaght on Saturday to “slit the throat” of his wife was the latest in a growing number of incidents he believes are intended to intimidate parties and individuals on the left.
He said that he takes threats made against him and his family seriously and told the This Week programme on RTÉ Radio that a meeting he was involved in organising last Monday night had to be abandoned after it was targeted by what he described as “seven or eight far-right activists”.
Asked about the incident involving the threat to his wife, which he posted about on social media at the time, Mr Murphy said he and a group of activists from the party had been canvassing about “pro-choice legislation that we have coming up in the Dáil on Thursday; giving out leaflets, getting people to sign petitions, talking to people”.
“About an hour into our activity a guy came up and was quite agitated when he saw that we were pro-choice, quite agitated when he saw we were People Before Profit. He didn’t initially recognise me, actually. But then after a few moments of kind of hanging around, he clocked who I was, and then came up to me extremely aggressively, in my face, making threats.
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[ Family home of Paul Murphy TD targeted by protestersOpens in new window ]
“In particular, what he said, and it obviously stood out for me, was that ‘I’m going to slit your wife’s throat before the end of the week’.
“So we called the guards, obviously immediately. Then he walked off after a while once he saw that were one of our activists was on the phone to the guards (and) the guards came.”
Asked if he feared for the safety of his partner and young child due to incidents like this, Mr Murphy said he believed it was part of a wider campaign of intimidation.
“Yes, I am concerned because this is the third incident in a week that we’ve had in Tallaght. On Monday night we had a public meeting against evictions which was disrupted by seven or eight far-right activists, some of whom have previously made physical threats against me. We had to cancel that meeting.
“On Friday night we were campaigning in a local area, Jobstown, for a local playground. A woman who was involved in the disruption on Monday night and had been involved in Sandwith Street, which ended up with tents being burned of asylum seekers, followed me around filming me repeatedly, claiming loudly that I wanted to teach babies how to masturbate. Obviously, that’s completely ridiculous, It’s a conspiracy theory that she has swallowed whole.
“And then this, which is obviously extremely serious so yes, I do take it seriously. Things are escalating, things are getting more intimidating and threatening, but obviously the answer to that from our point of view is take some security measures but not to be intimidated because I think that’s what these people want.
“They’re very much targeting the left. They’re targeting Sinn Féin, they’re targeting the opposition to the Government. And they want us not to be out talking to people and campaigning.”
In a statement, An Garda Síochána confirmed it had responded to a report regarding the incident on Saturday afternoon.
“Gardaí attended at the scene and inquires into the incident are ongoing,” it said. “No arrests have been made to date.”
