Former Justice Minister: Arson attack 'disgusting and anti-democratic'

Former Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Senator Michael McDowell has described the arson attack on a car outside the house of Sinn Féin TD for Sligo-Leitrim Martin Kenny as “disgusting and anti democratic.”

"It was absolutely abhorrent that (Kenny) and his family had to live in fear because of cowardly people who appeared to have an ultra right agenda,"| Senator McDowell told Newstalk Breakfast.

It was not okay for some to suggest that because Mr Kenny is a Sinn Féin representative that the attack was acceptable, he said.

This was an attack on every deputy in Dáil Éireann.

This was not just the loss of a car, he added. This was a threat of personal violence by “very undemocratic forces” because of something Mr Kenny had said.

Last week Mr Kenny spoke in Dáil Éireann in support of a centre for asylum seekers in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, which has been opposed by some local people. Early on Monday, Mr Kenny’s car was apparently set alight outside his home. Gardaí are investigating the incident.

Senator McDowell said that when people become involved in politics they do so with the mandate of the people who elect them.

There were a number of people who were constantly using fear of “the great replacement”, warning that Ireland was about to be annihilated “by a wave of people taking over the country,” he added. That was a very dangerous line of thinking.

Existing laws need to be enforced and legislation that was being planned 12 years ago when he was Minister for Justice about speeding up the asylum application process needed to be completed, said Senator McDowell.

People are still in limbo. We have to have a simplified system.

The Senator said he agreed with the parish priest of Ballinamore Fr Sean Mawn who said it was time for local people to review their decision to have a round-the-clock protest.

Fr Mawn also condemned the apparent arson attack on Mr Kenny’s car as a “despicable act which has no place in civilised society” but he stressed that this “thuggery” was, he believed, a separate issue to the ongoing protest.

Senator McDowell said: “Look what happened in the situation with Quinn Cement, the parish priest had to step in a say ‘we are the community’, we have to stand up for what is right...The law of the land has to be upheld. No one has the right to burn a car as a threat. People have to sober up.

When we established an independent Ireland, it was a democracy based on the rule of law.

He said there was no excuse to deviate from the rule of law or to engage in thuggery or in making threats against other people.

This article was edited on Oct 29.