Mayor of Galway 'taking step back' due to threats

Abuse aimed at civic leader included graffiti, lewd online messages, and a threatening note left near his family's home

Galway City Mayor Mike Cubbard

The Mayor of Galway City is taking time away from his role after a number of threats were made against himself and his family.

Independent councillor Mike Cubbard was elected in 2014 and has been mayor since 2019. However, a number of personalised threats against him have led him to "take a step back".

The incidents — which have been reported to gardaí, and which include graffiti being daubed on a community centre, and online comments — culminated earlier this week in a note being left on the van of a Galway City Council worker near Mr Cubbard's parents' home.

“HSE bastards. We will get ye,” it read. "We will burn ye. We will get Cobbard [sic]. Ye lying pigs. Cobbard pig.”

WhatsApp account

In another incident, a WhatsApp account purporting to be Mr Cubbard's sent sexually explicit messages to public representatives across the country, many of whom the councillor has never met.

Mr Cubbard told the Irish Examiner that he is "taking a couple of days" to decide whether he wants to continue in his role, saying that he "won't do the job if I can't do it 100%".

A while ago I called out antisocial behaviour in a particular estate and was threatened to my face, with my wife and kids also threatened.

"The note left on Tuesday was around 500 yards from the home I grew up in. It's the third time in 12 months that I've been threatened. The note was put into a family's home who have nothing to do with me."

Mr Cubbard said that while he accepts that scrutiny is part of being a politician, he does not accept personalised abuse.

"People say that you're in politics and you've to suffer this, but you don't have to take this level of personal abuse," he said. 

I have three kids under ten and have gone to schools telling kids to get involved in politics and now I'm asking myself 'why would they?'

"We keep telling ourselves this kind of behaviour and trolling will go away, but it won't on its own. The average person will turn away from politics."

Mr Cubbard says he is "big and bold enough" to understand that there are disagreements.

But this is different. My wife says that when the sensor lights, she's jumping and that's no way to live. 

Mr Cubbard says that he will decide over the weekend whether he will chair the council's meeting on Monday.