Paul Hosford: We should not shy away from speaking out when the line is crossed
Tánaiste and Fine Gael party leader Simon Harris said protecting his family would be his number one priority, adding that he would be 'guided by them on the next steps'. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA
With just a month to go to Budget 2026 and a presidential election bubbling to a decent temperature, a party think-in with a group that has been in government for 14 years should have plenty of fodder for dissection.
However, as the Fine Gael party got together in Westmeath on Monday, the first and last questions to Tánaiste Simon Harris were about the same thing: A week which had seen a number of threats made against himself and his family.
The garda presence, always in place at events featuring multiple ministers, was noticeably increased.
Harris himself looked like someone who had spent their Sunday dealing with bomb threats being phoned in against his family and was not in the mood to hide from the threats, the third incident in a week following threats against his children and a "close family member".
“I just think how anybody would feel if, in the last week, somebody threatened to kidnap a child and carry out extreme violence against a close family relative and blow up your house," he said.
“That’s all happened in the last seven days. To me this time, to who else the next time.
Harris is correct. The incidents absolutely deserve reflection, and not just because of who Simon Harris is or the position he holds.
They deserve reflection because they are the latest in a string of incidents that crossed the line from political opposition to violence.
In Mullingar alone, party chairman Micheál Carrigy has faced the kind of threats to his children that, in 2023, saw a man given a five-month prison sentence — which was suspended for a period of 18 months.
Education minister Helen McEntee was subject to two bomb threats at her family home in 2024. Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill was harassed and stalked by a man who, in 2022, was given a suspended sentence. And that is just in Fine Gael.
In 2019, Sinn Féin's Martin Kenny's car was set alight. In 2022, a car drove through the gates of his home while he was working in Dublin. People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy was kicked on the street outside Leinster House.
We are not careening to a point where politicians are in physical danger. We are long past that point. We are at an inflection point where we decide how much worse we can tolerate it getting.
Simon Harris is not a perfect politician, nor is he above criticism. No politician is or should be. He has policy and personal failures, which should be called out and which should be criticised as and when they happen.
No politician listed above or who has suffered similar is any different. However, there has to be a line between what is and isn't acceptable and, when that line is crossed, we should not shy away from it or speak about it in euphemisms but should face it head on.
Harris said in a statement over the weekend that he would not be cowed or bullied from public office.
In Mullingar, he delivered two answers which were equivocal and saw him say that his political future would be decided in concert with them. The Tánaiste said protecting his family would be his number one priority, adding that he would be “guided by them on the next steps”.
In most other jobs, Harris or any politician who has faced threats or intimidation or violence would have the option of simply saying "enough" and walking away.
However, those in elected office have the weight of history and precedence on their shoulders. Each knows that if they were to bow to the pressure of the worst impulses of the worst people, they would create an Ireland whereby the ballot box — the actual manifestation of the will of the people — matters less than the furthest that a person is willing to go.
In Mullingar, Harris spoke of the upcoming budget, his party's priorities, and he defended his Government's record on housing. However, it was on his own experiences where he was most strident.
"I had to dig pretty deep to show up today, but I’m here and I’m getting on with the job,” he said.
That job is unique in that the public can decide if he continues to do it or not, but not by threatening him or his family.
