{"id":214217,"date":"2025-12-04T01:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/214217\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T01:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:54:10","slug":"call-for-lowering-of-the-temperature-as-sdlp-councillor-threatened-as-legitimate-target-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/214217\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for \u2018lowering of the temperature\u2019 as SDLP councillor threatened as \u2018legitimate target\u2019 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Belfast SDLP<\/a> councillor has vowed he will \u201cnot be deterred\u201d from his work following a reported threat identifying him as a \u201clegitimate target\u201d.<\/p>\n

The latest sinister threat to elected representatives in the north is against S\u00e9amas de Faoite<\/a>, who revealed he was advised of it on Wednesday before alerting police.<\/p>\n

It has been condemned by SDLP leader Claire Hanna<\/a>, who warned there must be a \u201creal lowering of the temperature around politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

The threat against the east Belfast<\/a> rep follows a video released earlier this week showing a group of masked men claiming to be republicans describing politicians in the Newry, Mourne and Down area as \u201clegitimate targets\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Popular<\/a>\"Call<\/a><\/p>\n

However, it is understood the threat against Mr de Faoite, who represents the Lisnasharragh area on Belfast City Council<\/a>, has been made by loyalist elements linked to vigilante mobs that have formed to target and intimidate ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n

The councillor learned of the threat a day after protestors clashed with police at Belfast City Hall<\/a> following the removal of a Palestinian flag from the top of the building.<\/p>\n

The flag flew from midnight to 4.30pm on Tuesday<\/a>, after councillors voted last month on its display, and ratified the decision at Monday\u2019s monthly meeting.<\/p>\n

In a post to the X social media platform on Wednesday, Mr de Faoite wrote: \u201cEarlier, a threat identifying me as a \u2018legitimate target\u2019 was brought to my attention, separate to threats issued this week to colleagues in Newry, Mourne & Down. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just left Musgrave St Police Station after reporting details. I won\u2019t be deterred from working for Belfast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Irish News, the councillor said threats against local politicians were overshadowing the work they carry out for communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at Monday night\u2019s meeting, there are lots of very positive things that councillors have been working on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the stuff that makes Belfast move and tick over.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis city isn\u2019t perfect, but there is a significant amount of work going on to make things better, and these are the kind of things we are working on on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI\u2019m certainly not going to be deterred from that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

His party leader Claire Hanna said: \u201cThis threat against Councillor de Faoite is the latest in a number of threats issued against public representatives this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cAny intimidation or threat of violence is wrong, no matter where it comes from. We live in a democracy and people should be able to represent their communities without threat, or to disagree politically without resorting to violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be a real lowering of the temperature around politics at the moment. We are seeing usual suspects, with no history of delivery positively for the communities they claim to speak for, deliberately stirring up tensions to serve their own ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe need leadership from all parties to call out these threats unequivocally and to stand together in defence of public representatives of all persuasions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PSNI said officers \u201creceived a report of threats made to an individual and are making enquiries\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson added: \u201cThe Police Service of Northern Ireland condemns and will thoroughly investigate any reports of abuse, harassment or criminality directed towards our elected representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Belfast SDLP councillor has vowed he will \u201cnot be deterred\u201d from his work following a reported threat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[73270,9,10,715,39314,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,116646,30,31780,24514,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-214217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-belfast-city-council","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-east-belfast","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-ormeau-road","22":"tag-psni","23":"tag-sdlp","24":"tag-south-belfast","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-world","28":"tag-world-news","29":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115658808997402530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}