{"id":47601,"date":"2025-09-06T16:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T16:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/47601\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T16:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T16:35:08","slug":"new-threat-against-member-of-simon-harriss-family-sparks-investigation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/47601\/","title":{"rendered":"New threat against member of Simon Harris\u2019s family sparks investigation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Garda<\/a> investigation has been launched after a threat was issued against a member of T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a>\u2019s family on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Instagram<\/a> post that sparked the investigation threatened sexual violence. Garda\u00ed contacted Meta, which owns the platform, to have it removed.<\/p>\n

It is understood the threat was made directly to the close family member.<\/p>\n

The T\u00e1naiste issued a personal statement in which he decried the \u201cabuse\u201d he has received and pledged to consider what action can be taken to tackle the issue in general.<\/p>\n

It comes after a woman in her 30s was arrested and released without charge<\/a> earlier this week over a threat to kidnap Mr Harris\u2019s children. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Politicians under attack: ‘In the space of an hour five people called me a c**t’Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The woman, from Ronanstown in Dublin, was released on Wednesday, with a file being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Mr Harris issued a personal statement addressing the threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cSixteen years ago, I was first elected to public office. Serving my community and my country has been the greatest honour of my life. I have devoted myself to public service,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have faced the rough and tumble of politics. I believe in robust debate, scrutiny, and challenge. It is a cornerstone of our democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what I and my family have faced in recent weeks is not political debate. It is abuse. It is intimidation. It is behaviour that should never, ever be treated as normal. And no one is to blame except those choosing to abuse and make threats. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe threats made against my family are having deeply distressing consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, direct threats were made against my children. And now, this weekend, late last night, vile and horrific threats were directed at a very close family member.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a clear and sinister pattern and a very apparent motivation; to intimidate me out of public office.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Garda\u00ed monitoring Minister\u2019s phone after \u2018army\u2019 of abusive late-night callersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said in recent days, I know we are meant to keep silent. I know for some it seems like a new reality that those in public life must accept. But I cannot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is me today but it will be someone else tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the coming days and weeks, I will consult my Fine Gael, Government and broader political colleagues about these threats and intimidation online and what action we can and should take. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone has to call a halt. Protecting my family will remain my number one priority. I will be guided by them on the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fine Gael leader has also received previous threats, including through social media and a phoned bomb threat made via a Samaritans helpline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Garda investigation has been launched after a threat was issued against a member of T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,876,17,11,12,15,16,1722,5,44,1114,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-47601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-instagram","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-meta","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-simon-harris","25":"tag-social-media","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47601","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=47601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}