By Editorial

Copyright independent

This was part of the answer given by Tánaiste Simon Harris when asked on Morning Ireland about how the threats against him had made him reconsider his career in politics.

No citizen of our country should have to endure such sinister and craven targeting.

For the Taoiseach’s deputy to be singled out is not just an insult to our Government, it insults voters and our fundamental values of decency and respect.

Today’s News in 90 Seconds, Wednesday, September 10

The intimidation is being investigated by gardaí, but these attacks must serve as a watershed moment for standing up to the toxicity being allowed to pollute the political environment by an unchecked stream of subversive posting online.

They appeared on a site that offers security encryption, enabling users to disguise their identity. That such threats were made is disturbing enough, but that they could be made with impunity is perhaps more chilling.

Mr Harris’s distress was totally understandable. His family were threatened three times in a week. He said he had been forced to “dig deep” to keep going with his life as a public representative. The escalation of the intimidation meant he could not allow it to be “glossed over”.

“The vile nature of the threats targeting my children, very close family relatives, and the sustained, relentless nature of it, I think needs to be called out,” he said.

We must always protect those who stand to serve and represent us

It needs not only to be called out, but to be eradicated and utterly condemned. Those responsible must be stripped of their cover.

Sites that allow violent, menacing messaging need also to be called to account.

Mr Harris said “this is not who we are”, nor is it; but if appropriate action is not taken, the malign intent of these bad actors could influence who we could become.

Mr Harris deserves credit for placing his concerns, not only for his family, but for all who serve in public office, on record.

Personal and painful as these attacks may be, they also have a wider, darker purpose: to destabilise and damage our very democracy. They must be viewed as a grave insult to all who believe in the value of public office and the integrity of the ballot box. There can be no giving in to such intimidation.

Since its inception in 1922, our State has faced down many threats. It is one of the few examples of unbroken democratic governance through the 20th and, hopefully, 21st centuries. We must always protect those who stand to serve and represent us.

Democracy can only succeed when those charged with exercising the choice of the people are free to do so. Any threat to their security amounts to an assault on us all. Those who choose to intimidate must be made to feel cold fear, not the other way around.