Over 50 documented incidents of violence, abuse and harassment during election campaign

The general election campaign saw dozens of incidents of politically motivated violence, harassment and abuse, anti-extremism researchers found.
Incidents included assaults on candidates, racist and misogynistic abuse, and vandalism of posters and constituency offices. Gardaí are investigating multiple incidents and at least one suspect has been charged.
The incidents were documented as part of a joint investigation by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the Hope and Courage Collective. In total they recorded 55 incidents in the five-week period leading up to Friday’s vote.
This compares with 36 incidents documented during the campaign for the local and European elections in May and June which had about three times as many candidates.
The research is based on social and news media reports. Researchers warned there may be other incidents which have been missed. The research did not record “general criticism or condemnation expressed against candidates or campaigns online”, the groups said.
Compared with the local and European election campaign, incidents during the general election campaign were more concentrated online. Ninety per cent of incidents featured social media in some way, “illustrating the central role that online platforms occupy in the hate, harassment and targeting of candidates”, the researchers’ report stated.
While most abuse was confined to the internet, there were several serious incidents involving alleged real world violence.
This includes an assault on Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman while he was canvassing. A man has since pleaded guilty to assault. Another man was arrested after coffee was thrown over Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin while he was campaigning in Clontarf, Dublin.
Most recently, gardaí launched an investigation into allegations that far-right independent candidate Philip Dwyer attacked the father of a rival candidate in Bray, Co Wicklow before brandishing an extendable baton. Mr Dwyer has claimed he was the one who was attacked.
Researchers also documented reports that a person allegedly threatened Social Democrat canvassers with a brick in Co Cork.
There were 13 incidents of intimidation or verbal abuse directed against candidates or their canvassers, some of which were then shared online where there was further abuse.
In one incident a man filmed himself following Pearse Doherty around Lifford, Co Donegal before “directing extreme slurs” against the Sinn Féin TD.
Fine Gael Senator John McGahon, whose candidacy was embroiled in controversy relating to his assault of another man in 2018, was “verbally abused with various obscene terms” as he sat in his car in Co Louth while People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy was berated by a passerby in Dublin over the gender of his infant child.
Posters belonging to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Paul Fitzsimons of the Irish Freedom Party were set alight in Dublin, and the constituency offices of Ms McDonald and Fianna Fáil TD Mary Butler were defaced with graffiti during the campaign.
Monica Peres Oikeh, a Green Party candidate in Co Cork, was targeted by “racist trolls” online and independent candidate Umar Al-Qadri was subject to anti-Muslim abuse.
Researchers also documented a trend of political candidates targeting their rivals with abuse, including calling them “traitors”.
Twenty candidates running in the election directed the term “traitor” against Government politicians, members of the Opposition and President Michael D Higgins.
In one post on X, a Dublin far-right candidate posted a photo of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, calling him “the most dangerous traitor politician of all” and claiming Mr Martin wished to create a “Gestapo”.
Use of the term traitor is common among far-right activists internationally to frame politicians “as enemies of the nation”, the researchers noted.