Subversive, cowardly elements who threaten our ministers endanger the State’s security again

OUR sister newspaper, the Irish Daily Mail, yesterday reported on a bomb threat at the home of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, forcing the evacuation of her husband and two young sons.

For many, this will bring back memories of some of the toughest days in the Republic’s history, when subversive elements threatened the overall safety of the State and its ministers. The role of justice minister has always held a particular resonance, in that one of the first holders of the office, Kevin O’Higgins, was assassinated in 1927, when the tribal politics of the Civil War still reverberated.

We are now at a stage where trumped-up internet trolls believe that their cause is of such importance, they will threaten a heinous act of violence. What cause is served by frightening children under the age of three and the uninvolved husband of a politician?

While this newspaper has been a staunch critic of the failings of Minister McEntee, we have always focused on her policies, and not her person. The reality is this week’s events in Newtownmountkennedy, including the slamming of an axe into the windscreen of a Garda car, have once again illustrated what we have been saying for a long number of months.

The minister has described it as a line being crossed, and the has roundly condemned the actions of this minority. However, that threshold has long since been obliterated. Too many arsons, assaults, riots and other acts of violence have been allowed as the far right continues to gain a foothold in the politics of the State.

We are still several weeks out from the local elections. The seeming inability of this Government to get to grips with the crisis in immigration policy – and law and order in the country – continues to be deeply worrying. Despite legitimate concerns over policy, this newspaper condemns in their entirety any groups who choose the politics of hate and violent protest to further their warped ideologies. Whatever genuine sentiments there may be among the protesters in communities around the country, people should realise that they are in part being manipulated by a sinister and extreme cabal of mindless, vicious thugs.

Unfortunately, we do not believe that the bomb threat or the violence on Thursday are the end, or even anywhere close to the end, of this struggle for the soul of Irish decency. There are, we believe, even greater challenges ahead and we urge the Government to step up and begin to truly understand the immensity of the problems facing us as a nation.