GARDAÍ ARE INVESTIGATING after damage was done to the Cork constituency office of a Fine Gael general election candidate.

“Bricks fired through the window in my office in Blackpool this evening,” Colm Burke said, who is currently a senator.

“It has been a difficult few days with over 250 posters taken down and illegally removed.

“No candidate or their staff should have to face this, but my campaign and I won’t be intimidated or deterred.”

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Burke said that a business had called him last night to tell him damage had been done to his office. He said that he arrived and saw that stones and bricks had been thrown “with some force” and broke two panes of glass. 

No one had been in the office at the time.

“I’ve been over 25 years in politics in Cork and never got anything like this,” he said. “It’s not anything we’d be accustomed to.”

We’ve had a problem because over 250 posters have been removed as well. We’ve got calls, one from an elderly lady, that they were physically using a ladder and taking down posters. It’s a big area across the city, we don’t have exact numbers but it’s around that number that have suddenly disappeared.

When asked who he thought was responsible, Burke said “I can’t point fingers. We had no difficulties during the byelection.”

“We haven’t got new posters, we’re on the ground canvassing,” he said. 

In a statement to TheJournal.ie, gardaí said they attended “an incident of criminal damage” at a property on Thomas Davis Street in Blackpool yesterday at around 8:10pm.

“No one was injured during the incident. No arrests made and investigations are ongoing.”

Replying to the Fine Gael senator’s tweet about the incident, Tánaiste Simon Coveney said “Stay strong Colm Burke, don’t be intimidated by this kind of thuggery.” 

“Fine Gael is a party that represents everyone, from all walks of life, we listen to frustrations and criticism and respond as best we can. But this should not be part of elections or politics.”