LAST UPDATE | 18 Jul

A MAN HAS been arrested in connection with online threats to kill Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. 

The man (20s) was arrested this morning by officers from the Special Detective Unit in south Dublin.

He has been charged under Section 5 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997 and will appear in court tomorrow morning.

“The man is currently detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at a Garda Station in the DMR (Dublin Metropolitan Region),” a Garda spokesperson confirmed.

Speaking yesterday, McDonald said that the threat “represents an escalation of targeted online abuse” directed towards her in the last year, and confirmed that she had reported the matter to the gardaí.

This death threat is an escalation in a vicious, sexist, misogynistic, racist campaign against me that has been ongoing for over a year and that has been politically contrived to cause problems between me and the working class communities we in Sinn Féin represent.

I’m drawing… https://t.co/gdMRh2Ai6p pic.twitter.com/omxT9lDo6g

— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) July 17, 2024

In the video, which has been widely shared online, a man wearing a black mask said that he would shoot McDonald “for free”.

Referring to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, he then said: “He’ll be getting shot before the end of the year.”

He began the video praising the violent actions of people who had gathered to protest at a site earmarked for asylum seekers in Coolock. 

“Petrol bomb the fuck out of the lot of them,” he said.