LAST UPDATE | 30 Apr

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy said he refuses to be intimidated after a death threat was graffitied near his home over the weekend. 

Murphy posted an image of the graffiti on X, formerly Twitter, which read “Paul Murphy R.I.P” alongside a message that said he will “continue to oppose those who try to divide ordinary people and spread hate”.

“We need to unite against those who are actually responsible for housing, health and climate crises,” Murphy said. 

Speaking to reporters at Leinster House this morning, Murphy said he has contacted the gardaí about the incident. 

In January, Murphy also contacted the gardaí after a group of approximately 10 people, many masked, gathered outside his home in Tallaght with placards and a large poster stating ‘South Dublin Says No. Close the Borders.’

This was not the first time protesters had gathered outside Murphy’s home. Last April, a similar protest was held just as Murphy and his partner were preparing to give their newborn baby a bath.

When asked today if he feels the gardaí are doing enough to respond to such incidents and threats made against him, Murphy said:

“The state in general has proved slow to protect those who are vulnerable, who don’t have power, in particular I would say so asylum seekers.”

On the threats and intimidation against him specifically he said he was not making any complaint about his treatment by the gardaí.

Referring to a recent video posted online of Leo Varadkar having homophobic abuse shouted at him, the recent protest outside Minister Roderic O’Gorman’s home and the bomb threat at Minister Helen McEntee’s house reported over the weekend, Murphy said people need to take a stand against all of it. 

He added that it is not just politicians who are experiencing a rise in abuse and harassment and said “non-politicians’ lives have just as much value as politicians”. 

“People who are anti-immigrant have every right to protest. I defend their right to protest, I disagree with them but I defend their right to protest.

“But they do not have the right to interfere with people who are going about doing their job, be it pharmacists, be it as librarians, be it building workers. That’s the issue,” Murphy said.

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith expressed solidarity with her colleague Paul Murphy and said she does not think it is fair that TDs who receive death threats have to speak up for themselves. 

“The death threats to TDs are escalating and it’s very serious,” she said. 

“Paul has been consistently harassed and threatened for quite a period of time. But it is an example… of an escalating far-right terror campaign,” she added. 

Smith added that one of the worst examples of this was to be seen in recent days in Aughrim, Wicklow when construction workers were confronted and intimidated by anti-immigration protesters. 

Protesters incorrectly believed the site the construction workers were working on was being renovated to house international protection seekers. 

Speaking to The Journal, one of the construction workers who was asked to leave the site said he and his colleagues are “in shock” today.