Tipperary councillors on receiving end of harassing phone calls

At least two Tipperary councillors are among the many politicians who’ve received harassing phone calls in recent days from one as-yet unidentified individual, who has made disturbing calls to female politicians up and down the country.

Cllr Mary Hanna Hourigan told Tipperary Live how she had received one of these calls while cleaning up after dinner on Tuesday evening last week with her husband Joe in the room. Cllr Hourigan, who said she usually avoids answering unknown numbers, said she was distracted and “just answered it”.

“It was a voice, I’m 99% sure an Irish male, and he said ‘My name is Declan. I’m a paedophile. I need to talk to you’. I just dropped the phone”.

She said it ‘went out of her head’ with her busy life, but that then she saw on the Fine Gael WhatsApp group similar tales, and then began to note more missed calls that she was getting from what she suspected was the same individual, to keep a log.

Cllr Hourigan has been in politics for 17 years, and to some degree takes the rough-and-tumble of public criticism in her stride. However, this kind of conduct is “unusual”, although the Cashel councillor says that she hasn’t necessarily been unsettled, but acknowledges others may be.

The marked rise in online abuse of public figures is well-documented, and Cllr Hourigan, and her council colleague, Cllr Pamela Quirke O’Meara have both stepped back from using social media as a result.

Entering politics two years ago, Cllr Quirke O’Meara considers herself a ‘newbie’. She was also on the receiving end of one of these calls, late on Friday evening July 31, a call which her son managed to record.

Her entry into public life, she says, was somewhat innocent.

“From the outset, I was maybe naive in the role. When I started out, I would have been quite hopeful about using social media but in more recent times, I’ve stepped back”.

For Cllr Quirke, the fuel protests were the proverbial straw that made her take a necessary rethink about using social media as a platform, and she’s since deleted the apps from her phone. As a working mother with three kids, her role is ‘multi-faceted’.

“Not only as a woman, but as a councillor you’re very accessible. I don’t like the toxicity online; I think this year especially in a geopolitical context, I would be very cautious of sharing something online [even seemingly innocuous]. There’s an element out there, and they’re just waiting for you to say something ‘wrong’”.

“I am sad that I’m afraid of sharing things online”.

When the fuel protests were ongoing, the Nenagh councillor attended the first day of the protests, in an atmosphere that was ‘hot’. She didn’t go the second day, at home with her four-year-old, and received messages saying “it was noted that you weren’t there”.

Some of these messages came via anonymous text numbers, which felt threatening and insidious: “it feels like, this person isn’t there; why isn’t she there? You’re called out for not being there. After that, I pulled back”.

Meanwhile for Cllr Hourigan, it was a one-way street in Tipperary Town that made her take a step back from social media.

“It was bullying online. We decided, as a collective, to make the roads one-way but I got hate-mail, abuse on the street”.

“Now, you will get people approach you in public and I’m strong. I can cope with it. You just keep going”.

Cllr Louise Morgan Walsh, also Nenagh, confirmed too that she had been on the receiving end of harassment in both the 2019 elections and the 2024 elections.

“It was an unpleasant part of those periods, and unfortunately something many women in politics still encounter”.

The Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) has been offering support to all female politicians in the country as not all, especially independent and non-party politicians, will have a party network to lean on.

Cllr. Aengus O’ Rourke, chair of the AILG, confirmed on Friday that the investigation into these “unsettling calls” will now be coordinated nationally by a specialist Garda unit, while offering support and practical advice to those affected, and who could be affected.

Cllr Morgan Walsh said she had not received the kind of abuse she encountered during the election since, and acknowledge “the strong support network that exists among councillors in Tipperary County Council. We genuinely look out for one another, and that solidarity makes a real difference”.

Likewise, Cllr Hourigan pointed to the national meeting of the Women’s Regional Caucus Network, the first event of its kind which took place in Nenagh in April this year, as a symbol of the valuable support network that exists.

None of the women that Tipperary Live spoke with would let the harassment stop them from entering politics, or encouraging other women to enter the game.

“We do face challenges that we shouldn’t, but we can’t let a minority put us off” said Cllr Hourigan.

“The majority [of the public] are very respectful, and being a councillor is a very rewarding job”.

For Cllr Quirke O’Meara, the role of women and visibility of mothers in government is of paramount importance, and so it is vital that this group be involved in politics. However, she is looking overseas, and feels that politicians at home will soon face a harder time.

“I have three: aged 18, aged 10, and aged 4. I work very hard, I have a job, I have empathy, and I have sensitivity to people in my position. I wouldn’t like to think that I would be pushed out of politics for this hype that happens every so often.

“I feel strongly, particularly for mothers being in politics. Mothers don’t have time to complain; if you don’t have mothers in politics, their needs won’t be met”.

However, the Nenagh councillor feels that the situation will get worse.

“You’re so busy, sometimes you can’t see the danger. When you look at wider issues across the world, you think, ‘this is going to filter down to us’.

“We are the conduit. People think that they can’t get to the people in power, but they can get to us. I’m afraid that more of this is to be expected in the future”.