A DUBLIN CITY councillor who is visually impaired said he was verbally abused while returning from a community meeting yesterday afternoon.
Labour Party councillor for Cabra-Glasnevin Declan Meenagh said he had gotten off the Luas in Cabra and was walking down Broombridge Road when someone shouted at him.
“I was just having a typical busy day as a councillor, work in the morning, going into a community group meeting in the afternoon, walking home from the Luas stop in Cabra,” he said.
“On Broombridge Road and literally from the guy in front of me, the first thing I heard is ‘look at this mad c**t behind me pretending to be blind’. And I think I heard two people laughing on the other side of the road.”
He said he did not recognise the voice or the man, and was only able to identify that he was wearing dark clothing.
“Unfortunately every politician has had these people,” he said.
What they do is they’re looking attention and you don’t give to them, you just go silent and you walk on which is what I did
Meenagh – who only has 5% vision – said he continued walking and did not engage with the people who were there.
“I use a cane to get around. I mean I’m not exaggerating, if I didn’t use a cane I would be dead,” he said.
Because my sight is so bad. It’s like looking through a straw wrapped in clingfilm is what sight I have.
Pause
Meenagh has been a councillor since 2020, and said that in general he has positive interactions with people in his local area.
However, he said that recently there has been an increase in the amount of verbal abuse he and other elected representatives receive, particularly online, but also while they are out working.
“Unfortunately this trend of threats and nastiness is just getting worse,” he said.
“At the end of the day [yesterday], I was resolute that I wouldn’t, but I did pause when I left the house.
I did pause last night and this morning when I left the house… I heard something near me and was a bit uneasy with it today. This has consequences.
A recent report from the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG), the representative body for councillors, surveyed over 200 councillors in relation to harassment and abuse they have received.
The report found that 63% had experienced some form of threat, intimidation or harassment between April 2021 and September 2023. Just under 40% had experienced threats on social media, a drop on the previous survey.
Meenagh said he did not report the incident to the gardaí. While he was shaken after it, he said incidents like this were generally rare.
“It is rare and generally people are great. I just want to knock it on the head but hopefully it won’t happen again,” he said.
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