FEMALE COUNTY COUNCILLORS are continuing to report receiving ‘unsettling’ phone calls from a man on a private number. 

The Association of Irish Local Government said it estimates that around 80 female councillors have been subjected to the calls in recent weeks. Last week gardaí confirmed they are investigating reports of the calls. 

The calls continued over the weekend and into this week, with Co Kerry Sinn Féin councillor Deirdre Ferris saying she has received 20 calls since Friday night.

Speaking to The Journal, the councillor said that she received a call at around 10pm on Friday from a man who provided a name called from an unknown number.

She said the man said he had been “researching” Ferris and told her he lived in the same village as her and wanted to meet up. 

“I was quite unsettled by the fact that he knew where I lived, and he kept asking whereabouts I lived in [the village], which I didn’t give him,” she said.

Ferris believes the man is not from the same area as her, but was attempting to unsettle her by showing he knows where she lives. She said he later described himself as a 6ft 3in man with brown hair. 

“I just felt that even the description that he gave was somewhat intimidatory because a 6ft 3in man with brown hair indicates that they’re young, they’re very tall, they’re bigger than me, and for me, that just that’s all about psychologically unsettling a person,” the councillor said.

The councillor received a further eight missed calls from a private number before 2am Saturday, and another 11 missed calls since then. 

“I think he just wants to unsettle me. That’s all it was. He wants me to know that he knows where I am. He wants me to know that he’s researched me. To me, that’s all very sinister, and it’s all designed to incite fear or to instil fear,” she said.

“I won’t say I’m over it, but it’s a case of I feel like I’m giving him way too much oxygen on this now because he’s getting something. That’s a level of power that I don’t want to give him.”

Ferris has asked for all councillor’s addresses to be removed from the Kerry County Council website.

The councillor said she is in contact with other female county councillors based in the South of the country who have been subjected to the repeated calls from a private number. 

She hopes the incident does not discourage other women from entering politics.

“We need to see more women empowered and to be able to enter into politics, and not to allow a sinister individual, with whatever agenda he has, to sway people from considering a life in local representation or national representation,” she said.

“I wouldn’t give him that power over me, and nobody else should either.”

Meanwhile, South Dublin councillor Niamh Whelan said she has received over 50 phone calls from a private number in recent weeks.

In a recording of one the calls, heard by The Journal, a man who provided a name and described himself as from the Dublin area said “you can identify me as a paedophile”.

The man said he was looking to “be challenged” by Smyth.

“Just tell me I’m a paedophile. I have developed an interest in young girls, I have downloaded images on my phone,” the man said.

Smyth encouraged the man to go to An Garda Síochána and hand himself in. She said that when she hung up on him, she was called by a private number 30 times. 

The councillor said she is in a women’s caucus group with other female councillors who have also reported receiving the calls, and said they now flag with each other when the caller is active.

Smyth said the caller is harassing women across the political spectrum.

“It doesn’t seem to be just targeting one group or one party or anything. The only kind of identifying factor between us is that we’re all women, and councillors,” she said.

“The messaging [in the calls] seems to be identical across all the calls.”

“It’s the exact same kind of script that he’s given over the phone. I think it’s very strange. It’s very hard to see what the motive is there.”

“I wasn’t sure if he was genuinely looking for help. But the more I think about it, the more I listen to it and analyse it. It sounds like he’s trying to trigger women.”

Smyth said she is concerned that the man may visit her constituency office if he “no longer gets a kick out of his phoning us”.

Smyth said she does not think politicians’ addresses should be public and said that in her role she has previously received threats from people who say they will visit her home.

“I don’t think our addresses should be made public, particularly with the nasty kind of element and turn that politics has taken over the past couple of years,” she said.

“Politicians have been kind of dehumanised even more so than they were in the public eye,” she said, adding that she feels this removes boundaries within public life and lets people feel they can show up at your house.

Social Democrats councillor for Cabra-Glasnevin Cat O’Driscoll told The Journal she has received many missed calls from a private number “at all hours” in recent weeks.

“I accidentally answered yesterday morning while busy and he was asking me to go for coffee, claiming he lived in my Local Electorate Area, but gave no details,” she said.

The councillor directed the person to contact the Samaritans charity if he needed help. She said she is now avoiding answering calls from private numbers and advised people to contact her by email.  

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said there is no update at this time.

Last week they said: “This matter is being investigated at national level by An Garda Síochána’s Special Detective Unit.

 ”Any threats against elected representative or political candidates are taken seriously and will be investigated.”