GARDAÍ POLICING THE fuel protests have been threatened in online posts, their families targeted, and personal details released online, the early stages of an investigation has found. 

The Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly confirmed today that criminal probes have been launched to examine social media posts which issued threats against gardaí and their families. 

The force is gathering evidence of so-called doxxing, where the personal details of a targeted person, such as their address, are released on line. Posts, seen by The Journal, have been published online with comments calling on people to attack the homes of officers or “run them out” of where they are living. 

Other online attacks have focused on identified female gardaí. The posts have included claims about their health history and their personal relationships. In other posts, photographs of gardaí have been published and misidentified. 

Images of gardaí, taken at protest sites, have also been doctored using AI to show them in compromising situations.  

In one post, shared by the account a well-known agitator, a photo of a Garda is posted with the caption: “Make this traitor famous Ireland”.

Sources, both in the civil service and in An Garda Síochána, said that there is evidence of posts about the fuel protests being made by accounts based in the US, Britain, Slovakia and Hungary. However, early data shows that the vast majority of posts come from Ireland.  

Away from the online world, threats were also made to individual guards at the sites of various protests. These included threats against the officers’ families and homes. 

Garda evidence

Garda evidence gatherers were at the scene of protests and were recording protestors throughout the demonstrations and blockades. A large number of gardaí, both uniform and public order, also had body cameras and those will be examined as part of the ongoing probe.

Repeatedly in Whitegate on Saturday, as the blockade was broken up, The Journal observed people in the crowd approaching gardaí and shouting abuse at them. As that happened, gardaí turned on their body-worn cameras to record the interactions. 

It was difficult to identify the people who were shouting abuse at the gardaí, but they were not the same people we met in the previous days at the protest camp. In their abuse, they included a number of tropes of far-right protestors, including calling the gardaí “traitors” and “free staters”. Many of them were wrapped in tricolours. 

Sources said gardaí have also recorded threats made to businesses that had been used by officers. In one instance it is understood a private bus company was threatened. A sports club which was used by gardaí also received threats, The Journal has learned.   

It is understood that gardaí believe that the protests were infiltrated across the country by far-right agitators and well-known criminals who are also associated with the anti-migrant campaign.  

Intelligence officers are understood to have kept watch at protests in Cork city yesterday at which a number of known criminals turned up. Similar issues developed at protests in Galway, Foynes and Rosslare.  

Gardaí were seen wearing garda-issued snoods, with their faces covered. At Whitegate, The Journal asked a number of gardaí why they were covering their faces. Some said it was to prevent their identification.

Sources have also said that the evidence gathering phase is underway but charges and prosecutions will hinge on whether the people issuing the threats will be identifiable. Their images will be circulated on an internal garda portal and officers will be asked to identify or “nominate” the names of suspects.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Commissioner comments

In a message to members today the Garda Commissioner said he “completely” understood the “really difficult situations many of you have been faced with”.

“Thanks to your efforts we have broken the illegal blockades which were interfering with access to our critical national infrastructure. This has meant that our emergency services, hospital and fuel supply network were able to continue to operate.

“I am concerned to hear about attempts in person and online to threaten and intimidate Gardaí who are engaged in their lawful work. I have viewed some of this online material myself and have been absolutely appalled by it. This will not be tolerated and will be fully investigated with the aim of bringing those involved to justice,” he said. 

Ronan Slevin, the General Secretary of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), was strongly critical of the threats. 

“We are extremely concerned by these vile threats against members and the attempts by certain individuals to intimidate our colleagues online by disclosing private information and circulating falsified material in a manner that is not only distasteful and offensive, but are criminal acts.

“We at the GRA raised this with the Garda Commissioner and his Management Team and are satisfied with his assurance that these matters are being vigorously investigated, and we expect those responsible to be pursued and charged in the weeks ahead,” he said. 

Slevin said that the GRA recognises the right to peaceful protest but that his group fears that the demonstrations were “infiltrated and taken advantage of by certain far right or criminal elements. They should never be allowed to prevail”.

“Our members are simply doing their jobs to uphold law and protect the wider public and will continue to do so,” he added. 

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said in a post on X: “We have also been assured by them [Commissioner and Justice Minister] that incidents of targeted abuse towards our members on social media will be taken seriously and fully investigated.”

Separately the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is to raise the issue of threats to a small number of journalists who were covering the protests. 

“The NUJ is concerned at threats against journalists by a small number of those associated with the protests and would encourage journalists to report online and physical abuse to the NUJ and to the Media Engagement Group established by An Garda Síochána,” the union said in a statement.