FORMER HEALTH MINISTER Stephen Donnelly has described the intimidation visited on his family during Covid-19 lockdowns. 

Donnelly’s family home was the site of anti-lockdown protests during the pandemic and the former Wicklow TD, who lost his seat in last year’s general election, has said his children had to move their beds away from windows after objects were thrown at his house. 

In an interview with RTÉ Radio’s Brendan O’Connor today, Donnelly said “the home was targeted repeatedly”. 

“We had to move the kids’ beds away from the windows in their rooms because their windows were getting targeted,” he said. 

Donnelly said people threw “various things” and were “banging on the windows, banging on the front door in the middle of the night”. 

The protests and intimidation led the Office of Public Works to erect a fence around the property, “to create a bit of a barrier,” he said. 

Asked how his family coped, Donnelly said, “You just get on with it, don’t you?” but added that “It wasn’t easy”. 

“And while this was going on, we were working every hour of the day, seven days a week, to try and find vaccines, get ready for vaccines, public health measure (to) try and keep people safe. So look, it was tough.

“It was not an easy time for my wife. The kids were young, which helps.”

He said one of his sons, who was five years old at the time, had recounted some of the incidents to him and had a sense that there were “a lot of angry people outside”. 

Donnelly said that at the same time, “we had to remain absolutely focused on what we were doing workwise” and that “it’ll probably take time” for him to come to terms with it.

“It does make you more careful.”