Former councillor threatened during election campaign

Former Social Democrat councillor Clare Claffey who lost her seat earlier this month has said she was “quite shocked” to receive a death threat and verbal abuse while canvassing in Birr prior to the local elections.

Ms Claffey said that she only had the chance to say hello and her name before the man looked down at her leaflet and started screaming and cursing at her to get off his property or else he would kill her.

“I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even ask why. I literally just ran,” stated the Banagher woman. The man didn’t explain what his grudge was with the former local councillor.

She added that she’s had people say they weren’t interested in speaking to her when canvassing but this situation was different. “It was that frightening, I just ran. It was so aggressive.” The local woman was understandably “a bit nervous” for the final three weeks of her election campaign.

Despite this experience, Ms Claffey said it wouldn’t put her off running in another election and that she would just be “more cautious” in the future. She reported the incident to the Social Democrats and Women for Election but “didn’t bother” going to the Gardai as she was so busy canvassing at the time. “I did keep a record of it if I did want to go any further with it.”

Women for Election, an organisation which trains and supports women to succeed in Irish politics, requested all female candidates in the recent local elections keep a record of any abuse they received in the run up to the election. Ms Claffey remarked that the level of abuse for female candidates was “horrendous” and quite concerning both online and at doors. “I know one of my own party’s members, she actually got knife threatened,” she said.

Ms Claffey continued: “It seemed to be just a targeted thing for women. The guards had come out and told any woman that was running not to canvass on their own, not to canvass after dark and to switch off our comments on social media.”

Ms Claffey feels that running for election is a lot different for women than men in Ireland as women need to have someone else accompany them while canvassing. “I was limited to who could come with me when they were free, whereas the men didn’t have to think about that. They could just go when it suited them.”

The former Social Democrats councillor also received hate mail on Tuesday last related to her involvement with the abortion rights campaign in 2018. The hate mail showed a photo of a foetus and said: “For the 28,802 babies that should be alive today. You fought so hard to have their lives ended. Just a small token of justice came last Monday. Goodbye Clare Claffey. You have a truly rotten heart.”

Ms Claffey said while this wasn’t a threat it still wasn’t nice to receive this kind of hate mail through her door.