There are 261 women among Ireland’s 949 councillors.<\/p>\n
At least 70 female councillors have reported receiving multiple calls from a withheld number. During the calls, the man allegedly claimed to be a “paedophile” with an interest in children aged between 11 and 13.<\/p>\n
He allegedly told councillors he wanted to make an “admission” or “disclosure” before saying he was “willing to be challenged”.<\/p>\n
The caller also allegedly claimed to have downloaded child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n
Independent Tipperary councillor M\u00e1ir\u00edn McGrath told the Irish Examiner that when the man called her on Thursday morning, he claimed to have downloaded almost 247 images of child sexual abuse material and printed some of them at a local pharmacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat stood out to me was the amount of time this individual had to do research before he rang,\u201d Ms McGrath said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had an address that was in my own municipal district, in order for me to engage with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Independent](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5175817_3_articleinline_DENIS_20cahir_2020.jpg\" "\\"Independent")
Independent Tipperary councillor M\u00e1ir\u00edn McGrath told the Irish Examiner that when the man called her on Thursday morning, he claimed to have downloaded almost 247 images of child sexual abuse material. Picture: Denis Minihane.<\/p>\n
Fine Gael councillor Angie Bailey, from Tralee, told RT\u00c9’s Liveline that she received five phone calls on Wednesday morning after first being contacted by the man last week from a withheld number.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said that he wanted to make a disclosure to me that he was identifying as a paedophile and wanted to be challenged,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said the caller claimed he had \u201cdownloaded paedophile pornographic material\u201d and explained how he \u201cpleasured himself watching such material\u201d.<\/p>\n
The councillor questioned whether he was seeking help and told him she was not the appropriate person to provide it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said as a community representative, we needed to be responsible for community safety and that is why he was ringing local representatives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Bailey said that since the calls she has made sure her doors and windows are locked each night, expressing concern that he could “rock up” to her house.<\/p>\n
\u201cThinking back on it, it is a lot more terrifying, especially as he seems to have made a full-time job of ringing people,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore 8am on Wednesday morning, I had five missed calls from him.\u201d<\/p>\n
A garda spokesperson confirmed the matter is under investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis matter is being investigated at national level by the An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na Special Detective Unit,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny threats against elected representatives or political candidates are taken seriously and will be investigated.\u201d <\/p>\n
The spokesperson said liaison inspectors have been appointed in every Garda division to “help keep all those participating in political life safe” and are available to receive reports of incidents involving elected representatives.<\/p>\n
A Fine Gael spokesperson said the party became aware of the “completely inappropriate and disturbing” calls to some of its female councillors last week.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said all incidents have been reported to garda\u00ed and that the party is co-operating with the investigation.<\/p>\n
Housing minister James Browne, who has responsibility for local government, told the Irish Examiner he was “genuinely appalled” by the reports and has spoken to the AILG about the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am genuinely appalled that the type of contact we are hearing about happening would be made in the first place to any public representative, but then for it to be in any way targeted at our female elected members is unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI condemn any behaviour which deliberately sets out to harm, frustrate or upset any publicly elected representative of any party and none.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been a councillor myself. We are genuinely proud in this country that our Councillors and Oireachtas members make themselves so available and so contactable at all hours, across social platforms, by phone and in person.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mr Browne said the matter is being investigated by garda\u00ed and that he “can’t comment further”, but added that “any behaviour like this cannot be tolerated or normalised in any fashion.”<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Louise O\u2019Reilly, meanwhile, said the reports were \u201cserious and cannot be ignored\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe job of a councillor or any elected representative is an important role, and they must be facilitated to do their work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, what we need is more women in positions of power. We need more women in politics, and more women being supported. This requires effort.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the AILG told the Irish Examiner that it has continued to receive reports of female councillors throughout Wednesday, with a number contacting garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n
“Our main priority is ensuring that our female members are being supported, know to be vigilant, and that anyone affected is encouraged to report the matter to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na,” they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Councillors from a number of political parties have reported receiving repeated calls from the man, who allegedly asks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[56556,45,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-576582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-violence-against-women","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}