Limerick mayor John Moran contacts gardaí over online death threats

The State’s only directly elected mayor has said he has contacted gardaí about a number of threats made against him online. Mayor of Limerick John Moran said there have been homophobic comments and that he has been called “Cyclops”, referring to his lazy eye, throughout his tenure so far. Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland on Tuesday, he said in the last week the abuse had worsened, with threats made against his life. “It hurts me,” he said. “It hurts probably other people who also have physical differences, to be seeing that people think they can do that. Then you have the clear homophobic references to me, associations that just because you’re a friend of the mayor that you’re also an open target for this.” READ MOREMoran said his family had also been worried by the threats, which was “equally tough to know that they’re worrying”. He said he would be meeting Limerick City and County Council management on Tuesday morning and had also contacted gardaí who were gathering the material from online. “I spent quite a long time not actually doing anything on this because you just don’t want to make a bigger issue out of something, and in some ways you don’t know will that just encourage you know more people . . .“In terms of the role of the mayor, it hasn’t necessarily been given the support it might have if you’re an employee in another company or if you’re even a politician at national level. There are supports available. They’re not here locally.”The Mayor of Limerick has no car or driver or supports for going to meetings, he said. “That was fine for me for the first while. But now, it makes you think twice when you’re at an event and you go walking up the street to get a taxi just because you are well known, you’re a public figure, and you don’t know what crazies [are] out there.” Moran said it was important local leaders spoke up against this kind of behaviour “so people realise it’s not appropriate”. “I think people should reflect on their behaviours,” he added. “You can get angry if you want, but there’s a sort of a false anger or a feeling that you’ve got to be angry to just have proper public discourse and actually talk about stuff.” He said he had been surprised and disappointed by the abuse directed towards him but hoped “this chapter can be put behind us, and we can just all rally together and actually make sure that for the kids and others, this Christmas is the best Christmas ever”. Some of the abuse directed towards Moran is understood to have came after the closure of roads in the city centre was announced for the Georgian Christmas markets.