COMMENT: Local democracy under threat from disgraceful abuse

This is totally and utterly out of order - and must be stopped

It was not a very good week for local democracy.

The shocking news that the Mayor of Galway, Councillor Mike Cubbard, is temporarily stepping back from public life – after revealing that he has been the target of a series of anonymous death threats against him and his family – has cast a dark shadow over public life as well as placing a huge barrier in front of good people interested in become involved.

The fact that Councillor Cubbard is forced to consider his future in public office due to continuous abuse – via letters and on social media – is both depressing and dispiriting.

While those responsible can only be described as crackpots with misguided agendas, there is little doubt of the impact that the behaviour of such imbeciles has understandably upset him and his family.

He revealed: “When I came home after the latest (death threat) letter, I genuinely had heart palpitations and I just wondered why I even bothered.

“I’ve gone to schools across this city trying to encourage kids to get involved in local democracy – but now I just think why would they?

“My first instinct was to ask the Deputy Mayor to see out the year and I’d step back to just concentrate on my work as a councillor – but now I’m just going to step back for a week or two to get my head right, recharge the batteries, and stay off social media,” he said.

On top of the hand-written death threats, the independent councillor was also the target of an anonymous tweet, stating that he ‘needed to be tied to a rock and put to the bottom of the Corrib’.

This is totally and utterly out of order - and must be stopped.

However, Councillor Cubbard placed on record his disappointment with the garda response to the threats made against him – as well as the response from Galway’s Oireachtas members to whom he wrote, asking for legislation on social media in relation to anonymous posts.

This aspect of the story is disheartening, to say the least.

Despite numerous examples over the years highlighting the urgent need for legislation to clamp down on personal social media abuse by faceless accounts - the hurtful nature of which is compounded by the public nature of the platform - excuses continue to be rolled out as regards to why it cannot be done.

That’s simply not good enough for those purporting to be legislators.

So they need to be getting around a table and trying to come up with a formula that protects all individuals from such disgrace abuse and not just those elected to public office.

Those responsible for operating Facebook and Twitter also have a role to play in stamping out this horrible trend once and for all.