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A SOUTH DUBLIN county councillor has had the front window of his house and his car windscreen smashed in a vicious attack.
Independent Clondalkin councillor Francis Timmons, who lives with his partner of almost two decades, discovered that his property had been damaged yesterday morning at around 7.30am.
“My husband got up to go to work and when he went out to the hall he discovered glass all over the floor. Then, he realised that the front door window was smashed as well. Of course, then he went to the car and the car was smashed too,” Timmons told TheJournal.ie.
[image alt="front window christmas" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/12/front-window-christmas-296x394.jpg" width="296" height="394" credit-source="Francis%20Timmons" caption="The%20damaged%20front%20window%20of%20Councillor%20Francis%20Timmons'%20home" class="alignnone" /end]
Timmons immediately reported the incident to An Garda Síochána.
“I was obviously very upset and very annoyed. I went from being upset to annoyed,” Timmons said.
“You just don’t expect something like this coming up to Christmas.”
The incident happened less than a week after a video, which the TheJournal.ie has seen, was posted online of a man outside Timmons’ home speaking directly to the camera using threatening and homophobic language.
The man used the C-word to describe Timmons and used homophobic language to describe Timmons’s relationship with his husband.
“A man can be gay but when a man tries to be a f**king woman it’s just f**king weird. You’ve got mental problems,” the man said.
Looking at the front window of Timmons’s home, which has been decorated with Christmas-themed teddy bears, the man said: “You want to live like a f**king child? You have no kids, you will never have kids. Get a f**king dog or a kitten.”
Timmons was made aware last Wednesday that the video was being circulated online. He hadn’t seen the video footage himself but immediately reported it to Clondalkin Garda Station. A few days later, a member of the local community sent the video to Timmons.
It remains unclear whether both incidents are linked.
[image alt="front door" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/12/front-door-2-296x394.jpg" width="296" height="394" credit-source="Francis%20Timmons" caption="The%20front%20door%20of%20the%20home%20was%20also%20vandalised%20during%20the%20attack" class="alignnone" /end]
Other incidents
In July, Timmons had a homophobic letter and a photo of Pope Francis sent to his home.
The letter was addressed to “shit pushers den”. Inside was a letter of Pope Benedict, a letter about World Family Day and a letter from Pope Francis.
In light of the summer’s incident and the most recent incidents, Timmons is calling for hate legislation to be introduced in Ireland, which would combat hate crimes which target people specifically because of their race or sexual orientation.
“There’s currently very little you can do to charge people. It’s very hard because we don’t have hate legislation,” Timmons told TheJournal.ie.
“I would give Ireland a legal route in terms of charging people for homophobic language, the same with racist language.
We live in a multicultural and diverse community and I don’t see how it’s acceptable for anybody to be targeted because of who they are.
[image alt="car" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/12/car-114-296x394.jpg" width="296" height="394" credit-source="Francis%20Timmons" caption="Francis%20Timmons'%20husband%20was%20unable%20to%20go%20to%20work%20yesterday%20morning%20after%20his%20car%20was%20damaged" class="alignnone" /end]
Timmons told TheJournal.ie that he had been “inundated” with messages of support from family, friends and those in his community since yesterday morning’s attack.
He stressed that while he has been able to mentally cope with the attack, not everyone would be able to handle it.
“I’m a man in my 40s with a fairly thick skin,” Timmons said.
If this was sent to somebody that wasn’t able to cope with it, it could have a devastating effect leading to suicide or something very serious. It’s not acceptable to treat other human beings like that.
“In general, I think that majority of people realise you can’t, whether it’s the travelling community, whether is the migrant community, or the LGBT community,” he said.
“We’re all humans at the end of the day, we all have to live here.”
Gardaí have launched an investigation into yesterday’s incident.
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Amazing that you win one match, and you get into the qualifers
@The Firestarter: the would have got in even if they lost against France, tho likely unseeded
@The Firestarter: what are you talking about?
@The Firestarter: kinda hard not to qualify
@The Firestarter: zzzzzzzzzz
@john kenny: zz
Big hard man Damien O’Sullivan giving pelters to women who have achieved more in their lives than he ever will. Damien, you are a troll on the Internet and these woman are representing their country. They stand head and shoulders above people like you. Let that sink in.
@Sun Rise: As ever you are brave behind your keyboard and fake name. The fact you call people trolls while trolling the internet behind tells a lot about the person behind the account.
@Ger Whelan: you are a vicious piece of work. He is defending the womens team show respect boy.
@Sean Money: was it Putin’s fault the girls didn’t win all their games?
@Ger Whelan: you are a sick puppy. Be happy Ireland won.
@Sean Money: Erm they didn’t win . They finished bottom of their group with 1 win out of 5 games. Hardly worth celebrating
@Sun Rise: I reported you just now.
Hopefully the last comment you’ll ever make on this.
I repeat. The current team is useless they were much better under Vera. Constructive criticism, not some misogynistic agenda you’re pushing.
Suck on that.
@Sun Rise: God help the team if they have likes of you ‘looking out’ for them.
You’ll be hearing from the Journal soon. Bye bye a*****e.
Good draw
They’re useless
@Damien O’Sullivan: i hope your talking about FFG,,,
@Damien O’Sullivan: Damien give that phone back to your mother until you mature a bit like a good little boy.
@James Leahy: Just criticising the current team. They were better under Vera.
Why don’t you run off and troll elsewhere fool. You have no idea what you’re talking about
@james rowan: Yeah them too
Nobody is interested in women’s soccer, it’s just not very good
@Auld Lad: 16 000 in Pairc Ui Caoimh.
@Auld Lad: another Immature small boy pretending to be an Auld lad.
@James Leahy: oh look, here’s the white Knight on his steed, getting offended on behalf of women everywhere
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: been to bigger raves
@Auld Lad: yeah we can tell…oh the irony
@Auld Lad: doubt you’ve left your mother’s basement in the past ten years.
No stopping them now after they beat France so easily
have your say