AN IRISHWOMAN sent a message to the Irish President, saying he would “go home in plastic bags” if he set foot in England, a Dublin court has heard.
Anne Fennell, 57, made repeated death threats to President Michael D Higgins on a number of occasions in 2014, both before and after his historic visit to Britain in April of that year.
Ms Fennell, who has been receiving psychological treatment, first made the telephone calls in April of 2014 – the month President Higgins and his wife departed for England.
She repeated the calls, and issued new threats, in October of the same year.
In one of her phone calls, Ms Fennell told the receptionist at Áras an Úachtaráin that if President Higgins and his wife Sabina continued with the planned state visit to Britain, they would “go home in plastic bags if they set foot on English soil”.
She made numerous threats to bomb the Irish President in other phone calls.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court also heard how an area around the Dáil buildings on Dublin’s Kildare Street had to be combed after Ms Fennell called to say there would be a bomb at the main gate.
She also made calls to the European Commission Representation, An Post's Dublin Mail Centre and the constituency offices of TDs Alan Kelly, Aodhán Ó Riordáin, and Noel Coonan, as well as Áras an Úachtaráin.
The former An Post worker, with an address at Monastery Gate Green, Clondalkin, Dublin, pleaded guilty persistent annoying phone calls and sending “obscene or menacing” phone messages between February 2 and December 1, 2014.
Judge Melanie Greally heard how Ms Fennell had apologised for her actions, saying they were “just words”.
Ms Fennell was remanded on bail to July to allow her to continue her psychological therapy and engage with the probation services.
Judge Greally also ordered a probation and welfare report at the end of this period, in the hope that Ms Fennell could achieve a more “pro-social” existence, as her offending seemed due to her isolation.
