A POLICE investigation has been launched in Northern Ireland after Leo Varadkar’s address was found graffitied on a wall in Belfast.
The PSNI has launched a probe after the Tanaiste’s home address was found scrawled on a wall at the junction of the Newtownards Road and Belvoir Street in East Belfast.
Varadkar’s name and address was graffitied beside a loyalist paramilitary mural on the evening of Tuesday, March 16th.
The incident is the second time in which graffiti targetting Varakar has appeared in the Northern Irish capital.
Back in January a series of threats appeared on a wall of a shop located at Drumart Square in the Belvoir Estate.
According to a PSNI spokesperson the graffiti was likely written on the wall sometime between 6pm on Friday and 10am on Saturday.
Titled "An Ode to Leo Varadkar", it read:
We have a noose, we have a tree
Just need a neck, whose will it be
Set foot in Ulster, cross that line
We guarantee that you will hang
The graffiti has since been painted over.
Leo VaradkarSinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald was among those to condemn the “vile” graffiti at the time.
“Vile, shameful attack on @LeoVaradkar,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Threats and intimidation driven by sectarianism and racism must be faced down by all of us. Together.”
This latest incident comes against a backdrop of anger within some sections of Northern Ireland’s loyalist community over the implementation of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
Since December 31 and the end of the Brexit transition period, the Northern Ireland protocol has been in place, bringing with it custom checks on goods travelling from the UK into Northern Ireland.
The change has led to several incidents involving staff at ports in both Larne and Belfast being threatened by loyalists angry at the introduction of the new checks.
It’s a situation that has sparked criticism from the DUP with First Minister Arlene Foster urging UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to replace the protocol.
Meanwhile the DUP has pledged to unite unionist parties in opposition to the deal.
See More: Belfast, Leo Varadkar, PSNI
