“Protest is part of what keeps politics honest. But where and how it’s done matters.”
James is Belfast Live’s dedicated Political Reporter covering news and politics across Northern Ireland.
In any democracy worth defending, protest is a vital form of expression. It is how people show dissent, demand change, and hold the powerful to account. But this week in Northern Ireland, that right collided with another. The right to safety and privacy in a way that should concern all of us.
On Wednesday night, around forty people, some masked, gathered outside Justice Minister Naomi Long’s East Belfast home. They shouted, filmed and forced police to intervene. Naomi Long later said that a line had been crossed and that this wasn’t debate or legitimate protest, but intimidation. Her husband, Belfast City Councillor Michael Long said that in twenty-five years of public life, no one had ever come to their door before.
That protest came just days after a bomb was left outside the constituency office of Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins in Newry, which she shares with her party colleague, MP Dáire Hughes. Two incidents in one week, both targeting public representatives, both women, should make everyone stop and think.
There’s a temptation in Northern Ireland to treat intimidation as just part of the political weather, where it is unpleasant but inevitable, like bad rain or worse roads. But it isn’t normal, and it shouldn’t be brushed off as something that just “comes with the job.” When threats become routine, democracy becomes smaller.
What’s particularly striking is how little attention either incident received outside of Northern Ireland. If a bomb had been left at an MP’s office in London, or if a Justice Minister in Scotland had been surrounded by masked protesters at home, it would have led the national news. Here, it was barely a headline beyond our own patch. Once again, Northern Ireland’s politics is treated as a local story, even when it speaks to much bigger questions about safety, gender, and the cost of public service.
Because this isn’t just about intimidation. It’s about who tends to be intimidated. Female politicians in Northern Ireland have long faced a particular kind of hostility that is more personal, more persistent, and often more dangerous. Their homes, families and appearance are all fair game in ways their male counterparts rarely face. The same digital abuse that fills inboxes and comment sections can spill easily into real life, and it’s often women who bear the brunt of it.
That matters, not only because it’s wrong, but because it changes who’s willing to stand for office in the first place. Politics here already struggles to attract new voices. If public life becomes synonymous with harassment and threat, it’s no wonder many will decide it isn’t worth the risk.
Eoin Tennyson, the Alliance Deputy Leader, said the protest at Naomi Long’s house was fuelled by misinformation and inflammatory language within the Assembly chamber. He’s probably right. There’s been a hardening of tone in recent months at Stormont with a noticeable shift from debate to provocation, with language designed to wound rather than persuade. This could arguably be due to the fact that there are two elections scheduled to take place in just over a year’s time, but when political disagreement is constantly framed as betrayal, it’s not hard to see how anger can spill into real-world confrontation.
That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t protest. There is a long and honourable tradition of protest in Northern Ireland. It has shaped our politics, our rights and our sense of identity. People should protest loudly, passionately, and often. Protest is part of what keeps politics honest. But where and how it’s done matters. There’s a world of difference between standing outside City Hall with a placard and standing outside someone’s home with a camera.
Naomi Long said a line was crossed. But it’s more than that, it’s a warning about the climate we’re allowing to take hold. Female politicians here are increasingly facing intimidation that is personal, persistent, and sometimes violent. If we tolerate it, if we treat it as part of the local “political theatre,” we risk eroding not just safety but the very idea of public service in Northern Ireland. Respect for protest cannot come at the cost of basic security and decency.
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