Social Democrats campaigners say they were threatened with knife while putting up local election posters

Two women in their 20s were putting up posters for Ellen O’Doherty, one of the party’s candidates for a seat on ­Dublin City Council in the Smithfield area, when they heard shouting and roaring.

A man came out of a house and roared abuse at the two women, saying the Social Democrats “are Nazis” and demanding the poster be taken down.

The situation escalated when a second man came out of the house a few minutes later.

The two women said this man attempted to grab the ladder and pulled a box-cutter blade out of his pocket, saying he wanted to cut down the poster himself.

Ellen, one of the women who was putting up the posters for Ms O’Doherty, was holding the ladder while the second campaigner was up on the ladder.

“He said, ‘get off the f**king ladder, I’ll do it, I have my own f**king knife’ and then he made really aggressive eye contact at me and pulled a knife out of his pocket. It was a clearly threatening action,” she said.

Ellen said a woman came out of the house at that moment and urged the two men to stop what they were doing. The two campaigners managed to get their posters and escape.

“We were really shaken and I think in the moment, we were both very calm. But when the adrenaline wore off I realised a guy pulled a knife 30cm away from me. It’s really scary,” Ellen said.

She said she would not go back to the area and added people are afraid of going out campaigning, “especially migrants”.

Ms O’Doherty said she was putting up posters nearby when the incident took place.

“It was my worst nightmare that they would be harassed and intimidated in that way, because of political nastiness,” she said.

“It escalated when he saw that it was an election poster. I worry about them all the time, especially when we started canvassing in January.

“We’re going out in the dark, we’re going out in residential areas, we’re knocking on doors of people we don’t know.”

Ms O’Doherty, who is originally from Kerry but has lived in Dublin for the past decade, was previously the press officer for Kerry Pride.

She was one of the organisers of a drag storytime event in Kerry last year, which was stormed by anti-LGBTQ+ protesters.

“Having that experience was quite scary but also quite galvanising. I’ve always been quite politically aware,” she said of her decision to run in the local elections.

The incident has been reported to gardaí.

A spokesperson said gardaí were informed of an “incident” which took place while posters were being put up. However, they said: “No criminal offence was disclosed.”