A death threat has been issued against one of Ireland's leading journalists, the death threat has been issued by a supporter of Martin McGuinness, the threat comes in the same week that the Real IRA have agreed to back McGuinness as an anti-establishment candidate, and a few weeks following a death threat being issued against journalist Paul McWilliams by the Real IRA in Dublin.
Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris has received a death threat. A caller to Independent News and Media, a supporter of Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, referred to an article Mr Harris wrote entitled 'Ten Reasons not to vote for Martin McGuinness'.
"Eoghan Harris should be shot for what he is writing about Martin McGuinness and I think I am the man to do it," said the caller. The article was carried in last Thursday's edition of the Dubliner magazine, which comes out with the Evening Herald.
Security staff at Independent newspapers said the caller had asked to speak to Mr Harris but made the threat when the writer was unavailable. The call was reported to Store Street Garda station and investigating officers said they were taking the matter very seriously.
The incident comes only days after three members of Mr McGuinness's entourage threatened another reporter with the Sunday Independent outside RTE, after he had asked about the BMW car that Mr McGuinness was using.
The reporter described how he was harangued by associates of Mr McGuinness in last week's Sunday Independent. He wrote: "As I prepared to take a picture, I was approached by four of Mr McGuinness's associates, one of whom expressed concern that we would publish an image in which the car's number plate would be visible. I made it clear we normally blacked out number plates."
He continued: "Had my encounter with the McGuinness entourage ended there, I would have thought no more of it. It didn't.
"The three other men moved in closer than was comfortable and proceeded to point their fingers and verbally harangue me."
Yesterday, in the threat made against the columnist, the caller singled out an article written by Mr Harris entitled 'A Deal With Devil', in which he describes why he rejects Mr McGuinness as president of the Irish Republic, saying it is a role that would retrospectively justify IRA murders and act as a recruiter for a new generation of gormless gunmen.
Among the reasons he lists is that Mr McGuinness's election would be "a Sinn Fein Trojan Horse". Mr Harris also describes Mr McGuinness's fight for freedom as "a futile waste" and he said: "McGuinness has delusions of being Nelson Mandela".
