White powder, anti-Semitic material sent to Irish pol

Anti-Semitic material and an unidentified white powder were sent to Ireland’s justice minister, Alan Shatter.

The Irish Army’s bomb squad on Wednesday morning was sent to the Dublin home of Shatter, who is Jewish, to remove the package, according to reports in the Irish media. The white powder was discovered to be harmless.

The anti-Semitic material was identified in some reports as a swastika or a photograph of Nazi storm troopers carrying flags bearing swastikas.

Enda Kenny, Ireland’s prime minister, told the Dali, or lower house of the Irish Parliament, that the incident was a “new low” for the country. A similar package also was sent to the Department of Justice, he said.

“It’s not in order that that sort of anti-Semitic material is being received by somebody who happens to belong to a particular religion in our country, irrespective of the challenges that we have here,” Kenny said.

A no-confidence motion on Shatter is scheduled for a parliament vote on Wednesday evening, according to the Irish Times.