Hate crime laws must ‘have teeth’ to protect LGBT community

Dr Mary McAuliffe said that there was still “homophobia, transphobia, racism and misogyny” in Ireland
Dr Mary McAuliffe said that there was still “homophobia, transphobia, racism and misogyny” in Ireland

Hate crime legislation must “have teeth” to protect the LGBT community in Ireland, a gender and sexuality historian has said as gardai investigate whether two recent killings in Sligo were hate related.

Dr Mary McAuliffe, director of gender studies at University College Dublin, has joined several politicians and LGBT advocacy groups in calling for further protections of minority groups in reaction to the killings of Michael Snee, 59, and Aidan Moffitt, 42, in Sligo.

Moffitt, a former Fine Gael constituency secretary for Sligo-Leitrim, was found in his home in Cartron Heights at around 8.30pm on Monday. Parts of his body were mutilated. It’s understood that he met his attacker online.

Snee, 59, was killed in his home on Connaughton Road on Tuesday. He suffered