LEICESTER, United Kingdom – An office belonging to the Irish advocacy organization The Iona Institute was cordoned off by the Gardai – the police force of the Republic of Ireland – in Dublin on Sep. 16 after receiving a suspicious package.

The package was opened by David Quinn, the Director of the Iona Institute, and campaigned a white powder and a letter inscribed “Happy Anthrax. To David Quinn and Bit*h O’Brien,” which would have been a reference to Breda O’Brien, The Irish Times columnist and occasional spokesperson for The Iona Institute. Angelo Bottone, the researcher for the Iona Institute, was also in the office when the package was opened and was exposed to the powder.

Police were called after the package arrived.

“The situation had to be treated like a bomb scare. The vast majority of bomb scares turn out to be false, but you can’t take the risk and so suspect packages must be investigated. An anthrax scare falls into the same category as a bomb scare, it seems, which makes sense given how dangerous anthrax is,” Quinn said.

“Therefore, the army’s bomb disposal unit was called. They investigate suspect packages other than possible bombs, and they were in the area and the building for several hours on Tuesday afternoon. When they left, Gardai had to treat our office as a crime scene for a few more hours, because no matter what the powder turns out to be, threatening people in this way is a crime,” he added.

The Iona Institute was founded by Quinn in 2007, and is one of the most prominent conservative Christian organizations in Ireland.

The incident on Tuesday happened as political organizations around the world are feeling tense after the assassination of conservative activist Charles Kirk on Sep. 10 in Utah.

“Fortunately, Ireland is not a gun culture, but given the threats I have received down the years because of my pro-Catholic, socially conservative views, and now this package, the murder of Charlie Kirk would make you more wary. How could it not?” Quinn told Crux.

“We believe the motive of the person who sent the package was anti-Catholic because Breda and I are best known for writing about Catholic issues,” he said.

Quinn said over the years, The Iona Institute office has received a lot of hail mail and he personally sometimes received physical threats.

“This tends to happen the most when there is an eruption of public anger at the Church over the scandals, or when a major social issue referendum is on. The hate mail is almost always anti-Catholic,” he said.

“From time to time, I have been verbally attacked on the street and on one occasion in a city center pub where I was drinking with friends,” he added.

Quinn admitted the powder was almost certainly harmless, “but the threat and intention behind it was as malicious as could be.”

“I don’t think we have ever before emailed our supporters about some of the threats and abuse we receive, but what happened on Tuesday was so serious we decided to let [people]  know, particularly in view of the fact that many politicians are now drawing more attention to the threats and abuse they receive,” he said.

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome