Updated, 16.38

THE DEFENCE FORCES has said that a suspicious device found outside the constituency office of Sinn Féín vice-president Mary Lou McDonald was a hoax.

The Forces’ bomb disposal unit had earlier made safe the suspicious device. The unit had been tasked to the constituency office of the party vice-president Mary Lou McDonald, on the North Strand Road in Dublin 3, after the device was left at the front door of the office this morning.

The office worker who discovered the device immediately called the Gardaí who sealed off the area. The front door of the office was also defaced with graffiti.

The device has now been made safe and the scene declared safe. The EOD team then removed the suspect device to Cathal Brugha Barracks for further analysis, and to determine whether it had been viable. A Defence Forces spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that they could confirm it was a hoax.

Though her fellow Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe described the device in a statement as a “hoax pipebomb”, a Defence Forces spokesman said the viability of the device had not yet been established this lunchtime.

“The people behind this sort of activity have no support,” Crowe said, adding that the actions of those responsible were “pathetic and futile”.

“All right thinking people will condemn this attack on the constituency office of a democratically elected TD.

“Sinn Féin will certainly not be deflected from our democratic work and the office has re-opened this morning.”