Simon Harris aide called teachers “workshy” and the public racist

John Kelly works in a salaried role in Harris’s Wicklow constituency office.

In now-deleted comments on X, Kelly wrote a number of tweets, replying to posts from other users that criticised Government policies.

His comments criticised teachers as work-shy, described the public as “racist” and called US president Donald Trump a “moron” and Britain’s Prince Harry a “snowflake”.

Kelly commented on the release from custody of a man who gardaí had wrongly believed was involved in the killing of Ashling Murphy outside Tullamore. As other users blamed gardaí and lazy reporting for this man’s details being circulated on social media, Kelly wrote, “and a racist public!”

In 2022 after then Tánaiste Leo Varadkar published draft work-from-home legislation, it was criticised as ineffective by Gregor Kerr, a teacher and activist with the Irish National Teacher Organisation.

Kelly responded to Kerr: “This coming from a teacher, if there was a way not to work, teachers will find it!”

The same year when someone complained about Covid restrictions and the high number of cases being detected, Kelly responded: “Misinformed snowflakes!”

In 2020, as broadcaster Andrea Gilligan aired a piece on Newstalk radio describing Leo Varadkar as the “minister for commentary”, Kelly responded, describing Newstalk as the “Fox News” of Ireland and saying it was using “populist sound bites to drive listenership”.

Kelly also posted a number of tweets about US president Donald Trump, calling him a “moron” and a "loser".

In another post, Kelly labelled Richard Boyd-Barrett, the People Before Profit-Solidarity TD, a “trust fund kid”.

Many of Kelly’s posts were made in defence of his boss, Simon Harris or attacking Sinn Féin supporters.

In one, he said: “Your [sic] a SF supporter so you know all about ‘louts’!”

During the Dublin riots in November 2023, when a Garda car was set ablaze, Kelly wrote: “Bet there’s no dole office on fire!”

Despite being contacted on August 5th for comment from the Irish Times, there was no response from the Tánaiste’s office. The account was deleted after the questions were received.

On his LinkedIn profile, Kelly said he has been an adviser in the Oireachtas since 2013 and a Peace Commissioner.

His LinkedIn profile said he moved to the Taoiseach’s office, which includes the Office of the Tánaiste, in April 2024. Harris was Taoiseach between April 2024 and January 2025.