A messy few days in, and some inside Sinn Féin must be questioning the party hierarchy’s decision to make its head northern spin doctor carry the can for what increasingly looks like a much wider screw up. In 22 years I don’t remember anything like it.
The problem with secrecy, be it that of the Catholic Church or in more recent times Sinn Féin’s problematic handling of sex cases within its own ranks, is that eventually it gets hard to keep to a single consistent story. Right now there’s two variants.
On Thursday SF’s Limerick TD Maurice Quinlivan contradicted Eoin O Broin’s line that party could not inform McMonagle’s new employer (the Conor Murphy version), by offering the party knew nothing about his whereabouts line (O’Neill’s).
To be fair, the normally combative Quinlivan sounded uncharacteristically faltering, nervous and unsure of his ground, which may owe more to the fact that his party hasn’t made up its mind which one to establish its latter day Siegfried Line on.
Asked by Colm Ó Mongáin if the party should have called the police for clarity Quinlivan replied, “well I don’t know, I don’t know the circumstances there to be honest… I’ll be quite clear, I’m pretty sure we didn’t know [where McM was working]”.
Whether or not you believe him depends on whether or not you believe Michelle O’Neill could see or recognise him in that infamous picture of him standing just feet away from her in Stormont last year. Even for the moderately sceptic it’s a tough ask.
Ó Mongáin then turns the conversation over to two women TDs, Neasa Hourigan (Green) and Verona Murphy (Independent) and asked if they might have any questions for Mary Lou McDonald should she be called to answer to the Dáil on the matter.
Murphy made the point that “with a crime of this nature your own curiosity would lead you always to ask where is he now?” Whilst Hourigan noted it is standard for your previous employment confirms your employment to your new employer.
Both help us understand why neither of Sinn Féin contradictory accounts adds up. Hourigan’s question suggests that someone other than the Press Officers may have been contacted by BHF which, if true, would dismiss the we didn’t know line.
Yesterday afternoon, Sam McBride at the Belfast Telegraph confirmed that no one in Sinn Féin told the Assembly Office that McMonagle had left his publicly funded employment. His security pass was only surrendered this week. (BelTel Podcast)
Undertaking such a basic function would not be a press office function, surely? That’s another one to add to the growing list of questions for the now evasive public leadership of Sinn Féin (Mary Lou has barely been seen in Dublin this budget week).
Given the cavalier way in which the party has dealt with abuse cases in the past, it would be foolish to accept these contradictory answers at face value. We need to know whether the BHF approached them as his employer or just McMonagle for references.
If McMonagle applied even as a former employee, Sinn Féin itself and was approached by the BHF directly, it would not have been a matter for press officers. So who authorised/knew about those references? Who made the decision not to disclose?
Perhaps not questions SF will want to answer. But the public interest in putting them is clear (unless you’re a SF Councillor working in the Children’s Law Centre handing out duff media advice in Belfast). Something’s a little off in the state of Denmark.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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