You knew Sinn Féin was in some trouble when it called for Paddy Kielty to be censured for a joke at the start of the Late Late Show, even though their ongoing saga has been pretty much the only thing in the southern domestic news for the last fortnight.
Then on Saturday evening the Sunday Independent dropped a bombshell in the form of aa personal testimony from the young person Niall O Donnghaile sent the inappropriate texts which eventually lead to his first secret then public departure from SF.
He states that he “was originally fearful of reporting it to the central party as the safety culture of the party was visibly not present [emphasis added]“. He was told by a peer “Niall is way up here and you’re way down here. It could backfire on you”.
The paper also reveals that in this case party leader Mary Lou McDonald misled the Dail when she asserted that the young person was 17 when these events took place, something their new candidate for PAC chair then repeated on RTÉ on Saturday.
The age issue is a significant one for a Senator who worked in Dublin and was paid by the Irish taxpayer. The age of minority is 16 in Northern Ireland but 17 in the Republic so the question is why only the PSNI and not An Garda Siochana was informed?
There’s a related question for Mairéad Farrell, who hopes to assume chair of the PAC, as to why she did not check whether the information she passed on to Colm Ó Mongain was real or fabricated. Her fitness for such a key office will come under scrutiny.
As Máiría Cahill notes in her Sunday Independent column today, there were consequences to their protection of Ó Donnghaile via that entirely affective public reference from the party leader as he left public office last December:
On Thursday, the Irish News reported that after resigning on October 5, Ó Donnghaile continued to send inappropriate messages, this time to adults, which made at least one “feel uncomfortable”.
It is arguable that had Sinn Féin been honest with the public, Ó Donnghaile might have stopped his behaviour. And so, Sinn Féin carries hefty responsibility here for enabling him to continue his questionable conduct by cloaking him in silence.
So as well as asking why Ms McDonald misled the Dail there is also a case to answer for how her party’s corporate behaviour led to zero moderation in Ó Donnghaile’s private behaviour after he left the party. This is where the culture question kicks in.
It should be asked what Ms O’Neill’s handbook (whose answers still don’t add up by the way) has to say on this matter? Despite the conventions of both-sidesism, no one is obliged to take any politician’s word if all evidence points in a contrary direction.
Sam McBride has noted that until forced to confess Ó Donnghaile felt safe enough from scrutiny to attack anyone asking awkward questions of his former party, tweeting Sam that “*maybe* the Bel Tel don’t like that a Republican is First Minister…”
This takes us right back to the concealment problem within the culture of a party where challenging the behaviour of a senior party official is “likely to backfire on you”. This is the key connective thread between all of these episodes.
Holly Cairns has asked what’s the difference between two PROs giving a reference to a suspected (later convicted) paedophile to off load him from party responsibility, and Mary Lou’s encomium giving O’Donnghaile a signal he could carry on regardless?
The answer to both I suspect lies in another comic work from that line of the 2 Johnnie’s inspired skit that the party is still substantially influenced if not controlled by something approximating “big scary f@ckers from south Armagh”.
On the 17th anniversary of the murder of Paul Quinn by Provisional thugs that’s no laughing matter. Folks like Ó Donnghaile don’t need to frighten junior colleagues with anything other than their association with a ruthless internal hierarchy.
Nothing in these circumstances rings as hollow as accusations of party’s playing politics as Richard Boyd Barrett’s embarrassing wriggle with Colm Ó Mongáin yesterday or Mattie McGrath’s dissembling non statements on The Week In Politics today.
Louise O’Reilly’s refusal to take responsibility for this horrendous mess even involved her claiming that somehow she and Mary Lou McDonald were hurt by Ó Donnghaile’s behaviours when it is clear that SF’s refusal to come clean is the primary harm.
Not everyone has tried to avoid making it a political football. But just as the date of the next election is due to be announced the only party making it political is Sinn Féin themselves by offering an abominably low standard for child protection.
O’Reilly has tried to argue that Mary Lou only told the Dail because that’s what the victim told them, which if tour would be mean that over a year after these occurrences the party still hadn’t got its basic facts straight on the matter.
Regardless of her reasons for doing so, Mary Lou misled the Dail and in return it has a right to ask her to set the record straight and explain why she provided it with false information. At times like this democracy can grind exceedingly small.
But the challenge is inside Sinn Féin itself, where there was clearly great unhappiness before the current crisis. Last year in Athlone there were in excess of 1,500 attendees, this year in the same venue just 150 turned out to listen to Michelle O’Neill.
Not all republicans are happy with this mess. Wherever voters are on all of this, canvassers must gird themselves to answer questions on the doorstep about safeguarding and child protection, and their story they’ve been given to pass on is abysmal.
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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