So Sinn Féin’s troubles continue, this time they are merely deepening in the south. Over the weekend the party lost its second TD in a week to resignation. It wasn’t over the McMonagle case but the result of internal machinations.
Kildare South TD Patricia Ryan resigned last Wednesday citing internal censorship by the national leadership of any criticism of the party’s dismal performance in the local and European elections, and the vetting of questions for Mary Lou McDonald.
Then on Saturday, the party’s most senior backbench TD Brian Stanley resigned alleging that an internal complaint was made against him on the first day of a ten day nomination period meaning he couldn’t put in his nomination to stand for Sinn Féin.
The party then set up what McDonald has said is “a stand alone” investigation: headed by a barrister and Sinn Féin member plus two members from the north and the south who are not officials. Stanley described this process as a kangaroo court.
His resignation ends the internal inquiry, but a counter allegation by him appears to have been reported to the Gardaí. We still don’t have any details on either allegation, but it seems to have prevented him from putting his name forward to defend his seat.
In Stanley they have picked a formidable opponent, who is clearly not going to go quietly. Having represented Sinn Féin as a town, then county councillor and as TD since 2011, he’s a rare asset in an area where polls suggest the SF vote is strongest.
However, whatever polling says about opinion in Leinster outside Dublin Sinn Féin’s only remaining representative in Laois is Stanley’s wife and county councillor Caroline Dwane Stanley. If Stanley stands as a representative they’ve no one else in wings.
When questioned by Katie Hannon on RTE’s Upfront Sinn Féin’s recently appointed head of elections Matt Carthy was asked did he not ask himself why the party’s chair of the Public Accounts Committee was not on the list of nominees?
Carthy asserted that he assumed Stanley would be the party’s candidate up till Saturday night, even though his name was not on the list. The Deputy Leader of the Green Party later taunted him that as director of electors he had no idea who was running.
The problem the party now that the secrecy with which it has bound its activity since the start of the ballot box and armalite strategy of the early 1980s is now being turned against it not only by party rivals but by those it turns against internally.
Politically both are damaging. Those who believe the McMonagle story was only triggered by rivals should watch last week’s edition of The View in which John Manley, Allison Morris and Chris Donnelly gave it to them straight. Not a unionist among them.
In the cold light of day safeguarding is an issue for nationalists as much as for the rest of the population. But Sinn Féin’s response (both in official outputs and its online support) that has turned the original story from politically awkward to toxic.
But it now has something of an internal rebellion on its hands at the very moment it needs to be consolidating its platform for what was already going to be a tricky election. Today it must face difficult questions in the Dáil:
…when the House hears what the official schedule refers to as “statements on child protection” but will actually be an excavation of that embarrassment for the party and a restating of some obvious questions about the party’s management of it. McDonald has apologised, but that does not mean that the questions have gone away.
There is talk of another party member having been stood down for sending inappropriate messages to a 17-year-old party member. Opposition as well as government parties now want to know whether this was just a member or a representative.
Last week Mairia Cahill noted in a lengthy morning interview on Newstalk:
“You cannot build a safeguarding culture on secrecy and that’s always been my bottom line.” Ms Cahill claimed Sinn Féin has a “pattern” of behaviour when it comes to dealing with the media regarding sex abuse cases – suggesting the party only gives out information when it is forced to do so and even then, does so in a ‘drip feed’ manner. [Emphasis added]
As Gavin Reilly reports, that defensive drip feed is now quietly turning against it. At the very least Mary Lou is promising to name the former Sinn Féin member this afternoon in the Dáil whose conduct has been reported to the PSNI.
But as Fionnan Sheahan on the Indo Daily Podcast yesterday noted:
Sinn Féin’s problem is that they still seem to be working off a playbook that was there back in the Troubles “delay, delay, deny, deflect, accuse people of bias and being against them and so on and so forth” rather than saying “this is a very serious issue and we are dealing with it in as open and transparent manner that we quite possibly can”.
As Áine Lawlor put it to Pa Daly TD on The Week In Politics about Michelle O’Neill’s behaviour as party leader (not to mention First Minister of Northern Ireland, “she doesn’t see, she doesn’t ask, she doesn’t know, that is straining the public’s credulity”.
Far from trying to misdirect the audience as she did last week, that’s the problem Mary Lou has to allay later today. There’s no magic carpet out of these difficulties. There will be trouble ahead whatever choice the President of Sinn Fein makes.
UPDATE: The Sinn Féin Member who sent inappropriate texts to a 17 year old is former Lord Mayor Belfast Niall Ó Donnghaile who stepped down from Seanad Éireann late last year citing health reasons. Former colleagues in the Seanad were unable to contact him at the time. Ó Donnghaile himself made the announcement a short time ago.
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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