Sinn Fein’s handling of its recent controversies has been a crash course in how not to deal with damaging stories and their fallout.
The party leadership has attempted to address these scandals on several occasions but has failed miserably on each occasion.
Efforts to answer the myriad of questions swirling around, whether about child sex offender Michael McMonagle or former senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, have only raised even more questions.
Michael McMonagle
Regarding McMonagle, how did the party leadership not know he was employed by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) after he left the party, as it has claimed?
Why did former press officers Seán Mag Uidhir and Caolán McGinley not consult with the party leadership before providing references for McMonagle?
And why did Sinn Fein’s HR manager not flag the references with the party when they were told about them a year before?
Regarding Ó Donnghaile, why did party president Mary Lou McDonald provide him with a “glowing” reference upon his departure, knowing it was after he had resigned over sending inappropriate messages to a 17-year-old party member?
Sinn Fein was first told about the inappropriate messages in September 2023 and Ó Donnghaile said he would resign from the Seanad and the party during a meeting in October.
However, his resignation was not announced for almost two months, on December 21 last year.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald (Niall Carson/PA)
Ms McDonald said the delay in resigning was due to the former Belfast Lord Mayor being on sick leave.
Speaking yesterday, party vice-president Michelle O’Neill said Ms McDonald “set out very categorically everything that we knew and when we knew it” in her statement to the Dail. Fantastic, but this was 10 months after Ó Donnghaile’s resignation was announced.
Also, the Sinn Fein president’s statement only came after news of the then-unnamed party member’s resignation over inappropriate text messages to a teenager was revealed by the Irish Independent and she was facing increasing pressure to answer questions about the affair and who it related to.
Are we seriously expected to believe Sinn Fein would have volunteered this information?
Niall Ó Donnghaile
It seems, like the job references for McMonagle, all these revelations are only coming to light because the press are asking questions.
With Sinn Fein now the largest party in Northern Ireland — and with the potential to come out on top in the next general election south of the border — the electorate rightly expects transparency and integrity.
For Sinn Fein, all the controversy of recent weeks could have been largely avoided if it simply revealed everything the leadership knew and when it knew it, as well as having more robust internal safeguards in the first place.
Sinn Féin’s Niall Ó Donnghaile continued to be paid after resignation and received termination lump sum
It seems Mary Lou McDonald would have kept truth of Niall Ó Donnghaile resignation a secret if it wasn’t for Dáil debate
Niall Ó Donnghaile was happy to slur us when we were investigating his own misbehaviour
Ms O’Neill has said there are “no other” cases of party members under investigation or suspended.
“But there certainly are no other terms of other cases that we are currently engaged in, so just to be very clear about that,” she added.
Time will tell if that is the case.
Given what has happened in recent weeks, the following comment from the First Minister would be amusing if it weren’t so serious.
“We’ve always wanted to be as frank as we possibly can with everybody and answer all the questions that people have put to us,” she said.
I think many a journalist would challenge that statement.
by heresmewhaa
3 comments
*”the electorate rightly expects transparency and integrity”*
We should, but unless we see legislative action to enforce oversight we are not going to get it. It’s all very well pointing fingers but as we see time and time again the political establishment talk the talk but when it comes to policing their own they fail miserably. This is not just a sinn fein issue and we need bipartisan action to clean up our horrendously self serving political system.
This is pretty bad journalism imo. A lot of the questions they pose have been answered (whether they agree with the answer or not) or are irrelevant.
>Are we seriously expected to believe Sinn Fein would have volunteered this information?
Sure they wouldn’t have been legally allowed to volunteer that information, so no.
They are a political party but they are still subject to employment laws. A lot of people don’t seem to understand that.
>with the potential to come out on top in the next general election south of the border
[Who was telling ye?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Irish_general_election#Opinion_polls)