Disaster for Sinn Féin as TDs quit over disputes

Sinn Féin’s problems in the 26 Counties have exploded ahead of an impending general election, with the departure of two TDs, including the shock resignation of party veteran, Laois/Offaly TD Brian Stanley.

Mr Stanley (pictured, left) whose resignation was announced by local news website Laois Today on Saturday night, condemned a “clique” within the party and said he had been subjected to what he described as a “kangaroo court” .

Both Mr Stanley and Sinn Féin have described a quasi-judicial “inquiry” which involved an investigation by a panel of three Sinn Féin members, including a barrister, into a complaint against him.

As the mainstream media pounced on the latest in a series of scandals over Sinn Fein’s internal governance and management, the party staunchly defended what it said was a process which “protected the rights” of the veteran TD,

An elected representative since 1999, Mr Stanley said he would continue to represent his constituency as an independent republican.

“After 40 years of service to Sinn Féin, I will now continue working as an Independent Republican TD of behalf of constituents, who have always treated me in a fair and respectful manner.

“In recent months a certain clique within the party have gone to extreme lengths to damage my reputation and character. No efforts have been spared by them in this regard.

“On foot of a ‘complaint’ I was recently brought before an internal party ‘inquiry’.

“Given what has transpired and the work of my legal team, what is very clear, is this process lacked objectivity, was seriously flawed and was devoid of impartiality.

“This ‘inquiry’ has been shown to have lacked any shred of credibility, not least due to a significant abuse of process. In many ways it resembled a type of kangaroo court. Legal examination of this matter will continue.

“Considering what I have experienced and how Sinn Féin has dealt with this and other matters across the wider party in recent months, I can no longer have confidence in it”.

Stanley’s resignation is the third Sinn Féin public representative in Laois to leave the party in recent months. Portarlington-based councillor Aidan Mullins recently announced his decision to resign from the party in August while Kildare South TD Patricia Ryan, who is from Laois and whose constituency currently takes in part of the county, announced her decision to leave the party earlier this week.

Another Laois/Offaly TD, Carol Nolan, was suspended by Sinn Féin in 2018 in a dispute over the party’s hardline pro-abortion stance. She subsequently resigned to become an independent TD and was re-elected as an independent in 2020.

The constituency is set to be a major battleground in the general election, which could take place within weeks. As it stands, Brian Stanley’s wife, Caroline Dwane-Stanley is the only Sinn Féin elected representative now in Laois. She is a councillor in the Portlaoise district.

Mr Stanley said that claims by the party leadership that his rights had been protected throughout the process were “totally incorrect”.

He said that that a complaint had been lodged with the party on the first day that the 10-day nomination process opened for members such as himself to be put forward to contest the election.

“In my case this had the effect of preventing me of having any hope of contesting it as a Sinn Féin candidate for Laois,” he said.

He claimed there had been an ‘omertà’ on information surrounding the complaint and that “information had been deliberately kept from me “.

“One middle ranking party member instructed other members that I was not to be informed of its existence. In actual fact I had to get my solicitor, six days later, to write to the party [July 31] to ascertain what was the nature of this complaint.

“In the intervening period, ie from July 26, the process of character assassination was well underway by a certain party clique and has continued unabated since then. These facts and others mean that there has been a significant abuse of process and when it was brought to the attention of the Sinn Fein ‘panel’ it was simply brushed aside.”

The party said it had passed allegations against Mr Stanley to Gardaí police in the hours after his resignation, although the force has not yet confirmed receiving it. Mr Stanley has also said he has made a complaint to Gardaí.

In the Dáil on Tuesday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said a woman who made a complaint against Mr Stanley had been left “traumatised”. She told the Dáil that he needed to “account” for his “behaviour” and that the complaint was “serious.”

Mr Stanley subsequently accused Ms McDonald of abusing parliamentary privilege “in a desperate attempt to shift the focus” away from her party .

He hit out at what he said were “inaccurate statements and insinuations from Sinn Féin, along with selective briefings delivered with the clear intention of damaging my reputation and to shift the spotlight off the party. And all this, while a Garda investigation is ongoing on foot of serious matters I brought forward,” he said.

“What was also revealing from her statement in the Dáil, is the level of double standards that now operate and pertain in Sinn Féin.”

Ms McDonald said she is not in a position to comment on “the nature or the details “of the complaint, which she insisted has been referred to Gardaí out of an “abundance of caution”.

The resignation has also terminated Mr Stanley’s chairmanship of the powerful Public Accounts Commitee (PAC), a very prominent post held by the main opposition party to tackle wasteful spending and corruption. Sinn Féin officials have already promoted Galway West TD Mairéad Farrell, who was nominated to the PAC just last month, to take the post in his place.

Mr Stanley was the second TD to quit Sinn Féin inside a week. Days earlier, Kildare South TD Patricia Ryan (pictured, right) left the party, ahead of the constituency selection convention there, saying she felt she was “pushed to go” after expressing concerns over censorship and the direction of the party.

She also said her engagement with the leadership had failed to address “grassroots issues”. Speaking on local radio, she said that party members were prevented from asking questions of the the leadership that had not been “vetted” ahead of meetings.

“Why would you ask someone who was a party member to come along and have their questions vetted?” she asked.

Sinn Féin officials have denied that a strategy is in place to oust some elected representatives in order to advance more amenable or favoured candidates in the party.

Amid a series of battling interviews with the Irish media, Ms McDonald said that she was determined to uphold the rules and procedures of the party.

“I am absolutely insistent that rules and procedures are applied rigorously, that the procedures are followed rigorously and impartially and the buck does stop with me,” she said.

And she suggested that Ms Ryan resigned from the party only because of “competition”.

“Selection conventions are open conventions, and sometimes they are contested. Rules exist, and they are applied. What you’re seeing now is the consequence of those rules,” she said.

On Wednesday night, Councillor Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh was selected as the Sinn Féin candidate for the Kildare South constituency. A spokesperson for the party said the process highlighted the “democratic values central to Sinn Féin’s mission”.

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