Sinn Féin ‘frank and transparent’ over Senator’s departure

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has denied orchestrating an “elaborate cover-up” after the party failed to divulge the real reason for former Sinn Féin Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile’s sudden resignation from the Seanad last year.

In a Dáil debate on child protection, Ms McDonald admitted Mr Ó Donnghaile’s resignation from Sinn Féin came about after he sent “completely inappropriate” text messages to a teenager in the party’s youth wing and another party member.

Ó Donnghaile (pictured) resigned from both the party and the Seanad on October 5 last year, subsequent to an internal investigation into the messages. It was not until four days before Christmas that Ms McDonald announced his departure for heath reasons, along with a statement wishing him the best and thanking him for his work.

Sinn Féin passed a complaint to the PSNI police in the North in September 2023 but when he resigned from the Seanad three months later, Ms McDonald praised him, wished him well for the future but made no mention of the reason for his resignation or the complaint to police.

She said this was because of “concerns for his mental health and his safety”.

Neither the PSNI nor the social services in the North pursued the matter, apparently on the basis the young person in question did not want to make a formal complaint.

No contact was made with the authorities in the 26 Counties, where Ó Donnghaile worked. He continued to use parliament buildings and continued to be paid until late January.

Diuring the Dail debate, Tánaiste Micheál Martin accused Ms McDonald of “misleading” the parliament by failing to reveal the factual details surrounding the senator’s exit from politics.

“It is clear Sinn Féin again failed to tell the truth on a very serious matter and seems to have been involved in a very elaborate cover-up,” he said.

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns asked how the Sinn Féin member who complained about the senator must have felt reading Ms McDonald’s “glowing” statement.

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said Sinn Féin’s instinct to “protect the party over other things” is due to the history of the conflict.

“There is a defensive ‘us against them’ instinct within Sinn Féin which is, to be honest, a legacy of the Troubles,” Mr Tóibín, a former Sinn Féin TD, told the Dáil. “It feeds into the instinct to protect the party over other things.”

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty told RTÉ radio on Wednesday that he accepted that the full information was not initially provided to the Dáil in relation to the departure of Ó Donnghaile from the party.

“But I also accept that people now know why that full information was not provided. It is important to state that Niall Ó Donnghaile faced the full rigours of the party, he lost his job, he lost his position within the party and he was referred for a criminal investigation to the PSNI and social services,” Mr Doherty said.

He denied there was any comparison with the case of party press officer Michael McMonagle, who was forced to resign from the party after he was charged with attempted sexual communication with children, and who also claimed to be suffering from serious mental ill-health.

Last week, Mary Lou McDonald ordered her party to mount “a complete overhaul of governance procedures” after it emerged McMonagle received positive references from the head of the party’s press office, Sean Mag Uidhir, and another press officer, Caolan McGinley, despite facing 14 separate child abuse charges. He is currently awaiting sentencing.

Mr Doherty insisted any comparisons between the two cases were “outrageous and not acceptable”, and condemned the RTE journalist who made it.

“The comparison is utterly, in my view, disgraceful. And I make that point again. And your attempt to try and conflate an issue of very serious child abuse with an issue in relation to Niall, who sent inappropriate messages to a 17-year-old.”

But there has been dismay among republican activists over the contrast between the supportive and protective approach taken by party officials, at least initially, to both McMonagle and O Donnghaile, and the scale of the effort mounted to oust veteran Laois TD Brian Stanley from the party in the wake of a recent complaint against him.

A “cabal” of Sinn Féin officials have regularly been accused of acting against an old guard associated with the party’s radical, republican past, while favouring younger representatives who back the party’s move towards soft-left constitutional nationalism.

And amid the shock confluence of four deeply damaging internal revelations on the eve of a general election, fears have also resurfaced of a similar ‘enemy within’ working to sabotage the party’s chances of a historic opportunity to enter government in Dublin for the first time.

Speculation over an imminent election has been increased by the coalition leaders in the wake of Sinn Féin’s turmoil, with Taoiseach Simon Harris saying “it can’t be that far away”, while Tánaiste Micheal Martin agreed that it would be “a fair assumption” that he would not object to an election if there was progress in the legislative agenda.

Amid the turmoil, Sinn Féin’s leader in the North, Michelle O’Neill has strongly supported Mary Lou McDonald’s handling of events and said there are “no questions” over the party’s leadership. The First Minister at Stormont also insisted that Sinn Féin can “confidently stand over the approach they took”.

She said her party has tried to be as “frank and transparent” as possible and answer “all the questions”.

“From day one, we set out to try to be as transparent as we can in terms of setting out all of the effects,” she said. “I’ve done that in the Assembly Chamber last week, Mary Lou’s done it again yesterday in the Dáil, and that remains our approach.”

Urgent Appeal