Sinn Féin will provide “the most effective opposition in the history of this State”.
That was the pledge from Mary Lou McDonald in 2020 following an election in which the party claimed a victory of sorts, garnering the highest first preference share and the second highest number of seats.
Having been effectively boxed out of Government negotiations, Sinn Féin was able to sell to some that the party was being done down and being kept from a Government formed of an old boys’ club.
Polling reflected that belief until covid came along and Fine Gael’s early handling of the pandemic solidified its own standing. However, starting in early 2021, Sinn Féin became a powerhouse in opinion polls, reaching as high as 37% of support and beating coalition parties every time the questions were put to the public.
Ms McDonald as taoiseach was, it seemed, a fait accompli. All that was left was measuring the office.
It is well-documented that, since the turn of the year, polling trends have reversed and Sinn Féin has found itself in a tailspin from which it does not seem to be able to pull itself out of — not just electorally — and it seems less and less likely that anyone has the answer on how to do so.
Much of this led to the departure last week of Kildare South TD Patricia Ryan. While many in the party felt that her resignation was largely down to the prospect of losing a contested selection convention, Ms Ryan said it was nothing of the sort.
Speaking to her local radio station KFM, she said: “There were issues within the grassroots of the party in Kildare South, and the party wasn’t dealing with them.
“Despite having asked the party to deal with those issues for quite a while, it was left fester. I felt that it either had to be sorted or I had to go.”
She said that social media posts had been censored and her questions for Ms McDonald at a party event had been vetted.
Then, the announcement late on Saturday that the chair of the powerful Dáil Public Accounts Committee, Brian Stanley, was resigning from the party was bad enough.
However, his statement went much further and was much more pointed in both tone and language than the announcement of Ms Ryan.
The Laois-Offaly TD said that he had been subject to an internal investigation and “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,” he said.
The term “kangaroo court” has uncomfortable resonance for the party following the 2014 Máiría Cahill case, where she claimed she was sexually abused and then forced to meet her alleged attacker in front of an IRA kangaroo court.
In that case, Sinn Féin’s leader issued an unreserved apology some four years later after a police ombudsman report found evidence suggesting the man accused of raping the former senator was suspended from Sinn Féin as it was suspected he was abusing children.
Echoes of that case were brought up in recent weeks with the revelation that former press officer Michael McMonagle, aged 42, from Limewood St, Derry, admitted to a series of offences — including attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
McMonagle was first arrested in August 2021 and Sinn Féin has said it suspended him as soon as it became aware of the police investigation.
However, McMonagle took up a communications position with the British Heart Foundation in September 2022 and the charity has said it was not made aware that he was facing investigation.
Two Sinn Féin press officers resigned last month after it emerged they had given references for McMonagle for the charity job. The fallout from those revelations will be debated in a 100-minute Dáil session on child protection on Tuesday as Sinn Féin struggles to move on from it.
In Mr Stanley’s case, there is a question about what process was followed and why, if party members believe that the allegation was serious, did he keep both the party whip and the chair of committee?
There is a song by the US folk rock band Dawes entitled ‘Things Happen’. In its chorus the narrator tells us: “Things happen, that’s all they ever do.”
In politics, that is more true than most walks of life. There are thousands of members, all sorts of personality clashes, and any manner of problems that are going to trip you up.
Controversies become scandals as recriminations turn to accusations and a way out becomes less clear.
Until it learns to handle the occurrence of events — or indeed head them off beforehand — Sinn Féin will find itself answering more and more uncomfortable questions, and that is and will remain a problem for its party leader.
Ms McDonald has been largely protected by the party machinery in recent years, kept at arm’s distance from anything that might pose a problem, which can at times include the media en masse — while she does broadcast interviews, Ms McDonald is less available to the press than the Taoiseach.
That instinct creates its own problems.
In the McMonagle case, it took nearly a week for a statement from the party leader on an issue of grave consequence.
On Sunday, a statement was forthcoming in the afternoon about Mr Stanley’s case — but mere statements invite further questions. Until Sinn Féin gets better at answering those questions, Ms McDonald will not be protected and neither will the party.
