Sinn Féin, the Michael McMonagle scandal and the preservation of the popcorn parliament – The Irish News

American bishop Fulton Sheen once made the humorous comment that listening to nuns’ confessions was a bit like being stoned to death with popcorn.

There was a lot of popcorn thrown at Stormont this week as Sinn Féin’s coalition partners made a remarkably moderate attempt to question the party’s role in the “I didn’t see Michael McMonagle” scandal. No one wanted to create a crisis that could risk collapsing the Assembly.

Just as Sinn Féin doubled down to protect itself, its executive partners doubled down to protect Stormont.

Welcome to the cozy chatroom on the Hill, where 79 of the 90 MPs are part of a government dedicated to self-preservation.

The original issue in the Sinn Féin case was that a staff member was involved in criminal activity.

It wasn’t the party’s fault. When charged, normal HR practice would be to suspend the staff member on full or half pay (depending on the employer’s HR policy) pending trial.

In a child protection case, the organization would also implement its child protection policy (if it had one). A guilty verdict would result in dismissal. Not guilty would mean reinstatement. It’s that simple.

Sinn Féin suspended McMonagle upon learning of the police investigation and his contract was not renewed. However, the party effectively passed him on to the next parish by providing two references, allowing him to keep his Stormont pass.

He was particularly skilled as, although Stormont’s cameras could detect his presence, he was completely invisible to the human eye.

As questions were asked, the Sinn Féin leader was conspicuously absent. Mary Lou McDonald is usually willing to visit Belfast to illustrate the party’s All-Ireland credentials and to demonstrate that she, not Michelle O’Neill, is in charge. On this occasion, he remained silent in Dublin. Partition can be a blessing at times.

That left Michelle O’Neill to face the popcorn alone. We’ll never know if he didn’t get any advice, or if he got it wrong. Either way, his political credibility has been badly damaged.

That’s not just because she claimed she didn’t see Michael McMonagle at Stormont, but because she didn’t anticipate video footage of her near him would emerge. Photography can boost your public image. It can also seriously damage your political health.

Mary Lou finally broke her silence by stating that she had ordered a “complete review” of governing procedures in Sinn Féin. She might recognize that this was not a government problem. It was a simple matter of standard management practice. One would expect a party leader to understand the difference between governance and management.

If you want to review anything, you can start with the party’s culture of self-righteousness, which is what this case is about.

Of course, all this will make no difference to the party’s electoral support. Sectarianism will always trump ethics.

There are two lessons from this story. The first is that without journalists, we would never know what happens in Stormont. They perform an essential public service.

The second lesson is that we now know what it takes to collapse Stormont.

In recent years it collapsed over RHI, which extended into a demand for an Irish language law. It then fell over post-Brexit trade deals. It didn’t collapse this week because of child protection.

So what is more important: preserving Stormont or protecting children? This is part of a larger question that asks how much malpractice and maladministration should we tolerate from our political parties? What price are we willing to pay to keep Stormont open?

If it were a model of good government, in which the parties of the Executive were open and transparent, we could live with genuine mistakes. However, it is now clear that Stormont is unable to provide the required level of public services to its citizens and has no regard for accountability.

So its disappearance would not change our lives much, apart from, of course, the economic benefits of the huge demand it generates for the sale of popcorn.