Sinn Féin’s woes pile up with latest revelations – The Irish Times

Things can always get worse. After a torrid week that saw Sinn Féin in the political crosshairs over the child sex offenses of its former press officer in Northern Ireland, and the sudden resignation of one of its TDs in the Republic, the party faced another bomb on Saturday night with the resignation. from one of its most prominent TDs, Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chair Brian Stanley.

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald now faces a multi-faceted crisis that will continue this week and beyond, all while trying to prepare for a general election that may be just weeks away.

As of this weekend, the party was dealing with two controversies in the Stormont scandal and the resignation of Kildare TD Patricia Ryan amid a local revolt in the party. Then on Saturday, the Irish Independent reported fresh controversy over alleged inappropriate text messages sent by a senior party figure, who has worked on both sides of the border, to a 17-year-old boy. The senior official has since resigned from his post and resigned from the party.

Then on Saturday night came the news that PPAC chairman Brian Stanley, one of the party’s best-known TDs in the Dáil, who was particularly prominent during the committee’s questioning of RTÉ executives last year, had resigned from the party and would continue as an “independent”. republican”.

( Brian Stanley investigation passed to An Garda Síochána, Sinn Féin leader saysOpens in a new window )

Stanley said he had been the victim of a campaign by “a certain clique within the party” who, he said, “have done everything they can to damage my reputation and character. They have spared no effort in this regard.”

He said he had been brought before an internal investigation that was nothing more than a “kangaroo court”.

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

On Sunday, Sinn Féin said it had instigated the investigation following a complaint about Stanley, adding that a “counter-allegation” was also made. The party has also said it has now suspended the process and referred the issues raised to gardaí.

But it begs the question why was it not referred to the gardaí before the process?

Whatever the outcome of the Stanley affair, Sinn Féin needs it like a hole in the head right now. The scandal over references provided to the party’s press officer Michael McMonigle by senior party officials at Stormont will get another airing in the Dáil on Tuesday when the House hears what the official calendar calls “statements on child protection” but will actually be an excavation of that embarrassment to the party and a reaffirmation of some obvious questions about party management. McDonald has apologized, but that doesn’t mean the questions have gone away.

Reports in Saturday’s Irish Times about how the party tried to scrutinize questions to ask McDonald at a party event will no doubt be raised. And TDs are also likely to raise the story about the senior party official resigning after the text messages.

When pains come, they do not come as spies alone but in battalions.

Sinn Féin often considers much commentary in what some of its supporters call the “establishment” or “Free State” media to be hostile to it. Whatever the merits of this school of thought, even the most dyed-in-the-wool supporter would be hard-pressed to see all of this as anything other than a full-scale crisis for Mary Lou McDonald’s leadership.