Politics

Will Sinn Féin lose a seat in Laois, and will Brian Stanley retain it as an independent republican?

The senior TD may run against his former party, who have no obvious candidate to replace him

Brian Stanley: the TD would have been well placed to retain the seat for Sinn Féin before he fell out with the party over its handling of a complaint against him. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins
Brian Stanley: the TD would have been well placed to retain the seat for Sinn Féin before he fell out with the party over its handling of a complaint against him. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins
Cormac McQuinn's picture
Cormac McQuinn
Wed Oct 16 2024 - 06:00

Brian Stanley’s resignation from Sinn Féin has left the party with a dilemma on who it will run in Laois in the looming general election.

As an incumbent TD that chaired the high-profile Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Stanley would have been well placed to retain the seat for Sinn Féin before he fell out with the party over its handling of a complaint against him.

He has said he will continue working as an “independent republican TD” on behalf of constituents and told RTÉ he intends to seek reelection. However, his efforts to retain his seat are unlikely to be made easier by the current controversy.

There appears to be no obvious candidate to run for Sinn Féin and its chances of returning a TD – in what is now a tight three-seat constituency after last year’s boundary redraw – has been made more difficult with Mr Stanley’s departure.

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Sinn Féin is yet to set a date for the selection convention.

It has just one elected representative in the county: Mr Stanley’s wife, Caroline Dwane Stanley.

She has not made her own intentions known publicly on whether she intends to stay in Sinn Féin amid her husband’s dispute with the party. Ms Dwane Stanley did not respond to attempts by The Irish Times to contact her.

Helen Campion, an unsuccessful Sinn Féin candidate in Laois in the local elections in June, has said she herself will not be running but added: “There’s a number of really good people here we have to talk to.”

She did not offer the names of any potential candidates but said there had been “a good safe seat” in Laois for Sinn Féin and the party would “regroup” in the constituency in the wake of Mr Stanley’s departure.

Ms Campion denied the local party was in disarray saying: “It’s being projected like it’s a big crisis here and it’s not really.”

Sinn Féin had seven candidates in Laois running in the local election in June, but Ms Dwane Stanley and another councillor, Aiden Mullins, were the only ones to win seats.

Mr Mullins resigned from Sinn Féin in August after the party notified him that he was to be suspended for three months following a complaint that was made about him. He had clashed with the party over his social media comments on immigration and he said the complaint related to his sharing of a post on trans athletes.

Mr Mullins rejected the findings of the Sinn Féin investigation into the complaint about him and said: “My quotes are still up there ... so people can make their own minds up.”

He said of his former party’s current woes in Laois: “They’re going to have to rebuild from the bottom up again and it’s going to be a very difficult task but there’s some great people still left there.”