Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has appealed to voters to put their trust in her party to lead the next government, and insisted assertions that others are pulling the strings of her party away from public view are without foundation.
Ms McDonald, during an interview with Colette Fitzpatrick on Virgin Media on Wednesday night, said “absolutely nobody tells me what to do”. Asked about the “narrative” that there is a “layer of unelected officials telling you and other people what to do in the party”, she said that while she takes counsel from “senior people”, the “buck stops with me”.
“Anybody who knows me, or who has had any dealings with me in any capacity, I think will confirm [that] nobody tells me what to do. I’m a collegiate person. I am a team player. I take my decisions. I take my counsel.
“Of course, I work very closely with Michelle O’Neill, with Pearse Doherty, with other senior people, but ultimately, I am the leader of the party. The buck stops with me, and where there is a call to be made, I make it.”
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Ms McDonald also said she regretted withholding the reason for the resignation of former senator Niall Ó Donnghaile from the public when he stepped down, as well as a statement she issued that paid glowing tribute to him.
Mr Ó Donnghaile resigned from the Seanad and Sinn Féin after a 16-year-old boy came forward and informed the party he had received inappropriate social media messages from the senator. “If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t issue the statement, and I wrote to the young person concerned through his mother and I apologised fulsomely, and I mean that sincerely, and I repeat that apology,” Ms McDonald said.
She said “the emphatic answer is no” as to whether people in the party or from republican backgrounds are given preferential treatment when such issues arise. “On my watch, things are done by the book.”
The Sinn Féin leader was also asked about a recent comment where she said Sinn Féin should not have to answer for the IRA any more. “It’s very very important we remember the past, and that we recognise that, for lots of people, it is still very much present in their lives – people who have suffered, who were hurt – it would be foolish, foolhardy not to remember the past, and learn lessons from it.
“But we’re in the here and now. We have made amazing progress since 1998. There are generations now born who have grown up [with] no experience, much less memory, of conflict, and all that that involved. I think that’s a great thing, and we need to move forward.”
Ms McDonald was also asked whether, as taoiseach, she would attend an “IRA funeral”.
“As taoiseach, I would be very conscious that your duty and who you represent goes way beyond your immediate republican or Sinn Féin base, and I would do everything very, very mindful of that.
“The issue of what funerals you attend, this is a question of what is your relationship with the person. Because the funeral of a republican is not necessarily what you’re depicting as an IRA funeral. It can simply be the funeral of somebody that you know and who has died.
“But I just want to reassure you that I would be very, very sensitive to the fact that you are, as taoiseach in that office, representing the population and the people very broadly, balancing that with the fact that I am an Irish republican and I will be at republican events.”
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