Party’s silent approach fails to prevent the difficult questions being asked
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald promises that 'We will do everything necessary to ensure that an incident like this never arises again.' Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Imagesfinds itself in the midst of another political crisis, hounded for answers about a sex abuse scandal. It is becoming a recurring problem.– who is facing child sex abuse charges – and the references supplied to him by party figures. But that’s unlikely to be sustainable.
So the party – as it did when it emerged that its former councillor Jonathan Dowdall was in fact a gangster pal of Gerry “the Monk” Hutch – goes to ground. Questions remain unanswered; the supply of Sinn Féin TDs on the Leinster House plinth dries up. At some point, these things always come down to a series of questions about who knew what and when.
It may be true, if unlikely, that nobody in Sinn Féin noticed that the press officer accompanying the British Heart Foundation to its various events was the same press officer that until recently worked for the party and then was fired because he was being investigated for child sex abuse. So this controversy will prompt more questions about the culture of the party – the secrecy, the military-style discipline, the loyalty to the party line above all – that Sinn Féin hoped voters had put aside.
Michelle-O-Neill Mary-Lou-Mcdonald Mairia-Cahill
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