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Under fire, Sinn Féin’s TD Martin Browne apologized for old Facebook posts linked to conspiracy theories about 9/11 and for sharing content comparing the United States to the Nazis.
Browne said Facebook posts from 2014, 2015 and 2017, when he was a Sinn Féin councilor in Tipperary, do not reflect his views and that he should not have posted them.
“These posts do not reflect my views. I apologize for these posts and should not have posted them,” Browne said in a statement issued through Sinn Féin’s press office.
Among the posts was one from December 2015, Mr. Browne shared a post that suggested a hologram of an airplane was used to simulate the Twin Towers attacks on September 11, 2001, and wrote: “It would make you think” .
In another 2014 post, he shared a link to a Russia Today story quoting the late Cuban President Fidel Castro comparing NATO to the Nazi SS and criticizing the United States and Israel for creating Isis. Browne wrote: “I may not be wrong.”
Browne has been accused of attempting to censor a committee of Oireachtas after he made a failed attempt to move their meeting to a private session to discuss controversial comments he made on local radio.
The new chairman of the Oireachtas Petitions Commission was confronted by Fine Gael TDs for comments he made yesterday on Tipp FM, in which he admitted calling the homes of party members when he disagreed with their posts in the social networks.
In the same interview, Browne said Sinn Féin should stop apologizing for its “fundamental belief” that the Provisional IRA attacks were a continuation of the War of Independence.
Speaking in Tipp today with Fran Curry, regarding the recent Brian Stanley tweet controversy, Browne said: “Apologies, in my personal opinion, you should stop.”
The comments drew criticism from Fine Gael committee members, and the meeting was eventually forced to adjourn following calls from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil for Browne to make a Dáil statement about their comments.
Government deputy whip Brendan Griffin said he was “very concerned” by the comments and asked for an explanation. “We can’t just ignore this and move on as if nothing happened. It is important to deal with it now, ”he said.
Griffin asked Browne to commit to making a statement at the Dáil on the matter, a call backed by Fianna Fáil Senator Eugene Murphy.
Browne insisted the topic was not on the agenda and urged members to listen to the interview. “I explained and asked him out of courtesy to listen to the interview and come back to it,” he said. “Do not attribute [to me] comments that have appeared in the print media. “
Another Fine Gael TD, Eoghan Murphy, said that what Browne was doing “feels like censorship” after Sinn Féin’s TD repeatedly tried to move the committee into a private session to discuss its agenda and work schedule.
With the Fine Gael members refusing to agree to this, a vote was called. Mr. Browne, his partner Sinn Féin TD Pat Buckley, and Senator Fintan Warfield supported going to a private session, but the combined votes of the members of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil meant the motion was lost 5-3.
Browne said the committee’s decision to remain in public session presented “a dilemma” and called for a postponement.
Sinn Féin later accused Fine Gael of disrupting the meeting. Mr. Browne said in a statement: “Fine Gael’s behavior at today’s Petitions Committee meeting was very disappointing.
“They used a media interview I did on Tipp FM earlier this week to disrupt the meeting.”
Referring to his comments on Tipp FM, Mr. Browne said: “For the record, in the interview I made it very clear that I agree with Brian Stanley’s decision to apologize and fully support him in making a statement to Dáil next week.
“During the interview I also spoke more extensively about the conflict and about the past.
“I said that there are conflicting narratives about the past and that we shouldn’t paint one point of view as worse than the other. I said it’s not about apologizing or justifying yourself, it’s about going beyond apologies towards reconciliation.
“I made a call to establish a process of truth and reconciliation so that everyone can sit at the table and discuss what happened and the way forward, because the reality is that each time the past is discussed there will be different views. It is our job to build a better future and that is what I intend to be part of ”.
In the interview with Fran Curry yesterday, Browne said that she had called the homes of party members when she disagreed with their posts on social media. “I would have, and have, over the years. I have been president of my own cumann at Cashel, ”he said.
It comes after a young Sinn Féin activist, Christine O’Mahony, criticized a party member who called her home last week asking her to remove critical tweets. Since then he has left the party.
Tipperary’s TD vigorously defended the content of his Dáil colleague Brian Stanley’s controversial IRA tweet, which has led to it being pushed aside as President of the Public Accounts Committee.
Browne said Stanley’s apology for a controversial tweet, linking the IRA attack on Kilmichael, in which 17 aides were killed, during the War of Independence and the IRA’s provisional ambush at Narrow Water in 1979, which killed 18 soldiers British, “was [for] the annoyance some people had, the core beliefs are the same. ”
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