McDonald endorses Brian Stanley and justifies the visit to the home of Sinn Féin members

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Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said Brian Stanley would not be removed as PAC president.

The Sinn Féin TD has been removed from his duties for a week, after becoming embroiled in a controversy over various posts on social media.

McDonald said the decision to roll back Stanley was due to the fact that “he was not used to being in the eye of the storm.” She said:

He was concerned for her welfare. I wanted him to have a little room to breathe. “

Brian Stanley chairs the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, but has come under intense scrutiny for two tweets he sent, first equating the Kilmichael ambush in 1920 and the Warrenpoint ambush in 1979, and later one deemed homophobic towards Tánaiste Leo. Varadkar.

Sinn Féin’s TD tweeted in 2017:

Yippee 4 d tory. it’s Leo. You can do whatever you want in bed, but you don’t look like a raise the next morning. “

Stanley said his campaign record on LGBTQ + rights and the meaning of the post had been “twisted.”

McDonald said Stanley would not step down as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, despite calls for him to do so.

“He apologized and then he went to a committee properly and made a statement, and so on. So I don’t think there was any desire to prolong this at all, and on the subject of accountability, the recent events related to the leaking confidential documents through the Taoiseach or the appointment of Seamus Woulfe, I don’t think there is an equivalence between those things and a tweet.

“I absolutely should [stay on] and it absolutely is.

“The committee plays a very important role. Brian Stanley is a very, very discreet, thorough and thoughtful type of person. He does not seek controversy or attention.

“He has made mistakes, there is no doubt about that, and he has accepted it, and he will address those issues in the Dáil, but he is more than fit to chair the committee, he has all the attributes and the capacity for firm and analytical approach.

In the second post about Leo Varadkar, the Sinn Féin president said it had been taken out of context.

“When I initially saw the tweet myself, I thought ‘What the heck is that?’ I did not understand, I could not understand with my life why it had been broadcast.

“If you opened it today, of course, it would be open to homophobic construction. However, the day the tweet was issued, it was the day that Ireland first had our first openly gay taoiseach, one in my opinion, and for many others.
The tweet, if it is critical in any way, the accusation made is not homophobic, it is conservative.

“On the one hand, we celebrate the fact that Ireland has made a bit of progress and that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, can reach the highest office, which is good, but the point that Brian, I think, was making is the politics, conservative politics, particularly around people’s incomes, was something that had not been fulfilled. “

Sinn Féin came under intense scrutiny over the weekend when young party members left the organization, one of whom, Christine O’Mahony, told the Irish Examiner He was at home when a local party official knocked on his door and told him to delete tweets critical of the party.

McDonald said the reaction has been “absolutely understandable” but that there was no censorship within the party.

“I heard Christine and Seán [Pender former LGBT+ officer] in the program [Morning Ireland] this morning, two fine and articulate young men, and they are upset and I understand why, ”he said.

Anyone can criticize Sinn Féin, I often criticize the party myself and no one tries to censor anyone.

“Someone from Christine’s Cumann called at his house, I wouldn’t think twice about knocking on a Cumann member’s door, it wouldn’t occur to me that it was a problem. These Cumann structures are very, very local, everyone knows everyone, very often people live in the same parish, very close to each other. Obviously, in this case, the exception was made with someone knocking on the door, but I cannot allow you to create a completely false perception that some anonymous or unknown figure landed on anyone’s door.

“I’d have a big problem with anyone who goes to someone’s door and tells anyone that they can’t criticize what they want, that people have the right to freedom of expression, the right to criticize Sinn Féin.”

Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley. He has made mistakes, there is no doubt about that, and he has accepted it, and these matters will be addressed in the Dáil. Image: Gareth Chaney Collins
Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley. He has made mistakes, of that there is no doubt, and he has accepted it, and those matters will be addressed in the Dáil. Image: Gareth Chaney Collins

“I understand that the knock on the door was to say, ‘Obviously, there is a disorder here, there is a problem here, there are internal mechanisms and methods through which it can be addressed.’ That’s it.”

“In an age of 24-hour media cycles and access to so many social media platforms, it’s impossible to stop or censor people, and frankly it’s a stupid and pointless waste of time to try.”

McDonald said the initial tweet combining the Kilmichael and Narrow Water ambushes depends on “his political point of view,” adding that the soldiers in question were members of the Parachute Regiment: “The same regiment that entered Derry [on Bloody Sunday] and Ballymurphy and caused outright murder and mayhem. “

“The problem with the tweet was the tone, and the tone, when we talk about the past, is not a trivial matter,” he said.

“He gave the impression that he was being frivolous or maybe even gloating.

The reality is that there is not a single shared vision about the island of Ireland in Irish history, which is the conflict, about why it happened, how it happened.

“When we talk about past events, you actually have to be true to who you are, to your own vision, experiences and perspectives, because each time you have to be aware of what that means for the other person and for the other vision and it really is important that people know where you come from.

“The important piece is that we look back on our past and accept that there are very different perspectives and experiences of that. I am an Irish Republican. I do not worry or apologize for it. But I would always ask myself and others that you consider the other perspective, the other perspective, particularly now, because we are now on the road to reunification. “



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