Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald Doubled Up on Remarks About Joining IRA Had She Grew Up In Northern Ireland

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has doubled down on her comments about joining the IRA if she had grown up north of the border.

He said it was a matter of “context” and that if he had been raised in the Troubles he would have joined the terrorist group.

The politician added: “What I was saying was this: human beings act because of their context, because of the circumstances in which they find themselves.

“I think many, many people who volunteered for the IRA and ended up in jail would have lived very different lives if their context was different.

“In fact, I think it is unfair to people who lived at a very safe distance or did not experience what working-class Republican and nationalist families experienced to jump to conclusions …”

In an interview on The Meaning of Life with Joe Duffy, McDonald said that people were caught in “a war they hadn’t started” and “knew they had to defend themselves.”

He questioned her about the deaths of innocent victims, including Angela Gallagher, who was 17 months old when the IRA shot her dead in 1971.

Ms. McDonald added: “The circle of grief for families who have lost loved ones will never be squared. I can’t undo the past.

“It is not a backup case … I see my role and the work that I do as working for the things that ensure that we will never, ever return to that time. I think it would be an extraordinary request for anyone dealing with everything that happened in the past.

Its place is in Irish history and it has to be history. It’s not about trying to glamorize what happened … it’s not a wounding contest. “

There is an awkward silence when Duffy asks him why he still considers the men who carried out or ordered assassinations his heroes.

But finally he replied: “I think … everyone who was caught up in the IRA conflict had a context, it was all due to the failure of politics.

“There is no justification for violence, at this moment we have a viable democratic path. There is no reason, there is no excuse for violence, none ”.

The policy also talks about her anxiety and the Covid-19 experience.

She said: “If something bothers me, I think it would be anxiety.

“I think there is an art to learning to sit and breathe and learning to be calm.”

She revealed that she lost some of her hair to Covid-19, but surviving the virus also gave her a new appreciation for life.

McDonald said, “My overall feeling is incredible fortune.”

• The Meaning Of Life is on RTE One tonight at 10.30pm.