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A former Sinn Féin member says a party official came to her home to tell her to delete social media posts that criticized the party.
Christine O’Mahony, former president of Ógra Sinn Féin at UCD, says a veteran party member attended her home around 11 a.m. Brian Stanley.
Stanley has been accused of homophobia in regards to tweets sent in 2017 about then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
The chairman of the Sinn Féin TD and Public Accounts Committee tweeted: “Yippee 4 d tory. I’m Leo. You can do whatever you want in bed, but it doesn’t look like a raise the next morning.”
Stanley says his campaign record on LGBTQ + rights and the meaning of the post had been “twisted.”
Ms. O’Mahony was at home attending an online conference when the officer called and said he felt the visit was inappropriate.
“I felt really weird about it, I was talking to my parents, but he told them to tell me I needed to delete my tweet about Brian Stanley, since the head office had seen it,” she said.
“The message was: You must follow the rules.
“Other people asked for resignations, but not me.
“If the member had a problem, he could have texted me, I don’t know why he came to my house.
“I always say bad deeds and I didn’t want to stay silent, that just means nothing will be done, that’s why I was at the party.
“I decided then to leave, I left the position and now they call me a liar.”
Both Sinn Féin and the high-ranking party member have yet to respond to numerous inquiries from the party. .
O’Mahony says she was called on three separate occasions to delete social media posts before the officer got to her home.
“They are saying today that no one was told to delete their tweets, when they called me last week during the greyhound racing debate because they did not agree with Sinn Fein’s position,” he said.
“Right now I don’t want to get involved, I want to take a break from party politics, I would still vote for Sinn Féin, I have no problem with my own TD.
“I would just not join again, they are not going to tell me to be quiet.”
On the day since Ms O’Mahony’s resignation, another former Sinn Féin LGBT + official says he left the party over his lack of responsibility for allegations of homophobia.
Seán Pender had been the match’s LGBT + Ogra official at UCD for just over a month when he left the match on Thursday night after a week of controversy over TD Brian Stanley’s tweets about then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
He says the party holds its rivals accountable, but they don’t adhere to the same standard.
“In recent weeks we have seen worrying trends, Sinn Féin voters are more likely to vote for Trump in the polls, the lowest in the vaccine polls, and in my head, I thought; I am in the party and I can change” , said.
“Even with the Brian Stanley theme, the same idea; I can change this but I have to criticize it.
“I posted publicly on social media that I should resign.
“When I walked up to our chair (Ms. O’Mahoney) and she told me that the party had contacted her, I made a decision when I saw that they were trying to silence her.
Mr Pender says he has not heard from Sinn Féin since he left office.
“In the end Brian Stanley had the opportunity to apologize and he denied it, he should resign.”
“And any chance to apologize and move on was lost when he deleted his Twitter account because he turned his back on responsibility.
“Sinn Féin has been pushing the government for that.”
Brian Stanley will address the Dáil on the subject of his tweets on December 15.
He has written to the head of the council Seán Ó’Fearghaíl to request the time.
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