Mayor ran SF propaganda paper during IRA terror
THE Dublin Lord Mayor who is facing a call to resign is a senior member of Sinn Féin who edited the party’s propaganda newspaper during the Provisional IRA’s campaign of terrorism.
Mícheál Mac Donncha (53) previously came to prominence after claiming the officials who run Irish rugby are “West Brits”.
Now the councillor is at the centre of the storm over Bob Geldof’s decision to hand back the Freedom of the City of Dublin award while Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi is also a recipient. Mr Mac Donncha (pictured, right) says he has condemned the violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims but criticised Mr Geldof.
He said he found it “ironic” that Mr Geldof was making the gesture while retaining his Order of the British Empire, “given the shameful record of British imperialism”.
Mr Geldof dismissed the Lord Mayor as a “Sinn Féin geezer”: “Sinn Féin have always been apologists for mayhem and murder and it’s a complete nonsequitur.” The Boomtown Rats singer said his focus was on issues in Myanmar and the “genocide and mass murder”.
Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn claimed Mr Mac Donncha’s personalised comments about Mr Geldof were a “disgrace” and he should consider his position.
Mr Mac Donncha said last night: “I won’t be considering my position on the basis of anything that Councillor Flynn says. I maintain what I said. I’m not withdrawing any of it.” Mr Mac Donncha has been a Sinn Féin councillor for the Donaghmede area on Dublin City Council since 2011 but his history with the organisation goes back far longer. He was a member of Sinn Féin’s Ard Comhairle in the early 1990s while the Troubles were still underway and edited the party’s propaganda newspaper, ‘An Phoblacht’, between 1990 and 1996, during the early years of the Peace Process when the IRA was continuing to carry out atrocities.
Mr Mac Donncha worked as Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin’s parliamentary assistant from 1997 onwards and was later the political manager of the party’s Dáil team.
He failed in a bid to get elected to the Dáil last year.
During the election campaign, he rejected Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin’s challenging of Gerry Adams over his alleged membership of the IRA during a TV debate.
His partisan views came to the fore two years ago in comments on why ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ is not played during Irish rugby games outside of the country. He attributed it to an “inferiority complex and anti-national attitude of the West Brits who still run Irish rugby”. West Brit is a derogatory term to describe anyone who believes British culture is superior to its Irish counterparts.