Can Mary Lou McDonald bring about real change in Sinn Fein?
WHO would have thought that Mary Lou McDonald, the workers’ pal expected soon to become leader of Sinn Féin, would actually have a driver?
Of course, given the intense demands of national politics, it makes good sense that a politician should take a break from the steering wheel. Apart from anything else, it enhances the safety of herself and other road users. It is worthy of note partly because it takes no leap of imagination to conjure up the pejorative remarks of Sinn Féin luminaries about other politicians using a driver.
But this particular revelation came in a row involving Ms McDonald’s driver, a woman who drove the Sinn Féin deputy leader in a voluntary capacity for many years. The details published earlier this month were yet another in a series of countrywide rows about bullying in the party which has afflicted it over the past two years.
The whole issue tells us something of the many challenges faced by the woman from the prosperous Dublin suburbs, part of the party’s post-conflict generation, as she is tipped to become leader of a party which is really led by an inner hardcore of IRA strategists based around Belfast.
The hugger-mugger at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis on Saturday seemed to put the ‘Third Secret of Fatima’ in the halfpenny place. But Gerry Adams’s part III in this extended and choreographed leave-taking, was not the only talking point.
There was a very public row about party councillors being obliged to quit their council seats if they took on a salaried position within the Sinn Féin party. The party’s steering ard comhairle wanted this issue sent back to them for quieter handling.
But in a move which made Sinn Féin look something like a real party, the floor voted against the top table. Quite logically, somebody can now hold a paid party post and serve on a council.
Rows about bullying have erupted in Cork, Limerick, Westmeath, Kildare, Tyrone, Wicklow and Dublin, and highprofile members, including elected councillors, have had some alarming things to say about the party as a result. Speaking to the Ard Fheis, the party’s national chairman Declan Kearney brushed aside the issue with characteristic force.
Mr Kearney reverted to his regular tactic of blaming the media and also said that people often join Sinn Féin for the wrong reasons, and then part company with the party for those same reasons. Many within the party, and recently departed members, will find that line of argument inadequate and this issue is not going away.
There was a certain echo of the matter when it came to participation in Raidió na Gaeltachta’s discussion programme broadcast live from the RDS conference centre on Saturday morning. Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín, who had unsuccessfully sought a free vote on the abortion issue, could not participate in the programme.
But one TD who did participate, Pearse Doherty, told the programme presenter, Máirín Ní Ghadhra, that he would not be contesting for the party leadership on this occasion at least. This admission enhanced the strong likelihood that Mary Lou McDonald, already clearly endorsed by the people who simply appointed Michelle O’Neill to head the party in the North, may well be equally “crowned” rather than elected sometime soon.
For some in the Republic, the big test facing Ms McDonald will be to take the party beyond the limited level of voter popularity achieved under Mr Adams. Given the economic crash and the interlinked disenchantment with established politicians, Sinn Féin should be able to appeal to a much wider audience.
But her first challenge will be drawing a line under the bullying culture that has dogged no other party to the extent that it has dogged Sinn Féin. Many of these deep-seated problems turn around the party’s continuing cult-like nature which deals pretty ruthlessly with voices of internal dissent and harks back to its darker origins.
So far, Sinn Féin has set a low standard for how it treats people who speak out. Take the infamous case involving Máiría Cahill in 2014. Ms Cahill was ridiculed, dismissed, bullied, and treated like dirt. For all her feminist credentials, Ms McDonald did not emerge from that one with too much credit.
She joined in the party refrain that Ms Cahill was being used by the party’s enemies rather than focusing on the substantive issue of sex abuse by a leading IRA member.
That issue also reminds us that Ms McDonald steadfastly stood behind Mr Adams irrespective of controversy or allegation.
Now, at long last, Mr Adams has told us specifically that he is leaving. But given all the murky history here, there are few grounds for believing that Ms McDonald can bring real change.
Mary Lou McDonald is endorsed by those who named Michelle O’Neill North leader