Bullying and infighting have been let fester – now it’ll be first big test for McDonald
POLITICS can be a tough business. Inevitably, there are local rivalries and personality clashes. Disputes occur in every party.
But Sinn Féin has a particular problem that stretches across the country. Limerick, Wicklow, Kildare, Cork, Tipperary, Galway and Westmeath are just some of the flashpoints.
But the added allegation now of a physical assault as part of a row in Dublin North West is the last thing Mary Lou McDonald would have wanted days before her coronation as president.
The Dublin Central TD has acknowledged there are “issues to be addressed” in the party around bullying – but she’s unlikely to make it a theme of her inauguration speech.
The problems in the constituency, where Dessie Ellis has been a TD since 2007, run very deep and have over time moved from the realm of politics to the personal. The Irish Independent previously revealed that Mr Ellis sent a legal letter to Ballymun Tidy Towns over remarks allegedly made about him at the organisation’s annual general meeting in December.
He claims statements were made about him by a party colleague who is a supporter of Councillor Noeleen Reilly.
The former IRA bombmaker claimed the meeting was told he had a picture hanging in his constituency office of a woman with her face circled alongside a derogatory term.
As tensions grew, Mr Ellis said in a newspaper interview that Ms Reilly was not fit to represent Sinn Féin. After that came news of a dossier compiled on the row, which included allegations that people were subject to threats and called names such as “thugs”, “witch” and “ratface”.
Over the weekend, Sinn Féin’s ard comhairle met to discuss the bitter row. The party’s chairman, Declan Kearney, confirmed that Noeleen Reilly “has been
suspended from the party for six months”. That’s twice the length of punishment initially handed down to MP Barry McElduff over the Kingsmill loaf controversy.
Dessie Ellis is to be “censured by the party” for his media comments.
And that was supposed to be the end of the matter – but instead it has become the first real test of Ms McDonald’s leadership.