At the time of her election, Wynne was 32 years old, on social welfare, and raising her five children at home in Kilrush. Just two years and five days later she resigned from Sinn Féin.

Wynne says a campaign “to break me down” was waged in her home constituency and claims her party organisation turned a blind eye, did not support her during her pregnancy, and actively sought to force staff on her that she did not want to work with.

Wynne, a native of Offaly who later lived in Dublin, moved to Kilrush as part of a rural resettlement scheme over a decade ago and says she joined Sinn Féin shortly thereafter to improve services, transport links, and housing in rural areas.

A “Vote Sinn Féin” sticker is still placed on her front door and a large “If you want an Irish Republic, vote Sinn Féin” historical print adorns the wall in the room where we sit, as she nurses her three-week old baby girl who arrived unexpectedly four weeks early.

Violet-Anne Wynne is tired. She has been fielding media calls and interviews since her dramatic departure on Friday, February 25, during which she accused the party of a campaign of “psychological warfare” after months of unrest in her local area.

Wynne says she is “heartbroken” and has not been contacted by her party leader and her one-time “hero” Mary Lou McDonald, except for a gift sent from skincare specialist Rituals, in the wake of the birth of her baby.

From the earliest days of her general election campaign, Wynne says she did not receive appropriate local support.

She recalls her leaflets being delayed, very little availability of canvassers from the party, and no contact from head office whatsoever during the campaign.

Initially nominated by a local cumann, she was asked to remove herself from the nomination just weeks before the convention as she was informed the cumann “had changed their mind”.

“I refused,” she said, “and it got worse from there.”

She won a mere 385 first preferences in the local elections and was only selected as the party’s general election candidate three weeks out from polling day. She felt she was undermined locally from day one.

“When I topped the poll, it was a great moment and everyone was genuinely happy and shocked and taken aback by it, but then when the cameras went the attitude straightaway changed,” she says.

“I just got back into my car and went home and waited for a call to tell me to come to Leinster House.”

Reports broke during and after the election that Wynne had defaulted on rent. Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) took a case against Wynne and her partner John Montaine seeking that they respond to its claim for €12,126, which was the sum of four years’ arrears owed up to June 3, 2016 on a house they had been renting from the approved housing body.

She says she told Sinn Féin about this issue before the election.

Likewise, reports about historic social media posts were unearthed, in which Wynne warned about side effects of vaccines and defended parents who talked about their children’s side effects from being vaccinated. A new report broke on her first day in Dáil Éireann.

“I like a rabbit in the headlights,” she said. “I missed the induction for new TDs with the Oireachtas staff because I was so upset. No one from Sinn Féin asked me about it. I was lectured on the party policy on vaccines for five minutes and that was it.”

What followed was months of arguing and delays over staff and other issues. 

By the time Ireland had been forced into lockdown, Wynne did not even have a laptop to work on.

“I did not get to interview for my two office staff, PA and SA,” she said. “They were pushing who they thought would be best for one of the jobs and I outright refused to hire him. He had intimidated me and I knew I couldn’t work with him.”

During one meeting in her constituency, the proposed candidate, who was a local member, Wynne, and others discussed the idea of painting a mural on the gable wall of Wynne’s new constituency office.

“He mentioned that he was a member of Republican Sinn Féin and I didn’t know where this was coming from at all.

“He said he was a member of the RSF and ‘that they haven’t gone away you know’, and that his wife was a member of Cumann Na mBan and she was really annoyed actually at seeing some of the female TDs wearing the Cumann Na mBan badges when they weren’t even members:  

I remember thinking: ‘What has this got to do with me?’ but it felt very much like he was trying to intimidate me. 

Weeks and months passed until two staff were hired, who Wynne said reported directly to head office. She says she was later told by one of her staff she should “only aim for one speaking slot per week” and five parliamentary questions. TDs can submit up to 50 parliamentary questions per week.

“I was being told to stay at home, was being told what questions I’d be asking, wasn’t being proposed for anything.”

After the staffing issues continued, Wynne says she spoke to the Sinn Féin’s Leinster House manager on an almost weekly basis to no avail. She recalls bursting into tears in the Convention Centre while speaking to deputy whip Denise Mitchell.

“They said they would help me conduct performance reviews, they would develop a handbook for new TDs and staff, but none of it ever happened.”

As the Leinster House staff issues continued, locally things were worse. Wynne says she was not invited to local events, not kept informed of council matters, and undermined by local members who spoke about her disparagingly: 

I almost feel like they were trying to almost mentally break me down. 

“It was as if I was being punished, it was actually said to me; ‘Well, this is what you wanted, wasn’t it? You wanted to be the candidate. So you’re getting what you’re asked for’. As if they wanted to make it as difficult as possible because I wouldn’t remove myself as a nominee.”

When she eventually hired her own SA, who was not a Sinn Féin member, Wynne claims this staffer was not given policy materials and information needed to run the office effectively.

“It was actually starting to affect the girl’s mental health, I could see her getting more anxious.”

Wynne said she felt that she had no other choice but to leave the Dáil without recording her ballot during a vote, in protest that the party were not engaging with her on local and staffing issues.

In the aftermath of missing the vote, she was granted a meeting with Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald.

“I told her in that meeting that the person they had initially wanted me to hire had intimidated me with the Republican Sinn Féin comment and she was taken aback,” Wynne said.

“The HR manager, the head of the organisation, and a few other senior staff were there and they had a massive reaction, they said they were furious and why hadn’t I said it when it happened.

“I didn’t know who to contact to let know what had happened. And in fairness, I felt very, very much intimidated by it and then didn’t know what to do.

“I was a bit anxious about relaying that information in case that’s the way everyone kind of was thinking about my religion, which I didn’t think was an issue, because this person had previously said that he had family members that were Protestant and that that was never going to be an issue, would never be an issue for him.

“So when he had said about the RSF, I was very much taken aback by his comments.

“The manager came down to my office actually straight after the meeting, and he was red faced and he was furious and said that it was wrong. But then after that, it was just dropped. As far as I am aware they didn’t take any action whatsoever.”

Wynne says she had a member from North Clare contact her on social media saying: “If I were seen talking to you, I’d be shot” and took this to the party’s Leinster House manager as evidence that things in the local area were getting worse, but again says no action was taken.

“It was just so bizarre, so strange.

“I feel like now looking back at that meeting with Mary Lou, I was just being humoured to make sure I knew I wasn’t to leave votes under any circumstances, and that’s the only reason why I ever got to have that one with her.”

While trying to juggle her long commute and new job, Wynne became pregnant last year and says Sinn Féin offered no support whatsoever.

“When I spoke to the admin staff they were of the opinion that this hadn’t happened within Sinn Féin before and they were new to the position too, but that I could probably reach out to HR or something.”

Wynne said she was forced to write to the Ceann Comhairle’s office to ask what support services were in place for TDs who became pregnant.

Oireachtas HR later contacted Wynne, who informed her that a support staff member could be hired for a period of 26 weeks: “but that was it,” she added.

Unlike Minister of Justice Helen McEntee, who paired with Social Democrat Holly Cairns during her pregnancy last year, no vote pairing was sought or organised for Wynne.

She continued to work throughout her pregnancy driving over three hours to Dublin while her partner took care of her five children at home.

“I had to leave one vote because I just felt so drained and tired and it was a very late,” Wynne said, and contacted party whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and informed him she had to leave, saying: “I don’t think I’m going to be able to last all night.”

“He said to me: ‘Look, I understand that you’re pregnant and I understand that you’re tired, but c’mon we need a bit more notice than that’.

“He wasn’t really happy about it, and he made that clear, which actually made me upset.

“You can’t really know when you’re going to feel tired coming to the end of the pregnancy, and the talk was in the corridor so a civil servant overheard everything we were saying.

“I was embarrassed because I felt like I was being given out to.

“That was the only conversation I had with Sinn Féin about my pregnancy.

“As for an official meeting to discuss how to go on maternity leave or anything like that, that wasn’t really discussed.”

Wynne plans to return to Leinster House as an Independent, and has mulled bringing her new baby with her in a sling, which would be the first baby brought into the Dáil Chamber, as she is keen to return to working for her constituents sooner rather than later, but has no plans to join another party.

“I like being part of a team,” she said.

“That’s another reason why I’m so heartbroken because I really did think Sinn Féin was the future and things are going well in general terms for the party and they could be part of the next government.

“But no, I was always of the opinion that you can’t go from one party to another.”

Sinn Féin: We are disappointed

Sinn Féin issued this statement following Ms Wynne's resignation

Violet-Anne, like all other TDs, was advised about the party’s guidelines on social media use.

Laptops and computers for TDs are issued by the Houses of the Oireachtas – not Sinn Féin. It was, in fact, party staff that assisted her in liaising with the Oireachtas to obtain suitable equipment.

The employment relationship for parliamentary staff is between the TD and the staff member; not with the party. As their employer, Violet-Anne decided to terminate the employment of six staff members over the past two years. That was entirely her decision and her responsibility.

All of Violet-Anne’s staff were given access to training and access to all of the party’s resources. I am sure those individuals would confirm this. Unfortunately, as many did not get to stay in position for longer that a number of months, it is unsurprising that staff development became increasingly challenging.

There have been over fifty separate development sessions provided by the party over the course of the past eighteen months for both TDs and staff. All of these were available to both Violet-Anne and her staff, and covered a wide range issues.

We were disappointed that Violet-Anne came to the decision she did last week. The party worked extremely hard over the last two years to resolve challenges at constituency level. That work was ongoing, and we had hoped to continue in our efforts to resolve constituency issues when Violet-Anne returned from her maternity leave. In addition to this, significant supports, mentoring and training was put in place to assist Violet-Anne and her staff, including full support measures to support her during her maternity leave.

Violet-Anne is currently on maternity leave from the Dáil and we of course wish her and her family all the very best in the future.