McDonald backs Brian Stanley and justifies visit to Sinn Féin member's home

Ms McDonald said the decision to stand Mr Stanley back was due to the fact he was "not used to being in the eye of the storm". She said:

I was concerned for his welfare. I wanted him to have some breathing space."

Brian Stanley chairs the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee but has been under intense scrutiny over two tweets he sent, firstly equating the 1920 Kilmichael ambush and the 1979 Warrenpoint ambush, and then one taken as being homophobic towards Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.

The Sinn Féin TD tweeted in 2017: 

Yippee 4 d tory. it's Leo. U can do what u like in bed but don't look 4 a pay rise the next morning."

Mr Stanley said his record campaigning on LGBTQ+ rights stands and the meaning of the post had been "twisted".

Ms McDonald said Mr Stanley would not be standing down from the position as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, despite calls for him to do so.

I have made no public comment on the Brian Stanley tweets but listening to Mary Lou McDonald this morning equivocating & justifying glorification of violence, latent homophobia & internal party intimidation is truly nauseating. This is not the kind of change Ireland needs, ever.

— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) December 7, 2020

"He apologised and he went then to a committee correctly and made a statement, and so on. So I don't think that there has been any, any desire to drag this out at all, and on the issue of accountability, the recent events around leaking of confidential documents via the Taoiseach or the appointment of Seamus Woulfe, I don't think there is an equivalence between those things and a tweet.

"Absolutely he should [stay on] and absolutely he is.

"The committee discharges a very important function. Brian Stanley is a very, very low key, thorough, and thoughtful kind of person. He doesn't court controversy or attention.

"He has made mistakes, of that there is no doubt, and he has accepted that, and he will address those matters in the Dáil, but he is more than fit to chair the committee, he has all of the attributes and the ability for steadfast, analytical approach."

On the second post about Leo Varadkar, the Sinn Féin president said it had been taken out of context.

"When I saw the tweet initially myself, I thought 'What in heaven's name is that?' I didn't understand, I couldn't fathom for the life of me why it had been issued.

"If you opened it today, of course, it would be open to a homophobic construction. However, on the day that the tweet was issued, it was the day that Ireland for the first time had our first openly gay taoiseach, a hugely positive thing in my view, and for lots of others.
The tweet, if it is critical in any way, the charge levelled is not a homophobic one, it is of being a Tory.

"On the one hand, we're celebrating the fact that Ireland has come some distance and that any person irrespective of sexual orientation can achieve the highest office which is good, but the point that Brian, I think, was making is that the other politics, the Tory politics, particularly around people's incomes, was something that had not been met."

Sinn Féin came under intense scrutiny over the weekend as young party members left the organisation, one of whom, Christine O'Mahony, told the Irish Examiner she had been at home when a local party officer called to her front door and told her to delete tweets that were critical of the party.

Minister for Further & Higher Education @SimonHarrisTD raises the treatment of young activist by Sinn Féin and says Brian Stanley must be held to the same standard the party would hold him to. #rtepolitics pic.twitter.com/WDFJFOf5KP

— The Week in Politics (@rtetwip) December 6, 2020

Ms McDonald said the reaction has been "absolutely understandable" but there was no censorship within the party.

"I heard Christine and Seán [Pender former LGBT+ officer] on the programme [ Morning Ireland] this morning, two fine and very articulate young people, and they're upset and I understand why," she said.

Anybody can criticise Sinn Féin, I'm often critical of the party myself, and there is nobody trying to censor anybody.

"Somebody from Christine's Cumann called to her home, I wouldn't think twice about knocking on a Cumann member's door, it wouldn't occur to me that it was a problem. These Cumann structures are very, very local, everybody knows everybody, very often people live in the same parish, in close proximity to each other.  Obviously, in this case, exception was taken to somebody knocking on the door but I can't allow you to create an entirely false perception that some anonymous or unknown figure landed on anyone's door.

"I would have a huge issue with anybody going to anybody's door and instructing anybody that they can't be critical of anything they want, people have the right to free speech, the right to criticise Sinn Féin.

"My understanding is that the knock at the door was to say; 'Obviously, there is upset here, there is a problem here, there are internal mechanisms and methods through which this can be addressed'. That's all."

"In a time of 24-hour media cycles and access to so many social media platforms, it's impossible to stop or to censor people and a pointless, stupid waste of time to attempt to do so, quite frankly."

Ms McDonald said the initial tweet conflating the Kilmichael and Narrow Water ambushes depends on "your political vantage point", and she added the soldiers concerned were members of the Parachute Regiment: "The same regiment that went into Derry [on Bloody Sunday] and Ballymurphy and caused absolute murder and mayhem."

"The problem with the tweet was tone, and tone, when we're talking about the past, isn't a trivial matter," she said.

"It gave the impression that it was either being flippant or perhaps even gloating.

The reality is, there isn't a single shared view on the island of Ireland of Irish history, which is the conflict, on why it happened, how it happened.

"When we talk about past events you actually have to be true to who you are, your own view, experiences and perspectives, because every time you also have to be conscious of what that means for the other person and for the other view and it's really important that people know where you're coming from.

"The important piece is that we remember our past and we accept that there are very different perspectives and experiences of that. I'm an Irish Republican. I make no bones and make no apology for it. But I would always ask of myself and others that you consider the other view, the other perspective, particularly now, because we are now on the pathway to reunification."