Teen sent inappropriate texts by former Sinn Féin senator to get apology
File Picture: Niall Mary Wire Mcdonald Carson/pa Lou
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is to apologise to the teenager who was sent inappropriate text messages by former Sinn Féin senator Niall Ó Donnghaile.
Confirming she will correct the record on Tuesday, Ms McDonald said: “What matters is that we respond fully to the young person in question and what matters is that the Dáil record is accurate.”
Ms McDonald said the teen will be given "a full, unequivocal apology from me".
“He’s a young person who ought to have been, who deserved to be, fully comfortable within Sinn Féin. What happened to him was wrong.
During her statement last week, Ms McDonald said that the teenager involved in the case was 17, despite the young man confirming that he was only 16 over the weekend.
In a statement issued to the Sunday Independent, the teenager described Ms McDonald’s tribute to Mr Ó Donnghaile when he resigned as a senator as a “mental stab”.
Speaking today, Ms McDonald said: "Niall Ó Donnghaile’s behaviour was unacceptable and utterly inappropriate and no young person should have been, should have experienced that.
“I’ve reflected on all of this. My priority has been and remains the young person involved in all of this.
“I’ve heard very carefully what they have had to say. I’ll respond to it fully. I was concerned not simply about Niall Ó Donnghaile’s mental health, but about his safety.
“Mental health matters to me. A person in mental health crisis, that would always be a factor for me, but the driving concern was, and is the young person.
“I followed very carefully what he had to say yesterday, and I’ll respond to it in full.”
Earlier on Monday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said Ms McDonald had been “silent” on an apology for the teenager, but that Sinn Féin were happy to engage in a “pile on” and seek an apology for Patrick Kielty’s traitors joke on The Late Late Show.
Mr Kielty linked the republican party to the hit show in the opening minutes of the show last Friday. Party TDs have been calling for an apology from RTÉ.
Speaking in Dublin earlier, Mr Harris said: “Does the leader of Sinn Féin, who spent the entire weekend engaging in a pile-on (on the) media, in relation to an apology that she wanted for some satire that may or may not have been funny or not – I didn’t see it – in relation to the Late Late Show.
“They were out in force demanding an apology over satire. Silent in relation to an apology that a victim who received inappropriate texts from an adult elected representative of the Oireachtas had sought.
“So that’s for Sinn Féin to reflect on. I’d like to know today, does the leader of Sinn Féin intend to do as that victim asked? Because I thought, from listening to her in the past, from listening to all of us in the past, I thought we now adopt a victim-centred approach to these issues.”
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman described Ms McDonald’s judgment around the time of Mr O Donnghaile’s resignation as “flawed”.
Last week, Mr Ó Donnghaile acknowledged he quit Sinn Féin last year after the party received complaints that he had sent inappropriate texts to a teenage party member.
The party leader has been widely criticised for a statement she released following his resignation.
Mr O’Gorman said: “In terms of the focus on the statement that Deputy McDonald put out at the time that senator O Donnghaile resigned, I still feel her judgment was flawed there, in terms of the level of praise she heaped upon him in light of the reason that he was leaving Sinn Féin.
“I think the opportunity to clarify the point, particularly on the age of the victim in this, when these texts were sent, I think there may be an opportunity for Deputy McDonald to clarify the record of the house.”