A former leading Sinn Féin member who was suspended from the party in 2023 following a complaint of inappropriate messages being sent to a teenager has been named as former Belfast Lord Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile.
Mr Ó Donnghaile named himself on Tuesday as the party member at the centre of allegations regarding inappropriate texts sent to a 17-year-old, who was also a member of the party.
The party says the former senator and Belfast city councillor was suspended and the complaint forwarded to the PSNI and social services. Sinn Féin says the PSNI later said it would not be carrying out an investigation into the matter.
Mr Ó Donnghaile, from the Short Strand area of east Belfast, was first elected as a city councillor in 2011 and was appointed as the youngest ever Lord Mayor of the city at the age of 25 in the same year.
Previous to that he had been known as a community worker in the majority nationalist area of the Short Strand in east Belfast.
The one-time Sinn Féin press officer, who had represented the Pottinger district on Belfast City Council, later became a member of the Republic’s upper Seanad chamber in 2016.
In December 2023, Mr Ó Donnghaile resigned his seat in the Seanad, citing health concerns.
At the time, the 39-year-old said he had been unable to attend the Oireachtas since the summer recess on the advice of his doctor.
“It is unlikely that this situation will change in the short-term, therefore, I feel the best decision for myself, my family and the party going forward is to resign from the Seanad and step back from public life,” he said last December.
