Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald announced a complete overhaul of governance procedures after the Michael McMonagle story began to unfold earlier this month. That must seem like an eternity ago for the republican leader in the wake of the string of controversies that have followed the initial one, triggering a developing crisis within Sinn Féin that is going to necessitate more deep rooted changes than was initially envisaged.
The party’s Donegal TD, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, conceded during the past week that there were “legitimate questions” for Sinn Féin with regard to each of the controversies that have arisen this month.
Read more: Sinn Féin must cover the questions not cover up the answers - The Irish News view
The McMonagle saga reflected very poorly on Sinn Féin organisationally, indicating real governance problems and a failure to prioritise child protection and safeguarding concerns. The immediate consequences included the resignation of two press officers, but reputationally the party has taken a hit. The entire party operation at Stormont is now in the spotlight.
The Niall Ó Donnghaile affair differs in that Sinn Féin seem to have acted quickly to refer the incident to the PSNI and social services upon being made aware of the matter. That both did not deem the incident worthy of pursuing indicates that, whatever the content of the inappropriate texts, it is not of a level which would have been judged as potentially a matter for safeguarding.
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The difficulty for Sinn Féin is that the suspension of the prominent figure from the party was withheld from the public, and no reference was made to the suspension nor episode at any point up to and including his departure from the party.
Brian Stanley appears to have used the context of the party’s misfortunes to get his revenge in first, with his “kangaroo court” jibe seemingly not being borne out by the facts.
Read more: John Manley analysis: Sinn Féin’s inconsistencies will only foster public skepticism
It is hard to disagree with the observations of the one-time Sinn Fein TD, Peadar Tóibín, who spoke about this episode highlighting the necessity of Sinn Féin reforming their internal infrastructure, becoming less centralised and embracing greater transparency and openness.
The difficulty for Sinn Féin is that the suspension of Niall Ó Donnghaile was withheld from the public, and no reference was made to the suspension nor episode at any point up to and including his departure from the party
Sinn Féin is in a very different place in 2024 to where it was even 10 years ago. Change can be painful for political parties. Yet Sinn Féin has the distinct advantage of currently being in a position of unprecedented electoral and political strength in the north and, even at their reduced level of support in the south today, still in a position to be the largest opposition party after the next Dáil elections. Embracing a change agenda, both with regard to personnel and internal culture, from a position of strength is an opportunity usually not afforded to political parties.
That needs to be a priority for Sinn Féin to develop confidence in its governance and safeguarding procedures and to help build a sharper, more professional operation.
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TWO weeks ago, I wrote in this column about the controversial Raise programme being funded by the Irish government, purportedly to tackle educational underachievement in the north.
The DUP education minister, Paul Givan, has courted controversy by introducing new eligibility criteria to identify participating schools which includes fee-paying schools in Lisburn and two-thirds of grammar schools whilst excluding many schools with high percentages of poor pupils in both the primary and post-primary sector.
The minister has been at pains to point out that the new programme will be a central plank in his strategy to improve school attendances.
During the week, the Department of Education produced statistics confirming that west Belfast is the worst constituency in the north for school absence rates, with more than one third of all primary pupils in the area recording ‘chronic’ (missing one day a fortnight) or ‘severe chronic’ (missing one day a week) absence rates, with north Belfast a close second.
Read more: Paul Givan defends criteria used for selecting schools to benefit from new educational programme
A significant number of schools in both of these constituencies have been excluded from involvement in the Raise programme. The minister’s home constituency of Lagan Valley recorded the highest rates of pupil school attendance in 2022/23 and was a close second to Fermanagh and South Tyrone last year, the opposite end of the spectrum to inner north and west Belfast.
Meanwhile, the minister decided to launch the programme last week in a school in the heart of his own constituency, alongside his education counterpart in Dublin, Norma Foley. In the south, underachievement is tackled through the DEIS initiative which strategically invests additional resources and funds into schools based in deprived local communities across the state.
That approach has been rejected under the DUP minister. In the Department of Education’s own publication outlining the Raise programme, it was confirmed that the indicative number of pupils being supported through Raise in Lisburn is 50% more than for the whole of west Belfast.
The principal of Bunscoil an tSleibhe Dhuibh, Pilib Misteil, has claimed the education minister is “punishing poverty and rewarding wealth”. It is hard to argue with him.
