Sinn Féin members in Connemara have no confidence in Mary Lou McDonald, a former election candidate for the party has said.
McDonald told RTÉ recently that Sinn Féin’s by-election candidate Mark Lohan was capable of doing an interview and debate in Irish, while responding to a report in the Advertiser that party members in Connemara had refused to support Lohan over his lack of fluency in the language.
However, Lohan himself contradicted his own party leader and confirmed that he was not, in fact, capable of debating through Irish when speaking to RTÉ last Sunday.
Speaking to the Advertiser, former local election candidate Máirín Mhic Lochlainn said the party branch in South Connemara had no confidence in Mary Lou McDonald and that the party leader hadn’t met with any branch members following the controversy.
“I’m sick and tired of Mary Lou,” she said. “Cumann Mháirtín Uí Cadhain have no confidence in her as a leader.
“I don’t know where she heard that Mark Lohan had enough Irish. Mark Lohan himself said that he did not have enough Irish to do an interview.
“She should know the group of people who are running for the party in every part of the country.
“Other people in Connemara are of the same opinion as me, maybe there are a lot of them who don’t speak as strongly about it.”
Mhic Lochlainn also expressed her disappointment that Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty also said that Lohan could speak Irish and accused McDonald of not being a real republican.
“I wasn’t expecting that from Pearse because I thought he was a republican. I don’t think the same of Mary Lou, I think she seized an opportunity. She left Fianna Fáil and said to herself that Sinn Féin would be welcoming towards women because they’re a left-wing group.”
“I don’t think she has any interest whatsoever in republicanism or the Irish language.”
Mhic Lochlainn also said she believed that McDonald’s leadership of Sinn Féin will likely come under pressure after this month’s by-elections in Galway West and Dublin Central, and predicted that the party would likely perform poorly in them.
“Mary Lou has a lot to answer for as leader of Sinn Féin and I’m afraid the Sinn Féin vote will be down because of it,” she said.
“She’s not doing a good job. It’s just like the leaders of the other parties, they don’t think of the ordinary people.”
Additionally, Mhic Lochlainn expressed her belief that Sinn Féin had allowed many new members to join the party who had little interest in republicanism.
“I’ve been supporting Sinn Féin for a lot longer than a lot of the others that are there. I was out during the time of the H-blocks,” she said.
“It’s quite strange that some of those who have joined are not as strong as we were. They’ve joined, again for the same reason that Mary Lou joined.”
“They don’t give a damn about North or South, or what way Ireland will be, or if Irish or English will be spoken. And that’s the fault of Sinn Féin... that they weren’t too strict about who they let in.”
Mhic Lochlainn was also asked if she was worried that her public criticisms of Sinn Féin might antagonise the leadership.
“I suppose they won’t be too happy, but I have to tell them the truth,” she said.
“They’ve got rid of people before that they shouldn’t have got rid of, but that’s another story.
“Who will I support, what will I do? I’ll have to think about that if they get rid of me. If they do get rid of me though, I’m not going to let them away with it so easily, put it like that.”
