Mary Lou McDonald hits back at 'abusive slurs' against Sinn Féin

MARY LOU McDONALD says she is "sick and tired" of rival political parties and media outlets trotting out "abusive slurs" against Sinn Féin. She hit out in particular at Labour and Fianna Fáil for making irresponsible comments which are aimed at ingratiating themselves to certain media outlets to the detriment of the Peace Process.

Speaking to reporters at Leinster House on Monday, the Dublin Central TD said that there is obviously political maneuvering within unionism which has led to the Ulster Unionist Party withdrawing from the Executive but she hit out at irresponsible comments made by politicians in the South:

"I find this bizarre and more than a little bit frustrating that, in the South, the likes of Tánaiste Joan Burton and Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin are quite prepared to play fast and loose with the institutions to make one blanket allegation after another with nothing to back it up and with no real view of the consequences of their words. And then when their words have an effect across the Border, they run away," Mary Lou said. "They have caused this problem."

Responding to questions from RTÉ as to whether the IRA still exists, she said:

"Both North and South there has been an explicit acknowledgement that the IRA as it was does not exist. The war is over."

She said that if allegations that former IRA members may have been involved in the killing of Kevin McGuigan then they must be "pursued, apprehended and prosecuted".

The Sinn Féin deputy leader also rejected comments from political rivals that Sinn Féin should somehow be answerable for every incident which occurs in nationalist areas of the North.

"There has to be a reality-check around the expectations that Sinn Féin is to answer for everything that goes wrong in some parts of the country. That is not a reasonable ask and not one that is made of other political parties. Our commitment to policing, North and South, is absolute and final.

Reacting to claims that 'IRA structures' may still exist, she said:

"It's very difficult to prove a negative and prove something doesn't exist.

"What do people mean when they talk of 'structures of the IRA'? The IRA has gone away but those people who were Volunteers are still around. People who were previously Volunteers in the military campaign are now fully behind the democratic Peace Process. Is that not what matters? Most ordinary people looking on reckon that is what matters.

"There's nobody within Sinn Féin holding a candle for anybody who commits a criminal act. The Chief Constable in the North explicitly recognises Sinn Féin's bona fides on this and he said we work very constuctively with the PSNI."

She also criticised certain media outlets for their hysterical coverage of the recent controversy.

"The reality is that anybody who is prepared, purely for their own political advantage, to say or assert things that cause a sense of crisis around the power-sharing institutions are very, very irresponsible."

She said that, across the country, and particularly in the North, Sinn Féin has been forthright in publicly confronting criminal elements – "unlike certain unionist politicians who it seems have no difficulty standing shoulder-to-shoulder with loyalist paramilitaries who are up to their necks in criminal actions".

The Sinn Féin deputy leader added:

"The democratic rights and entitlements of the people we represent won't be set aside and casually slurred for the purposes of political advantage or gaining the thumbs-up of certain media outlets."

Finally, responding to claims from Renua leader Lucinda Creighton that Sinn Féin may receive funding from criminality, Mary Lou said Sinn Féin is the most scrutinised party in Ireland in terms of funds and challenged Lucinda Creighton to make such an allegation about her or any of her colleagues.

"I can guarantee her that's not the case," she said.

"As a party that is called 'Renua' I would have expected something 'Nua' from the tired, abusive slurs that I've been listening to since I first ran for election."