Removing Niall Ó Donnghaile’s photo from Belfast City Hall is appropriate – The Irish News

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill has said she believes it is appropriate for a portrait of former Belfast mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile to be removed from the City Hall.

It comes after a motion at the council, tabled by the DUP, after Mr Ó Donnghaile admitted he left Sinn Féin after allegedly sending inappropriate text messages to a teenager.

Sinn Féin referred the matter to the PSNI and social services last September, but no criminal investigation was launched.

Mr Ó Donnghaile became Belfast’s youngest mayor in 2011 and, like everyone else who holds that office, had an official portrait painted and exhibited to mark his year in the role.

Before stepping down last year, he was a senator in the Oireachtas.

Sinn Féin is facing questions over its handling of the case, which emerged after the separate case of the party’s former press officer Michael McMonagle, who admitted child abuse earlier this year.

McMonagle, 42, of Limewood Street, Derry, admitted a string of offenses last month, including attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.

Sinn Féin supported the motion to remove Mr Ó Donnghaile’s portrait from the Town Hall.

Speaking to the media in Belfast on Thursday morning, Prime Minister Ms O’Neill said: “I think this is appropriate. His behavior was completely inappropriate, so I think we had no problem supporting the removal of the portrait.”

Asked whether she regrets that the party essentially paid tribute to Mr Ó Donnghaile when he left, Ms O’Neill said: “I think Mary-Lou McDonald has tried to set that record straight in terms of the considerations she had to make. board, especially in regard to his serious mental health, and that was the only consideration we had when he stepped back.

“It is appropriate that he has stepped back, but I am confident in how we conducted ourselves, how we referred him to the PSNI and social services, that that was correct and appropriate.

“I think that was appropriate, but we were concerned about his mental health and we also had the problem of being able to name him legally.”