Young man texted by Niall Ó Donnghaile says Sinn Féin owes them an apology for ‘disastrous’ handling of the case – The Irish Times

The young man at the center of the Niall Ó Donnghaile controversy has said Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is owed an apology for the party’s “disastrous” handling of the matter.

The young man, who received inappropriate text messages from Mr Ó Donnghaile, then the party’s leader in the Seanad, provided a timeline of events that appears to contradict Ms McDonald’s answers in the Dáil. The party leader is now facing calls to correct the Dáil record.

The young man, a party activist from Northern Ireland, said publicly for the first time that the senator began communicating with them online in early 2023 and that they were “asked inappropriate requests and questions” in the spring.

Crucially, they said they were 16 at the time, making them legally a child in Northern Ireland.

They said they knew Mr Ó Donnghaile’s actions were wrong “but were initially afraid to report this to the central party because the party’s security culture was visibly not in place”.

They said they had raised their concerns with the party and had to “watch in silence as Niall resigned for ‘health reasons’ while I knew the truth.

“This was painful and frustrating. It affected me mentally and put me in dark places at times, at a time when I would have enjoyed starting sixth grade and living a normal teenage life.

( Who is Niall Ó Donnghaile, the former Sinn Féin senator who resigned over ‘inappropriate’ texts to a teenager?Opens in a new window )

Ms McDonald’s “glowing tribute” to the retiring senator felt like a “mental stab” at the time, they said in the statement first published in the Sunday Independent.

“All this demonstrates the hypocrisy of Sinn Féin and their failure to protect me and others in accordance with child protection policy.”

He said Mr Ó Donnghaile has admitted his inappropriate conversations and Sinn Féin has admitted “retaining him in his role following the investigation until December 2023.”

“Sinn Féin has also admitted to being aware of my concerns weeks before this investigation, when I reported them to my adult colleagues in Ógra Sinn Féin.”

They said that the situation will only truly end if there is no apology.

The controversy is one of several political crises impacting the party as it faces a general election. A poll published by the Sunday Times shows that support for Sinn Féin has fallen to 16 percent.

Fine Gael’s Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the foreign secretary responsible for EU affairs, accused Ms McDonald of providing “completely false information” about the teenage victim.

This included the fact that they were 17 at the time, instead of 16.

“Why did Sinn Féin continue to push this untruth? Why didn’t they inform An Garda Síochána of their Senator’s activities? They were well able to call the Guards out of an ‘abundance of caution’ in the case of Brian Stanley,” said Ms Carroll Mac Neill.

“Sinn Féin has tried to hide, run and cover up Niall Ó Donnghaile’s embarrassing episode since the details emerged eight days ago. Last Monday evening we had the specter of a senior frontbench Sinn Féin TD saying they did not know who this party colleague was. Pull the other one.”