Sinn Féin's grassroots woes in the Republic took a new twist yesterday after a former Dublin councillor blamed internal "bullying" for his decision to quit the party.
Jonathan Dowdall resigned his seat on Dublin City Council last September, but reversed his decision shortly afterwards before finally quitting both the local authority and the party in February.
The businessman has confirmed that he is supporting Independent councillor Christy Burke, who left Sinn Féin in 2009 and is planning to run against the party's deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald in Dublin Central in next year's general election.
Mr Dowdall has now said his decision to leave for good was prompted by the party having "allowed" bullying to take place by a "certain element" within its ranks.
He also accused Sinn Féin of failing to act on allegations of bullying reported by both him and his supporters.
A Sinn Féin spokesman refused to comment on Mr Dowdall's accusations only saying: "The reason Jonathan gave us for leaving the party was health reasons."
The spokesman also told The Irish News that there had been no new developments in the Cork East constituency, where dozens of members staged a series of mass resignations in protest against the `party machine' last week.
The members' action was prompted by the surprise expulsion of Cobh councillor Kieran McCarthy and the 12-month suspension of Mallow councillor Melissa Mullane nine days ago.
Meanwhile, Mr McCarthy accused his former party of using "Machiavellian tactics" to destroy his reputation following leaked allegations concerning a credit union loan and charity funds. The councillor, who retains his local authority seat, said he was taking the allegations "very seriously" and had sought legal advice.
He repeated his insistence that he had been ousted by party chiefs because of his desire to run in the 2016 general election alongside sitting TD Sandra McLellan.
