As the past week progressed and yet another Sinn Féin safeguarding controversy unfolded it became increasingly apparent how much the party was missing Seán Mag Uidhir.
The high-ranking press officer resigned along with his junior colleague Caolán McGinley on the eve of last weekend’s Sinn Féin ard fheis following an internal investigation into why they both provided job references for suspected paedophile Michael McMonagle, who worked alongside them up until the party learned of a police investigation into his activities.
McMonagle last month pleaded guilty to 14 offences of attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
The revelation around the references has raised questions about why Sinn Féin didn’t inform his new employer, the British Heart Foundation, about the police’s suspicions.
It’s not the first time the party’s record on safeguarding has been called into question.
Gerry Adams’ younger brother had sexually abused his own daughter yet despite knowledge of his activities among Sinn Féin members, Liam Adams continued to work with children.
Pictures emerged of the child sex abuser, who died in 2019, with elected members of Sinn Féin and young children at various community events and he often accompanied groups of children on overnight residential trips.
Sinn Féin personnel are also alleged to have been involved in a cover-up when Belfast woman Máiría Cahill said she had been raped by a suspected IRA man.
The wider republican movement was implicated in the cover up of north Belfast man Seamus Marley’s rape of two young boys in 1993 while he was staying at a so-called safe house in Co Louth.
Mr Adams later apologised in the Dáil to sex abuse victims who he said were “let down” by the IRA during the Troubles.
In the latest controversy, photographs emerged showing McMonagle in his new role as the British Heart Foundation’s communications officer at events in Stormont and Westminster where he was in proximity to at least five senior Sinn Féin representatives, including the then first minister designate Michelle O’Neill.
Ms O’Neill has said she did not see the suspected sex offender standing feet away filming her as she greeted the family of Daithí Mac Gabhann at Parliament Buildings in February last year.
Some have suggested the British Heart Foundation has questions to answer about the rigour of its recruitment process and whether it could have carried out background checks. The charity, headed by one-time journalist and former SDLP deputy leader Fearghal McKinney, could perhaps be more forthcoming about the matter but its role in this controversy is secondary.
Sinn Féin Economy Minister Conor Murphy argued that the party was unable to intervene because it would have potentially prejudiced the police probe but that has been dismissed by Chief Constable Jon Boutcher.
To date, Sinn Féin’s response has been feeble excuses and denial.
There are those within its base who regardless of the seriousness of the allegations will blame the media for concocting the controversy. However, there are many who will see it as yet more evidence that Sinn Féin can sometimes be a law onto itself, concerned more with preserving the party’s reputation than protecting the vulnerable.
With an election campaign in the south looming, the party would prefer for the controversy to disappear but its rivals appear determined to ensure it stays on the agenda.
North of the border, the SDLP and TUV have been agitating on the issue but the response from Sinn Féin’s partners in the executive has been rather more muted. Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has highlighted the need for Sinn Féin corporately to address its safeguarding failings around the McMonagle case but suggested Ms O’Neill should not be singled out for criticism.
The DUP too has been quite restrained, its leader Gavin Robinson focussing his criticism on the party rather than any individual, while Alliance leader and Justice Minister Naomi Long has adopted a similar tactic, highlighting failings “organisationally” rather than by any one person.
Seemingly, with no electoral advantage to be gained from the controversy those potentially implicated in not notifying the British Heart Foundation about a suspected sex offender are being given an relatively easy ride.
It’s unclear if we will ever get answers to the unanswered questions around this episode or whether most of Sinn Féin’s Stormont counterparts are really that concerned.
