McDonald defends Adams' 'gunpoint' remarks about newspaper editor

Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald has defended her party president's joke about holding the editor of the Sunday Independent at gunpoint.

Gerry Adams made the comments at a fundraiser in New York, during an attack on the newspaper group over coverage of Mairia Cahill's sex abuse allegations

The Sinn Féin leader was referring back to an old IRA raid on the Independent's offices during the War of Independence.

The Association of European Journalists said the remarks should concern members of the public interested in the freedom of the press.

Mary Lou McDonald says that is not the case.

She said: "He was speaking more generally in terms of the editorial line and the scurrilous, utterly scurrilous lines, pursued by the Sunday Independent.

"They couldn't fill their newspaper on a Sunday if they weren't to seize on something and Gerry's remarks in the States, he made this very clear that he was making a historical reference."