Government ministers criticise Mary Lou McDonald for comments regarding IRA crimes

Ms McDonald told Newstalk radio that the 'corrosive damage' caused by gangland crimes are no comparison to IRA activities. Picture: Damien Storan/PA

Two Government ministers have hit out at Mary Lou McDonald for saying there is a difference between gangland criminals and members of the IRA.

Ms McDonald told Newstalk radio that a discussion on having members of the party who have convictions for their role in The Troubles was "one discussion", but gangland crime was another. 

Ms McDonald was speaking after saying at the party's Ard Fheis on Saturday that she was "shocked" that former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall was involved in criminality.

Mr Dowdall was jailed last month for facilitating the murder of David Byrne in Dublin in 2016, a killing linked to the Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud.  Ms McDonald said:

 As somebody who represents the North Inner City from Dublin, and who has seen and sees at first hand the damage, the corrosive damage that so-called gangland has caused to communities, there is absolutely no comparison (to IRA activities).

However, Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys said she "does not agree with that assertion".

"I was very concerned when I heard the comments from Mary Lou McDonald regarding different degrees of murder. 

"She was sort of saying that an IRA murder is something different to a gangland murder...that concerns me seriously because I have lived on the border region all my life and I can tell you when you talk to Breege Quinn, her son was a victim of an IRA murder. 

He was being beaten to a pulp where his mother couldn't put the rosary beads in his hand, he was so badly beaten by those criminals. 

"You ask her does she feel any different than a family that has been impacted by a gangland murder in Dublin.

"Does the family of Columba McVeigh feel any different? Ask the wife of the late Garda Gerry McCabe how does she feel about that. That was a terrible thing to say and a lot of people have been hurt by it."

Government chief whip, Fianna Fáil's Jack Chambers, said Sinn Féin is attempting to "sanitise" its past.

"They're trying to dismiss their past across the conflict. We know the murder and the mayhem caused by many people in their movement. Many people are very traumatised by the comments of Mary Lou McDonald in the last two days."

Mr Chambers said that Sinn Féin "sit on the fence" on matters of justice, such as the existence of the Special Criminal Court. 

He said the party does so to "defend people in their movement".  He added that the "sanitisation of the past damages bridge building" and the comments "retraumatised" family. 

Mr Chambers and Ms Humphreys both said that Sinn Féin should return a €1,000 donation Mr Dowdall gave to the party in 2011.

The ministers were speaking at the launch of the €54.5m Dormant Accounts Fund at the Cherry Orchard Equine Centre in Dublin. 

Among the projects receiving funding will be €12m for sports participation projects, €3m to provide older people with personal safety alarms under the Senior Alerts Scheme, €5m to deliver employment and educational support programmes for people with disabilities and family carers, €1.4m for initiatives that protect young people from the influence of adult crime networks, €50,000 to expose disadvantaged youth to sailing, and a €20,000 fund which will allow disadvantaged schools bring children to the Glasnevin cemetery museum.